Usucha and koicha: thin tea and thick tea explained
Updated By Mio.KYou will meet two words very early on the path of tea, and they trip up almost everyone: usucha and koicha. They are not grades of matcha, and they are not brands, and neither is said the way it looks. They are two different ways of preparing the same powder, and knowing which is which will save you a great deal of confusion when you read a tin or a recipe.
The short answer: usucha is about 2 g of matcha to 60–70 ml of water, whisked to a foam. Koicha is roughly 4 g to 30–40 ml, kneaded rather than whisked, with no foam at all. They are not two strengths of one drink. In a formal gathering koicha is the center of the occasion and usucha is what follows it.
Usucha — thin tea
Usucha, literally “thin tea,” is the everyday form and the one nearly everyone in the world actually drinks. More water, less powder, whisked briskly until a light, even foam covers the surface. It is bright, a little brisk, gently bitter and easy to love. This is where you begin, and it is what almost every guide — including ours — is describing. A whisk with many fine tines, like a 100-prong Takayama chasen, is made for it, because thin tea lives or dies on its foam.
Koicha — thick tea
(How it is drunk, and shared, is in how to drink koicha.)
Koicha, “thick tea,” is another country entirely. Very little water, a great deal of powder, and instead of whisking you knead — folding the paste slowly until it is smooth and glossy, closer in texture to warm honey or paint than to a drink. It is intense, sweet, almost savory, and it demands the very best matcha, because there is nowhere for a flaw to hide. Koicha is the heart of a formal tea gathering, shared from a single bowl. If you want to learn it properly, this is how tea lessons work. A whisk with fewer, sturdier tines suits the heavier work.
| Usucha — thin tea | Koicha — thick tea | |
|---|---|---|
| Matcha | About 2 g (2 chashaku scoops) | About 4 g (3 scoops or more) |
| Water | 60–70 ml just off the boil | 30–40 ml, a little cooler |
| Motion | Fast W strokes, from the wrist | Slow kneading, from the whole arm |
| Surface | Fine, lasting foam | None. A glossy, opaque surface |
| Texture | Like a light broth | Like warm single cream |
| Taste | Bright, a clean bitterness | Dense, sweet, almost no bitterness |
| Tea used | Any good matcha | The finest leaf a maker has — it hides nothing |
| Whisk | Any sound chasen | Ideally a coarser whisk; kneading strains fine tines |
| Served | One bowl per person | Traditionally one bowl, shared |
| Where to start | Here | Later, and with better tea |
Which should you begin with?
Usucha, always. When you do come to thick tea, how to make koicha sets out the steps the recipes leave out. Koicha asks for expensive tea and a steadier hand, and it is easy to waste good matcha learning it. Start thin, get comfortable with the whisk and the water, and let koicha wait until you are curious enough to seek it out. There is no hurry — most people who love matcha drink usucha their whole lives and never feel they are missing anything.
A note on the powder
You will sometimes see matcha sold as “for koicha” or “for usucha.” That distinction is real and comes from the maker in Japan — unlike the invented “ceremonial grade” you will meet on Western tins, which I untangle here. For thin tea at home, a good everyday matcha and an honest whisk will take you a very long way.
Common questions
Which should a beginner make?
Usucha, without hesitation. It is more forgiving, it uses less of an expensive powder, and it teaches the whisking motion that everything else rests on. Koicha made with ordinary matcha is simply four grams of bitterness — the thick preparation concentrates whatever is in the tea, including its faults.
Why does koicha have no foam?
Because it is not whisked in the way usucha is. There is too little water to aerate, and the motion is a slow fold that brings the powder and water together rather than a fast stroke that beats air in. A foamed koicha would be a mistake, not an improvement.
Can I use the same whisk for both?
You can, and many people do. But kneading thick tea puts real strain on fine tines, so a whisk used for koicha wears faster. If you make both regularly, keep them separate — and see how often to replace a chasen for what wear actually looks like.
What matcha should I buy for koicha?
Tea a producer specifically offers for koicha, from a named region and a named cultivar. It costs considerably more, and the reason is that thick tea exposes everything — astringency, age, coarse grinding. The tin will not say "ceremonial grade", because that phrase means nothing.
Do I need different tools?
Not to begin. A wide bowl, a whisk, a scoop and a sifter make either. Being served either one in a tea room asks almost nothing of you: the phrases a guest uses are four, and none of them are required. Sifting matters more for koicha than for usucha: at four grams in forty millilitres, a single lump has nowhere to hide.
If you are still finding your footing, start with my complete guide, Matcha at Home: A Complete Beginner’s Guide.