How to dissolve matcha well
In this review, I mentioned that despite being very finely ground, the matcha dissolves well.
At first glance, this seems weird. You’d think that of course, something more finely ground would dissolve easily! But it’s actually the opposite. While it’s easy to dissolve hot chocolate powder which is less finely ground and is defatted and including other things like sugar, it’s harder with matcha. Matcha usually only contains green tea and is so finely ground that it has electrostatic energy, which makes it clump to each other. So technically speaking, it is suspended in liquid, not dissolved. It’s not water-soluble, you are literally consuming leaves. For the sake of clarity though, I refer to it as dissolving or blending colloquially, since that is what people usually want - no clumps and an evenly tasteful and colored drink.
The mistake usually lies in either not sieving, not whisking enough, or whisking with too much liquid. Matcha won’t blend well if you fill your mug or bowl completely with water first, then add matcha to the surface and try to mix it with a spoon, like you’d maybe be inclined to do and would work for other drink powders.
What helps in dissolving the matcha powder in your drink is sieving it through a fine sieve into very little liquid (or alternatively, sieving into the mug or bowl first and then adding a small amount of liquid). Then you whisk it with the bamboo whisk or an electronic whisk until it is blended well. Due to the ratio of liquid and matcha, it can be very dense, creamy or even paste-like. Afterwards, you add the rest of the liquid slowly. Hot liquid works better with keeping it suspended than cold water. If needed, also stir or whisk during this process.
This creates a smoother matcha.
Very expensive and therefore very fine matcha can be a challenge to get completely blended in - I own one that just leaves very small clumps on the surface no matter what I do and how hard I try. This can happen if you use a bit more matcha and the water:powder ratio is off, but I am okay with that, because I enjoy a strong matcha. Elsewhere online, I usually read that cheap low quality matcha can be hard to blend, but my experience has been different; while the lower quality matcha can feel or look more coarse in water, it clumps less for me, while ceremonial grade matcha takes a bit more effort, has very small clumps but is also very, very soft.
I’ve observed that the ones that blend well leave less residue on the bowl or mug, and have to be stirred less throughout drinking. The ones that are very fine and clumpy leave more residue and need to be stirred more frequently because it settles quicker on the bottom.