Wakamatsu No Mukashi

Tea: Wakamatsu no Mukashi
Vendor: Ippodo
Price: 1500 Yen / 20 g
Vendor Description: For the matcha connoisseur with a discerning taste, Wakamatsu-no-mukashi is an excellent choice. Rich in umami, it has a distinct fragrance and aftertaste that linger pleasantly in the throat. Wakamatsu-no-mukashi is also an excellent choice as a koicha.

Powder: The matcha powder has a nice light green color to it. It is a very bright color with a rich and sweet aroma.

Infused: The foam took on a brilliant green hue. The flavor is rich an bold. As I was drinking this matcha it had a very calming effect on me. The flavor was smooth with nothing unpleasant about the experience at all.

Rating: 10/10

Conclusion: Quite easily this is the best matcha I have had to date. Unfortunately I have not had that much experience with matcha still. Given the plethora of different grades and suppliers my repertroire of matcha experience is still developing. That said though the flavor of this match was superb, it was rich and thick with no bitterness or astringency. The color was radiant and beautiful and the experience overall was just very pleasant. Also the price of this matcha is very reasonable (although as with all Ippodo tea the shipping is brutal).

Uji Shimizu

Tea: Uji Shimizu
Vendor: Ippodo
Price: 300 Yen / 150g
Vendor Description: An original Ippodo creation, Uji-Shimizu is a matcha-based beverage developed in 1924. It combines matcha powder and sugar to provide an easy to prepare, easy to drink tea for those who prefer their matcha a bit sweeter.

Leaf: This is a very lightly colored powder. It is very light and fluffy with a pale shade of green. There is a light sweet aroma to it. The color is light enough that it was very difficult to photograph well. (Hence the lack of photo for this tea)

Infusion Parameters: 3 Tbs (37g), 12oz water, Refrigerator temp

Infusion: Despite the very light color of the powder the infused tea is actually very dark in color. It is a deep shade of green (which happens to blend quite well with my tablecloth, again no good picture). It is very sweet, although it is in a good combination with the matcha powder creating a good mix for a matcha latte type beverage. The flavor is very smooth, which is not unexpected considering no steeping involved.

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: This is a pretty good tea beverage mix. It doesn't feign to be anything grander or anything less. The price is appropriate for what it is, although the price of shipping from Ippodo is a bit steep. If you like things like matcha lattes order a lot in one shipment, it'll be cheaper. This won't be replacing a nice warm bowl of matcha, but it's a nice quick drink to have when you're in a hurry.

Nishio Samidori

Tea: Nishio Samidori - 7501
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $12.50 / 20g
Source: Aichi, Japan
Vendor Description: Matcha from Nishio, Aichi Pref., the 2nd largest Matcha producing area after Uji, Kyoko. A variety called "Samidori" suitable for producing Matcha is used, with a mild flavor to suit everyone's taste.

Powder: This matcha is a rather light shade of green. It was darker than the 7502 (Okabe Aohane) however. There is a nice aroma to this matcha though, it's very enjoyable.

Infusion Parameters: 140F, 3 scoops, 1 ladle of water

Infusion: This matcha foamed rather nicely. The large foam brought out the lighter color of the matcha and gave off a nice hue. The flavor was a very rich matcha flavor. The flavor was quite bold, yet had a slightly gritty texture to it. There was a detectable light bitterness to it though.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This is a rather enjoyable matcha, there wasn't much that was particuarly outstanding about it. It was probably one of the easiest matcha to foam. It is definitely an usucha though.

Cold Water Matcha

After having the Lupicia Okabe matcha the traditional way I decided to try this one with a bit of a twist to it. I tried making it using cold water rather than hot.

Infusion: The flavor of this matcha was very creamy and had just a bit of bitterness to it. The flavor was sweeter than the traditional matcha. Interestingly it had a very strong and intense flavor on the center of my tongue. It was very refreshing and enjoyable.

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion: This was a very untraditional way to prepare matcha, but it was an enjoyable bowl. I'm not sure that this would become my preferred method of making it, but I suppose it would be more enjoyable during the summer when the weather is hot.

Matcha Okabe

Tea: Matcha Okabe - 7502
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Source: Shizuoka, Japan

About this tea: This is(was) one of the three ceremony grade matchas on the Lupicia site. At the time of this writing all three are not present on the website. This may be due to inventory reasons or discontinuation.

Powder: The powder for this matcha has a light yet vibrant green hue to it. It has a light yet sweet aroma as well.

Infusion: The flavor for this matcha is light yet smooth. It is rich as a matcha flavor is with a light bitterness. It is very creamy and rich.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This was a very enjoyable bowl of matcha, yet it has nothing to blow me away with. It is appealling, yet undistinguished.

Matcha Latte Iced

So having had a matcha latte, the next step in the progression was to try icing it. Using the same recipe as the regular matcha latte, I tried pouring that over a bowlful of ice. The latte pictured is made with the Tao of Tea matcha, Lupicia recipe, and then poured over ice.

Infusion: The taste of the latte was very refreshing. It was cool and clean. The sweetness was a bit more hidden having this beverage cold as opposed to warm, although it does bring out the tea flavor a good deal more. There is a very creamy texture to it and the actual matcha flavor is a bit more subdued. There is no bitterness to it, just a creamy milky tea.

