Koicha-grade Matcha

There are two principal ways of preparing matcha in the tea ceremony:
koicha, the thick tea, and usucha, the thin tea.
Koicha asks for the highest grade of leaf, because it is prepared in such a dense and concentrated form that even the slightest harshness becomes immediately apparent. When the quality is true, what remains is depth, sweetness, and a lingering calm.

Miyama no Tsuki — “The Moon in the Deep Mountains” is the matcha I personally turn to for koicha in my own tea practice and in the gatherings and classes I host. It is pesticide-free, carefully cultivated in Wazuka, Kyoto, by a dedicated farmer whose work I have come to trust deeply over the years. The tea itself has not changed — only its name has found words that more closely mirror its spirit.

The name is drawn from a poem by the monk-poet Saigyō, written upon witnessing the moon while training in the mountains:

深き山にすみける月を見ざりせば
思ひ出もなき我が身ならまし

Had I not seen the moon shining clear in the deep mountains,
my life would have passed without such remembrance.

In tea, koicha is seldom casual. It is shared slowly, often in silence, and its presence lingers long after the bowl is empty. The poem speaks of a moment of clarity so profound that it becomes inseparable from one’s life itself. The name Miyama no Tsuki was chosen to hold that same quiet radiance — a reminder that the deepest impressions are often formed in stillness.