The tea ceremony was an intricate and long-lasting practice that only those of the highest social order practiced in Japan. Originally, the tea ceremony would last anywhere from four to five hours, and maybe even longer than that. It was a long, grandiose affair, with sometimes up to twenty people participating in it.
The process started by offering guests visiting your home who would be participating in a thirteen course meal, enjoyed over the course of several hours. At the close of the meal, the hearth would be lit that would be used for boiling the water. This water would be used to clean the tools of the tea preparation as well as to prepare the matcha.
Once the water boiled, then the official ceremony would begin, starting with the ritualistic cleaning of both everyone’s hands and the tools to be used for the tea preparation. All tools needed to be cleaned: the whisk, the bowl, any spoons, or any other instrument that might touch the tea powder.
When everyone’s hands had been cleaned, everyone took a seat at the table. At the table, you were expected to take off your shoes and sit in a kneeling position, making sure that your feet were covered. The premium matcha powder would then be passed around to the guests to inspect the tea and check the quality of the matcha for themselves.
Once the tea was inspected, the host would then prepare the tea in the traditional way: spoon a couple spoons of the matcha mix into the bowl with some of the hot water from the hearth and whisk vigorously with the bamboo whisk until it is frothy and well-combined. With that, it was finally time to drink the tea.
The host would be the one to take the first sip. They would take a sip of the tea, take a moment to savor the flavor, then turn the bowl to pass it along from guest to guest to enjoy. This matcha drinking process was a long one; the typical sharing of matcha like this would often take twenty minutes to half an hour. It was such a long process because each guest was trying a delicacy. Matcha mix was not something that was readily available to the common people, and so it was a big deal to try something so luxurious as matcha. Guests were encouraged to savor the flavor as they tasted it.
