Koicha (thick matcha)
Matcha prepared thick enough to pour like paint rather than to whisk into foam. It is not a stronger version of everyday matcha but a separate preparation with its own motion, its own grade of powder and, in chanoyu, its own place in the sequence — and it is the older of the two.
Also called thick tea, kneaded matcha.
How it works
Far more powder goes into far less water than for everyday thin tea, and the whisk is used to knead rather than to beat. The motion is slow and folding, working the powder into the water until the mixture is glossy and uniform; whisking briskly would aerate it, and koicha is deliberately unfoamed. Because so little water is present relative to powder, any lump survives, so sieving is not optional here in the way it can be elsewhere. The powder itself is conventionally from old bushes and sold specifically for this preparation, since a coarser or more astringent grade becomes overwhelming at this concentration rather than merely strong. In formal practice a single bowl is shared among the guests.
Why choose it
It is a genuinely different texture and intensity from anything else made from tea leaf, and it is the preparation around which the formal Japanese tea gathering is built. Anyone who has only met matcha as a foamed bowl has met half of it.
Equipment
- Chawan (matcha bowl) — Glazed stoneware or earthenware
- Chasen (bamboo whisk) — Bamboo, carved from a single piece
- Matcha sieve — Fine stainless steel or nylon mesh, usually in a metal or ceramic frame
- Natsume (matcha caddy) — Lacquered wood; also ceramic and modern equivalents
Tea types it suits
Recorded on the method rather than inferred from the catalogue. A type missing here is not ruled out; it simply has not been written down.
Common problems
- Whisking briskly, which aerates a preparation that is meant to be unaerated
- Using a culinary or everyday grade, which is punishing at this concentration
- Skipping the sieve, which leaves lumps that kneading cannot rescue
- Judging it against thin tea and concluding it is simply too strong, when it is a different preparation
Diagnosed problems
Written from the symptom, with the likely causes in order and a question to rule each one out.
- My matcha is lumpy, gritty or will not foam — Undissolved lumps float on the surface, powder settles at the bottom, and no fine foam forms.
- My matcha powder has gone dull green or khaki — The powder that was vivid green when the tin was opened is now olive, khaki or faintly brown, and the bowl looks muddy rather than bright.
Teas with parameters authored for this method
1 tea has a parameter set written for koicha (thick matcha), in alphabetical order. Each row is transcribed from that tea’s own record.
| Tea | Leaf (g/100 ml) | Water (°C) | Authored infusions | First infusion (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matcha koicha grade | 10–15 | 75–85 | 1 | 45 |
Other whisked methods
Same family, so the approach is close — the vessel, the ratio and the intent still differ.
- Whisking (bowl-prepared powdered tea) — Powdered leaf suspended in water rather than steeped and strained — the only common preparation in which the leaf itself is consumed rather than discarded.
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description of this method. It is written from common practice as TeaHQ understands it, and the parameters in the table above come from each tea’s own record rather than from this page.
The numbers for this method are held per tea, never on the method itself. Where a tea has no set written for koicha (thick matcha), TeaHQ shows nothing rather than converting its numbers from another style — a scaled ratio and a halved time read as an answer while being one nobody authored.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this method against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Koicha vs everyday whisked matcha — Thick tea is not strong tea. Koicha uses roughly three times the powder in half the water and is kneaded rather than whisked into foam, and it demands a grade of matcha that everyday preparation does not.