Your 5-Minute Matcha Ritual

Clear one small surface. Warm the bowl with hot water and dry it — a warm bowl keeps your finished tea warm, and the act of warming it is the first slow gesture of the day.

Put out everything you need: the tin, the sieve, the whisk. A ritual with a scavenger hunt isn't a ritual.

Sift two grams of matcha into the warm bowl. Pour seventy millilitres of water at 70–80 °C — boiled, then rested four minutes.

Whisk in a brisk M, wrist still, arm doing the work, until a fine pale-green foam covers the surface. Fifteen seconds is usually enough; the point was never speed.

Take three sips before you do anything else. Not at your desk, not mid-scroll — standing or sitting with the bowl in both hands, feeling its warmth.

Matcha foam is a live thing; it settles. So does the mind, given three uninterrupted sips.

Rinse the bowl while the water is still warm, set the whisk to dry with its tines facing up, and wipe the counter. Closing the ritual properly is what makes it repeatable tomorrow.

Place a dried orange slice on the saucer if you have one — a small sweetness for whoever washes up, often you.

Evenings want a softer cup — the botanical blend, rose and jujube, caffeine-free by the lamp.