Rating: 4/10

Conclusion: While the hot version of this was a bit better than the traditional matcha infusion made with the Tao of Tea matcha, this version was in it's own right very enjoyable. It is a bit of a stretch from a traditional tea, and is more akin to a starbucks beverage than something a tea purist would look at. But I believe that it has it's place, it is enjoyable for what it is. I will probably be enjoying beverages such as this a fair amount when summer rolls around again.

Matcha Latte

Tea: Matcha Latte

About this Latte: After opening and trying the Liquid Jade matcha from Tao of Tea, I decided to try using it as an ingredient grade matcha for a matcha latte. I tried using the Lupicia recipe for a matcha latte which can be found here.

Latte: The latte itself had a very sweet aroma to it, most likely due to the added sugar. The color was a very light shade of green, which masked the dull color of the matcha used. There is a very sweet and light matcha flavor to this drink and no bitterness at all. The flavor is very milky and smooth with a thick feeling to it. However there is a very noticeable gritty texture to the drink.

Rating: 4/10

Conclusion: The matcha latte was a much better way to drink the matcha used. It masked some of the downsides of the matcha and brought out a very nice enjoyable beverage. However the gritty texture was a bit of a turnoff. If it wern't for the amount of effort required to make this I would consider making these more often.

Liquid Jade

Tea: Liquid Jade
Vendor: Tao of Tea
Price: $17.50 / 3.0 oz
Source: Uji, Japan

Powder: The color of this matcha is much duller than most of the other matchas that I have tried. Given the relatively low price of this matcha I wasn't expecting much more than a cooking grade/ingredient matcha.

Infusion: The made matcha had a darker green color than most of the other matcha that I have had. This went along with the expectation based on the color of the powder itself. The flavor of this matcha was not very much like other matcha that I have had. It was lightly bitter with a medium sense of astringency. It just didn't seem very good. I was more impressed by the minute matcha from Lupicia than this. It reminded me more of a thick powdered sencha than a matcha.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: As I expected this was pretty much just an ingredient grade matcha that shouldn't relaly be used to drink as a regular matcha. The price isn't horrible if you are looking for a cooking matcha, and it comes with a nice tin.

Minute Matcha

Tea: Minute Matcha
Vendor: Lupicia USA

About this tea: Minute matcha isn't exactly a stellar matcha, but it has it's appeal in being in small packets. The matcha is packed into small tubes resembling sugar packets (the long kind, not the traditional American rectangular ones). So they are primarily a convenience item so you can add matcha to something on the go.

Powder: There are two notable characteristics about this matcha. The first is that it doesn't clump. There is an anticlumping agent added to it for this. Secondly it is very dark in color. This alludes to the quality of the matcha being less than top end.

Matcha: The tea had a very dark green color to it, and it was very difficult to get to foam up like regular matcha. The flavor tasted like an average matcha, nothing special and nothing terrible. There were hints of a nori(seaweed) flavor to the matcha. It also had a slight astringency which is rare for matcha. The texture was slightly more gritty than regular matcha.

Rating: 4/10

Conclusion: As pure matcha this tea is not terribly spectacular. The primary appeal of it is in it's convenience. It makes it easy to make a bottle of matcha flavored water on the go very easy. Just rip open a tube and pour it into a bottle of water. It has the same appeal as the instant iced tea / lemonade / crystal light packets. I carry a few of these around with me when I travel, it makes for a nice addition to a bottle of orange juice in the morning.

Orange Matcha

Today for something a bit different. A bit ago I was organizing my tea stash and found a container of matcha that I had opened but neglected to finish. Matcha has a tendency to lose some of its flavor quickly after being opened, so I figured this was a perfect subject on which to experiment, the result: Orange Matcha.

To start with I pulled out my matcha equipment, I chose one of my smaller chawans because I didn't want to make too much of anything when I was experimenting with this. The equipment I used was fairly standard; chasen (wisk), chawan(bowl), and chashaku (bamboo scoop). Along with this I had a small pitcher of cold orange juice.

To start with I placed 3 scoops of sifted matcha into the chawan. I then poured in a small amount of orange juice and proceeded to wisk the orange juice and matcha. I only used a small amount of the orange juice to help work the matcha. As I continued to wisk the matcha I added more and more orange juice. I have been experimenting with the ratios, but it varies incredibly by the orange juice you use. For instance a nice freshly squeezed orange juice is much sweeter than the orange juice from the grocery store in a jug. I tried using more and less with this variation, and found that the sweeter and bolder the orange juice the less matcha to use. For a weaker more dilute orange juice more matcha provided a good flavor. The two difference though produce very different beverages. It becomes a bowl of matcha with a hint of orange or a bowl of orange juice that is flavored with matcha. Both proved to be quite good, but it seemed odd to produce something in the middle.

This was more of an experiment with something unusual, but proved to be quite good. If you wish to try this I would suggest starting with about 3 scoops of matcha per 200 mL of orange juice. From there you should vary your proportions to your taste or whatever you may think is interesting. There is no right or wrong here, only interesting experimentation. I will continue to experiment with this and find something that I enjoy even more perhaps.