You might have an elaborate tea ritual at home, but what are you supposed to do at the office? It’s hard to imagine whisking and serving tea with the precise ritual indicated by the Japanese tea ceremony.
Okay, fine, so you can’t recreate feudal Japan from the depths of your cubicle or the square foot of free space on the counter at your office, but that’s no reason you should have matcha there anyway.
Matcha at the Office
Before you discard matcha out of hand as something you can only have from the comfort of your own home, consider this: its health benefits are the same no matter where you drink it. Whether you’re sipping at work or in your kitchen, on the road or at a café, the antioxidants in green tea still give you a powerful health boost that may even help you fight cancer.
So if you have matcha routine you love, you have every reason to try to make it work…at work.
How to Include Coworkers
First and foremost, your tea ceremony will be a little less out of place if you have co-conspirators in matcha goodness. Invite the other tea drinkers in the office, or try to convert a few of the coffee drinkers to a cup of matcha a day. Explain the amazing health benefits, form a lunchtime club, or set aside an hour on Friday afternoons to share matcha lattes and chat.
When to Serve Tea
Of course, if you’re making personal cups, then you can have one any time. But it’s fun to set aside certain times for tea ceremonies, because it will break up your workday and give you something to look forward to. Good times include:
- Before work begins
- On a morning break
- Before lunch, to whet the appetite
- After lunch
- During an afternoon break
- In the last hour of the day
Keep in mind, though, that if you are sensitive to caffeine, which may limit your options somewhat. While Ujido Matcha produces a “calm alertness” rather than a jittery buzz, like coffee, many people still find it keeps them from falling asleep if they consume it too late in the day.
Mini Tea Services
If you routinely make matcha just for one without any real ritual attached, then you’re already golden. Just bring your drinking cup, your matcha whisk and your matcha powder. Heat water (preferably on the stovetop, but microwave or electric tea kettle works too), and you’re good to go.
If you go the full nine yards at home, with a brazier and a tatami mat and a special ladle and all that, then you can be forgiven for thinking the tea service might not mesh that well with the office. However, the tea ceremony is actually quite amenable to scaling down: just bring bowls to share and a mat to unroll and sit on, and you have a nice approximation right there.
We hope you now see that matcha doesn’t have to wait behind at home while you head off to work. Instead, reap the benefits of this amazing plant all day, every day…starting today.