Three Snow
Wire and mesh craft from Tsubame-Sanjo, Niigata. Shinetsu Works has been weaving zaru here since 1963—the shallow mesh baskets that drain, rinse, and rest almost everything that passes through a Japanese kitchen. Strainers and kitchen nets followed, and for decades all of it was made for professional kitchens: the tools behind straining, skimming, draining, and frying.
The home line came later, in the late 1990s, built on the same production. Zaru light enough to hold in one hand, tea strainers fine enough for a single cup, and a matcha strainer that breaks up clumps before you whisk. The MADOROMU series turns the same metalworking to sake cups.
Three Snow calls it hitotema — the small extra step that changes the result. Sifting the matcha. Straining the leaves. The tool is what makes the step worth taking.
