Journal
Sifting Matcha: What It Fixes, and What It Does...
Matcha clumps because it is ground finer than flour and takes up moisture. A whisk moves lumps around rather than breaking them. What to sift with, how much, and the...
Sifting Matcha: What It Fixes, and What It Does...
Matcha clumps because it is ground finer than flour and takes up moisture. A whisk moves lumps around rather than breaking them. What to sift with, how much, and the...
What water temperature for matcha?
Water just off the boil. The 70–80 °C figure most guides give is borrowed from steeped green tea, and the reason usually attached to it, protecting the nutrients, does not...
What water temperature for matcha?
Water just off the boil. The 70–80 °C figure most guides give is borrowed from steeped green tea, and the reason usually attached to it, protecting the nutrients, does not...
Japanese vs Indian incense: what is actually di...
The difference is the construction, not the fragrance. An Indian stick is bamboo rolled in scent; a Japanese one is the wood itself. Less smoke, about twenty minutes, a quieter...
Japanese vs Indian incense: what is actually di...
The difference is the construction, not the fragrance. An Indian stick is bamboo rolled in scent; a Japanese one is the wood itself. Less smoke, about twenty minutes, a quieter...
How to make iced matcha that actually tastes of...
Cold stops the powder suspending, and melting ice waters down whatever survived. Build it warm with 3 g, then pour it over a glass filled with ice rather than a...
How to make iced matcha that actually tastes of...
Cold stops the powder suspending, and melting ice waters down whatever survived. Build it warm with 3 g, then pour it over a glass filled with ice rather than a...
How to make a matcha latte at home (without the...
The clumps come from one moment: powder meeting cold milk. Whisk 2 g into 60 ml of water just off the boil first, then add the milk. The order matters...
How to make a matcha latte at home (without the...
The clumps come from one moment: powder meeting cold milk. Whisk 2 g into 60 ml of water just off the boil first, then add the milk. The order matters...
The way of tea for a tired heart
You do not need the ceremony, or the rules, or a master. A few minutes and a bowl are enough. This is the whole idea behind Tomari.
The way of tea for a tired heart
You do not need the ceremony, or the rules, or a master. A few minutes and a bowl are enough. This is the whole idea behind Tomari.
Tomari (とまり) is an old word for a mooring — the place a boat ties up for the night. A bowl of tea is meant to be the same: a few minutes to put the day down. You do not need to know the rules to begin.
Who chose this
I choose everything here by hand, in Japan. I practice tea rather than simply selling the tools for it — I am not a tea master and I do not claim to be. I am a practitioner, which mostly means I have ruined enough bad whisks to know what a good one feels like in the first second of holding it.
Nothing is drop-shipped and nothing passes through a third warehouse. I pack each order in Tokyo and post it from Japan, ceramics double-boxed by hand. If something arrives broken, write within 7 days with photographs of the piece and the box, and I send a replacement or a refund; there is nothing to post back unless I ask. Who writes and chooses all this, and the longer version of why this shop exists.