How to use and clean a matcha sifter (furui)

A matcha sifter is a small tin with a fine mesh, used to press matcha powder through before you make tea. Matcha clumps in the tin, and a whisk cannot fully break those clumps apart; a sifter opens them, so the tea comes out smooth instead of gritty. Using one takes about ten seconds. Looking after one takes even less, as long as you remember the one rule: never wash it.

The short answer: put one serving of matcha (about 2 grams) on the mesh, press it gently through with the small spatula or the back of your scoop, and tip the sifted powder into your bowl. Afterward, tap out what is left, brush the mesh dry and wipe the tin with a dry cloth. Do not rinse it: water clogs the mesh with paste and makes a tin canister rust.

I study tea in Tokyo, in the Urasenke school. This is how the canister type works, step by step.

What a matcha sifter is

The traditional tea sifter, furui, is a small lidded canister. The one I sell is a black tin, 82 mm across and 95 mm tall, with a shallow round mesh tray that sits in the mouth of the tin and a small brass-colored spatula. You put powder on the mesh, press it through into the tin below, then use the tin as a little caddy for the day's tea.

You can also use any fine kitchen sieve. The canister keeps the green dust in, and the tin doubles as a place to hold what you have sifted, which is why tea rooms use it. I compare the options in sifting matcha.

How to use it

1. Start dry. The tin, the mesh, the spatula and your bowl must all be completely dry. If your matcha and the sifter have come out of the refrigerator, let them sit at room temperature for about half an hour first; cold powder in a warm room collects moisture and sticks to the tin.
2. Put a serving on the mesh. About 2 grams, two scoops of a bamboo chashaku, for one bowl of thin tea. Sift only what you are about to use.
3. Press it through. Move the spatula gently in small circles across the mesh. Let the powder fall through on its own; do not grind it hard against the mesh.
4. Lift off the mesh. The sifted powder is now in the tin, fine and loose.
5. Scoop it into your bowl. Or keep it in the tin for a second bowl later the same day, with the lid on.

Done this way, the lumps are gone before the water arrives, and the whisk only has to make foam. It is the single biggest difference most people can make to a bowl of matcha.

How to clean it

Do not wash it. This is the part people get wrong, because rinsing feels like cleaning.

• Tap it out. Turn the mesh over and tap it gently on the edge of the tin to drop the loose powder.
• Brush the mesh dry. A soft, dry brush clears what is left in the mesh.
• Wipe the tin with a dry cloth. Inside and out.
• Store it dry, with the lid on. Away from the sink and the kettle steam.

Water turns matcha left in the mesh into a green paste that blocks it and dries there as a crust. And a tin canister rusts once it gets wet. Kept dry, a sifter lasts for years. If you ever do get it wet, dry every part at once and leave it open to the air until it is completely dry before you use it again.

Do you need one?

You can make matcha without one, but it will be grittier and the foam less even. For thin tea, a fine sieve of any kind fixes most of it. For iced matcha and for thick tea, koicha, it matters more, because cold water does not break lumps and thick tea has no foam to hide them.

Questions I get asked

What does a matcha sifter do?

It breaks up the clumps that form in matcha powder, so the tea whisks smoothly instead of leaving gritty lumps in the bowl.

How do you use a matcha sifter?

Put about 2 g of matcha on the mesh, press it through gently with the spatula or the back of a scoop, then tip the sifted powder into a dry bowl.

How do you clean a matcha sifter?

Do not wash it. Tap out the loose powder, brush the mesh with a dry brush and wipe the tin with a dry cloth. Water clogs the mesh and rusts the tin.

Can I use a kitchen sieve instead?

Yes, if it is fine. A coarse sieve lets the lumps through. Whatever you use, it must be completely dry.

Should I sift into the bowl or into the tin?

Either. Sifting into the tin keeps the day's tea ready and the dust contained; sifting straight into the bowl is one step fewer.

Where this fits

The sifter I sell is a black tin furui with a spatula; its seller describes the tin as made in Japan. It is also in the complete tea set. If your matcha still tastes gritty after sifting, see why matcha tastes powdery.

Written by Mio.K, who chooses everything in this shop by hand in Japan.