Teaware

The whisk is one piece of bamboo, split by hand.

A chasen starts as a single length of bamboo about the width of your thumb. The maker splits the top into tines, then splits each tine again, thins them with a knife, curls the inner ring inward with warm water and binds the base with thread. Nothing is glued and nothing is joined. Count the tines: more tines means finer, faster foam and a whisk that suits usucha; fewer, thicker tines are stiffer and suit koicha, the thick tea.

A new whisk is tight and brittle. Stand it in warm water for a minute before the first use and the tines open and soften. That is also the first thing a tea master does before every bowl, new whisk or not.

Made in

Japan, from a single piece of bamboo

Tines

Inner curled ring and outer ring, split by hand

For

Whisking matcha into foam. Usucha and lattes

Life

Months of daily use if it is rinsed and dried on the holder

The bowl is shaped for the whisk, not the drinker.

A matcha bowl is wide and low so the whisk can move in an M without hitting the sides, and the foot is tall so you can hold it with one hand while whisking with the other. The inside is the part that matters. A glazed, smooth interior lets the tines glide; an unglazed or rough one wears them. Dark glazes show the green. A rim that curves slightly inward keeps the foam in while you whisk fast.

The bowl in the Teafy set is ceramic, glazed inside, sized for a 2 g bowl of usucha or a 4 g koicha. A café latte cup is the wrong shape: too narrow and too tall for the whisk.

Made in

Japan

Shape

Wide, low, tall foot, smooth glazed interior

Holds

70 ml usucha, or the 30 ml paste for a latte

Care

Dishwasher safe. Rinse before use so the bowl is warm

The scoop measures a gram, if you let it.

A chashaku is a strip of bamboo steamed and bent at the tip. One level scoop is about a gram of matcha. Two scoops for usucha, three to four for koicha or a latte. It is quicker than a spoon and does not pack the powder the way a teaspoon does, which is why the same two scoops give the same bowl every day.

Never wash it with soap and never leave it wet. Wipe with a dry cloth. Bamboo takes on smells, and a scoop that smells of detergent will give that to the bowl.

Made in

Japan, bamboo

Measure

One level scoop is about 1 g

Usucha

2 scoops. Koicha or latte 3 to 4

Care

Wipe dry, never soak

The holder is the difference between a whisk that lasts and one that does not.

A wet chasen left on its side dries closed and cracked. Stood on a kuse naoshi, the tines dry open in the shape they were made in. The ceramic form pushes the curl outward as the bamboo dries, so the whisk keeps its spring. It is the part people skip, and the reason their whisk lasts six weeks instead of six months.

Rinse the whisk in warm water straight after use, shake, and stand it on the holder tines down. That is the whole routine.

Made in

Japan, ceramic

Use

Stand the rinsed whisk on it after every bowl

Why

Dries the tines open, stops cracking and mould

In the box

Both Teafy whisk sets include one

For sencha, genmaicha and hojicha, a basket with room.

Loose leaf needs space to open. The Teafy infuser is a long handled stainless steel basket that twists open, fills with a teaspoon of leaf, and sits in a cup or mug. Give fukamushi a fine mesh: deep steamed sencha is fine and will drift through a coarse basket, which is not a fault of the tea. For a pot, a kyusu with a built in mesh is the step up.

Material

Food grade stainless steel, BPA free handle

Use

One teaspoon of leaf, twist closed, steep in the cup

Best for

Asamushi, genmaicha, hojicha. Fine mesh for fukamushi

Care

Dishwasher safe