What is Koicha? All About Koicha Tea and What You Can Use it For!

By now you may have seen blogs of Kick all over our Instagram and tiktok. You may be asking yourself. What kind of tea is that. In this blog we’re gonna teach you all about it before we get started. It would really mean a lot to us if you could fellow to our website blog and stay tuned for future tea blogs. We have 100 of different blogs on all sorts of topics related to Japanese screen tea, but for this episode we’re gonna focus on Koutcha specifically without further ado. Let’s Get Started. First what is kiccha koutche is a special type of match paste made with half the amount of water and double the amount of powder. Many people ask why we don’t simply say it’s made with four times the amount of powder and there’s actually a reason for this. When making a typical serving of usucha or drinking match, you use two grams of powder and 100 milliliters of water. You then whisk the match tea to create this beautiful foam on top. When it comes to making koi shot you should use four grams of powder and 50 milliliters of water. If you were to use eight grams of powder and 100 milliliters of water you would end up with a tea that has almost 300 milligrams of caffeine which would be far too much. This is why it’s important to stick to the guideline of double the amount of powder and half the amount of water to give yourself a manageable portion of koiccha green tea. First let’s start off by talking a little bit about how to make koiccha. You need to start out by getting out your match powder to make koichi tea. You can only use extremely smooth match like the match wasammin, otherwise it will be extremely bitter. We refer to this match as a koiccha match meaning that it’s suitable to be used for koiccha tea. The match was shani comes from the Okamidori tea plant known for having more of a smooth flavor with less bitterness. When you make the match in a paste like with Koiccha green tea, it concentrates the flavors so every hint of bitterness will be magnified. A good kooacho like the machu Wasamini won’t have too much bitterness to it so even at this high concentration it will stay nice and smooth. Once you have found a good Kyo match to use, you can sift four grams of powder into the bottom of a match bowl. It isn’t quite as important to sift here compared to when you’re making usuchcha, but it helps when it comes to making a better taste in Koishha tea. After the powder has been sifted in, it’s time to add in the water. You can use 50 miters of warm water here with a recommended temperature of between 100 and 40 to 100 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Maa tends to be less sensitive to heat so you can use anything in between this range. Once the water has been added you can begin to stir in the powder. This can easily be done with a regular match whisk, although you can also use a special kouticcha whisk which has less bristles. The motion of mixing Koiccha tea is very different from the motion you used to whisk. Regular usuch match. When it comes to koiccha you really just have to worry about mixing the powder evenly without clumps. An important tip here is to make sure that you don’t spread too much of the koutica onto the sides of the bowl. Once the thick kota paste is stuck here, it will be nearly impossible to fully get it off. To maximize the amount of Konica tea, make sure you keep it towards the bottom of the bowl. Once the powdered and water have been mixed together well you can simply pour this mac paste into a glass or you can even drink it right out of the bowl. This is actually the proper way to consume kouticcha tea which we’ll discuss next. What is Kouticcha used for koiccha simply means thick tea and it’s used during special tea ceremonies. While most Japanese tea ceremonies Taurus attend serve usucha or thin tea during special occasions they serve Koch or thick match. There’s something about drinking such a potent blend of past that conveys a sense of importance in the tea ceremony. During the tea ceremony where koiccha tea is served, it is recommended that the guest eats something sweet alongside the koiup. This will help smooth out some of the bitterness without adding any sweetener to the Koutche tea. With Japanese green tea in general, it’s discouraged to add any type of sweetener whatsoever. If you find the taste to be a bit too bitter, what you should do instead is eat something sweet like mochi alongside the tea. There’s a long tradition of eating sweets or a wagashi during the Japanese tea ceremony. This not only acts as a flavor pairing for the tea, but also as a gift presented to the guest by the host in order to strengthen their bond. What are the benefits of kuta? When you concentrate the maa powder into a thick paste? You of course are concentrating the health benefits of the tea. As you may know what makes match tea unique is that it is mixed directly into water rather than being infused. This means that you’re consuming the entire leaf all in one drink, whatever the nutrients are. In one gram of match, you will get four times as much in four grams of Mac. That being said, you do need to be careful because it will also contain four times the amount of caffeine. A normal cup of Mac tea has a high amount of caffeine as it is, but Konica is even more extreme. The uses of Koiccha. There are a few great uses for Kouticcha tea because it’s so thick and concentrated. It’s actually great for certain recipes. Let’s briefly discuss a few things. You can use Koya tea for koiccha for macalatettes. When it comes to making macalatetes, you really want to reduce the amount of water you use and make the drink more flavorful. You can basically make a koiccha match milk by mixing the koiccha paste in with some coconut milk or soy milk and then stirring it up. This is much more flavorful than if you were to use a regular usuch match in your latte which would taste water down. Koiccha for food parentsings. You may have seen a few of our blogs where we talk about different match of food pairings and in most of them we use koiccha paste. The reason for this is that it spreads easily so you can put it on just about anything. You also avoid choking on the dry powder when you make it into a paste. We have found particularly good results by dipping a banana into a little bit of kya paste and eating it like that. This almost tastes like a dessert and it can be a great afternoon snack. Koitcha for desserts. Koiccha match is very easy to blend it into different recipes. The easiest way to make a match ice cream, for example, is to just mix koiccha paste into vanilla ice cream. Green tea ice cream or match ice cream can be a really delicious treat, but very hard to find. Making your own match ice cream can be challenging, but this method only takes a few seconds. Where can you buy koichi match? If you’re looking to buy a match tea that works great in a koiccha, we recommend the Macha Wasammina as mentioned before, but also the Nakai Superior Match. Maud and Superior Match and the Sakamoto Hime match. These ones are extremely smooth with a light sweetness perfect for koiccha. I hope this blog has given you some great ideas for what to use koiccha for. You may find it to be either a meaningful part of a tea ritual or a simple trick that saves you time in your recipes. Whatever it is you like to use it for, we’re grateful for you to take the time to watch this blog. Thank you all so much for watching. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them. In the comments below, it would really mean a lot to us if you could fellow to the website and stay tuned for future T blogs until then, we’ll see you next time.