Making Matcha
As a tea lover, I've always been seduced by the elegance and ceremonial quality of matcha making. Having witnessed a Japanese tea ceremony at an event, I was struck by the intense attentiveness that was accorded to the mere act of making tea. The ceremony wasn't short, and my wide-eyed enthusiasm soon waned into monkey mind boredom. Nonetheless, I was intrigued and sought to learn it through YouTube videos. It was only after I tried making matcha in 2019 that I realised why making matcha has been described as "meditative." It's astounding how much you notice when your mind is focused on one single thing. The dust of green powder on smooth ceramic. The flurry of swirls. Tiny bubbles atop a green sea. Making matcha from scratch demands my total care and attention, both of which I gladly give. In a world that heralds cheap convenience and fast living, going slow is a deliberate act of resistance. These are the few minutes I will carve for myself. When my mind is not vacillating between the realms of the past and future. These are the few minutes for me to check in with a familiar stranger: hello, how am I feeling today? And so it is, that I'll continue making tea whenever I need to hit pause on life - to calm, to soothe, to delight. May we remember that no matter how busy we think we are, there's always time for a cup of tea.
As a tea lover, I've always been seduced by the elegance and ceremonial quality of matcha making. Having witnessed a Japanese tea ceremony at an event, I was struck by the intense attentiveness that was accorded to the mere act of making tea. The ceremony wasn't short, and my wide-eyed enthusiasm soon waned into monkey mind boredom. Nonetheless, I was intrigued and sought to learn it through YouTube videos.
It was only after I tried making matcha in 2019 that I realised why making matcha has been described as "meditative." It's astounding how much you notice when your mind is focused on one single thing. The dust of green powder on smooth ceramic. The flurry of swirls. Tiny bubbles atop a green sea. Making matcha from scratch demands my total care and attention, both of which I gladly give.
In a world that heralds cheap convenience and fast living, going slow is a deliberate act of resistance. These are the few minutes I will carve for myself. When my mind is not vacillating between the realms of the past and future. These are the few minutes for me to check in with a familiar stranger: hello, how am I feeling today?
And so it is, that I'll continue making tea whenever I need to hit pause on life - to calm, to soothe, to delight. May we remember that no matter how busy we think we are, there's always time for a cup of tea.