There’s a myth that was boiling water “burns” green tea, including matcha.
I’ll talk about that in another post, but actually, some green teas taste better in boiling water.
Regarding matcha, I decided to do my own experiment and show you my results.
Preparing Matcha with Boiling Water
Table of Contents
What water temperature is best for matcha?
First of all, I must say that I have prepared very high-quality matcha in boiling water, which still tastes great.
So, for this experiment, I’ll use medium quality matcha. That way, I can quickly tell the difference in bitterness.
I’ll prepare the same matcha in boiling water and cold water and see the difference.
For the sake of precision, I measured the volume of water (60 ml, 2 oz) with a small measuring cup. Each portion of matcha was 1.5 gr, weighed with my AWS scale.
Perhaps I’m used to drinking matcha when it’s warm?
So I guess that it’s better to prepare matcha with hot water (80ºC, 176ºF) because the taste at a lower temperature would be lighter, and at a higher temperature, it will be more bitter.
But note that the change in bitterness isn’t so extreme, for example in a loose-leaf green tea such as sencha.
In other words, matcha is less delicate in that sense.
I think that temperature changes don’t affect matcha because it is not an infusion, but rather a mixture.
The concentration of matcha is the same regardless of the temperature but in loose leaf tea the concentration changes with time as it infuses.
And since loose leaf tea can be re-infused, the change in concentration is more dramatic.
I encourage you to try this experiment and see if you can tell the difference.
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