Happy new year to all matcha fans (and to everyone else, for that matter). There’s something special about the first week of the year — the holiday madness has ebbed and we get back to work, but thoughts toward the possibilities of the new year flit about. It’s a time to THINK BIG, to really ask yourself how you’d like to spend your energies during the year, and to imagine how you’ll feel at this time next year. You’ve got an entire year to make something happen. And the way to make big things happen to is break them down into small — tiny, even — things.
In the end, we really need to concentrate on the day, the 24-hour cycle. We can only do so much in any given 24-hour stretch, but when you stack 365 of them in a row, an enormous amount can be accomplished. This is where daily habits come in.
A daily habit of stopping to prepare a beautiful cup of matcha is one that creates so many good things:
* you practice being mindful while you prep the tea
* you enjoy matcha’s remarkable visual appeal and taste
* you get an antioxidant and phytonutrient blast
* your focus sharpens as you become fully awake
* you hydrate
* you enter “the zone” of productivity
* you flood your body with brain fuel
There are many others but I’ll show some restraint.
Lately I’ve been preparing matcha in a slightly new way — it’s highly recommended.
Instead of the usual prep in a creamer and pouring the shot into one our lovely Aletha Soule cups, it’s both convenient and fun to make the matcha in a single vessel, typically a tall-ish cup that can accommodate the vigorous whisking (with the Aerolatte) we’re about to do.
What’s really fun and tasty is to make a triple shot. You’ll need about three grams of matcha (about 1.5 teaspoons) instead of the usual one gram (half teaspoon). Sift that amount into the cup using a strainer/sieve, and pour about 2 ounces of hot (180 degrees F, and not hotter please, or you’ll ruin it) water into the cup, and do our usual frothing technique. You’ll make some marvelous crema, truly world class crema, with these proportions. You can then pour some more hot water into the cup to thin it out a bit and to create a larger cup of matcha. You can even create some matcha barista-like art — notice the outer circle in the crema — simply by pouring additional hot water in thin streams.
I often have one of these after breakfast. There’s no better way to start the day. Or the year!
