My matcha is lumpy, gritty or will not foam

In short

Matcha is suspended rather than dissolved, so anything that stops the powder dispersing shows immediately. Almost all of it is technique and vessel rather than the powder itself.

Likely causes, in order

Most likely first. Answer the question under each one before moving on — several of these look alike in the cup and are told apart only by what was done to the leaf.

1. 1. The powder was not sifted

   Technique

   Check: Did you spoon the powder straight from the tin into the bowl?

   Fix: Matcha compacts in storage and forms lumps that no amount of whisking will break up. Push it through a small sieve first — this is the single most effective fix.

2. 2. Whisking in a mug rather than a bowl

   Equipment

   Check: Is the vessel narrow and deep?

   Fix: A whisk needs lateral room to move. Use a wide shallow bowl — any cereal or soup bowl works — because a mug leaves no room for the motion that creates suspension.

3. 3. Water too hot

   Temperature

   Check: Was the water freshly boiled?

   Fix: Use 70 to 80 °C. Boiling water produces harshness that nothing downstream can undo, and does not improve suspension.

4. 4. The powder is old or a lower grade

   Leaf quality

   Check: Is the powder dull olive or yellowish rather than vivid green, and has the tin been open for months?

   Fix: Matcha dulls quickly once opened. Coarser grinds also settle rather than staying suspended. Buy the smallest quantity of the best grade you can and keep it sealed and cold.

Tea types this applies to

• Green tea

Brewing methods this applies to

• 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.

Guides covering this

• Whisking matcha: a suspension, not an infusion — Nothing is extracted and nothing is strained out, so the usual brewing variables barely apply. What matters is breaking the powder up, keeping it suspended and getting air into it.
• Storing matcha, the most fragile thing in the cupboard — Grinding leaf into powder removes every physical protection it had. Matcha is the one tea where the clock after opening is measured in weeks, and where the decline is visible before it is tasted.

Related problems

Sharing a cause category, a tea type or a brewing method with this one.

• My matcha is harsh and I think it is a cooking grade — A matcha bought to drink is dull-coloured, gritty and aggressively bitter, and the tin says culinary, cooking or ingredient grade — or says nothing at all.
• My matcha latte is lumpy and the powder sinks — Whisked straight into milk, the matcha forms lumps that will not break up, and within a minute a green layer has settled at the bottom of the glass.
• My bamboo whisk is losing tines — Fine bamboo tines snap off during whisking and turn up in the bowl, and the whisk feels stiff and splayed.
• My matcha foams and then the foam collapses — A good head of foam forms during whisking and has largely disappeared by the time the bowl reaches the table, leaving a flat surface with a ring of bubbles round the edge.
• My Japanese green tea tastes of seaweed or fish — A sencha, gyokuro or matcha reads as marine — seaweed at best, distinctly fishy at worst — and it is not clear whether that is the tea or a fault.

Sources