Matcha sieve
A fine mesh screen, often in a small tin with a lid, that matcha is pushed through before water is added. Milled tea compacts into clumps in storage under its own weight and static, and no amount of whisking breaks a compacted clump apart once it is wet — the outside hydrates and seals the inside.
Identity
- Category
- Filter or infuser
- Native name
- 茶漉し
- Romanised
- chakoshi, furui
- Also called
- matcha strainer, powder sifter
- Material
- Fine stainless steel or nylon mesh, usually in a metal or ceramic frame
- Skill level
- Beginner
Porosity
Not porous. It contributes nothing of its own to the liquor, so it can be moved between teas freely and washed with detergent without consequence.
Where it comes from
Japanese, and a standard preparation step rather than a refinement. In formal practice the sieved powder is transferred to a caddy in advance.
Named here rather than presented as generic equipment. The object belongs to a practice, and TeaHQ describes it from the outside.
If you do not own one
Any fine kitchen sieve and a spoon to work the powder through. Sieving matters more than what you sieve with, and it is the step most often skipped by people whose matcha keeps coming out lumpy.
This one is marked essential: the methods it belongs to are hard to carry out without it or a close stand-in.
Brewing methods it is used for
- 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.
- 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.
Tea types it suits
Care and maintenance
Keep it completely dry. A damp sieve clogs immediately and the residue sets hard. Brush rather than rinse.
Other filter or infusers
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description, the material or the account of how the object is cared for. Where the record names a tradition, that attribution is TeaHQ’s own reading of common practice rather than a citation.
TeaHQ names no maker, brand or shop and has nothing to sell. Nothing on this page should be read as advice to buy the object — the substitute note above exists because owning it is usually optional.