About Matcha

1. What is matcha?

Matcha is a special form of green tea, requiring stricter farming and processing: the green tea trees for matcha need to be grown in the shade for 20-30 days before harvest. The tea leaves for matcha have to experience steaming, drying, and stone-mill grinding. This process is what gives matcha its own unique mellow umami taste and vibrant green colour.

2. What’s in matcha? Any health benefits?

Matcha is known to have the health benefits of up to 10 cups of green tea.

Because you are consuming the whole tea leaf when drinking matcha you are receiving 100% of the nutrients in the leaf, as opposed to when brewing loose leaf tea, where a smaller percentage of the nutrients are extracted from the leaf before consuming.

Matcha contains high amounts of theanine, an amino acid, known to promote relaxation and help decrease stress while also increasing alertness and focus. L-theanine works in harmony with the caffeine present in matcha, for an increase in concentration and a gradual, gentle energy boost. Theanine is also one of the main sources of the unique taste of matcha.

Matcha does contain more caffeine than regular green tea, but in much smaller amounts than an average coffee. As mentioned above theanine works with caffeine for a more gentle energy boost, without the ‘caffeine jitters’ that can be associated with drinking coffee.

It is also rich in antioxidants, with high quantities of EGCG. Studies have shown EGCG to have a positive impact on a range of medical conditions.

3. Why is matcha more expensive than other teas in the market?

Producing matcha is a complicated and time consuming process, premium quality matcha is even harder. Tea plants for matcha have to be shade grown for 20-30 days before harvesting and each tea leaf has to be carefully selected and picked from the first harvest. After being steamed, dried and slowly stone-ground into a fine powder (it can take up to an hour to grind just 30g of matcha powder). It is then immediately sealed and packaged to ensure maximum freshness when it gets to you.

Most of the matcha produced in Japan stays in Japan. Very little is exported, plus quality control and shipping, makes it costly. However, we offer a very competitive price, while ensuring the ultra-high quality of our products.

4. How to choose matcha?

For daily drinking, ceremonial grade matcha is the best option. A good quality ceremonial grade matcha is characterised by its green colour and smooth taste.

Our Organic Premium Matcha and Premium Matcha are both ceremonial grade and feature a vibrant green colour, distinct aroma with a smooth & umami taste.
For cooking or culinary purposes, there are many choices on the market, however not all of them are suited for lattes or smoothies, as they can be too bitter.

Our Culinary Grade Matcha has an overall smooth flavour with only a slight bitterness, so it balances perfectly with milk when making matcha lattes, or with fruit when adding it to your smoothies. It also mixes in well with baking, desserts and other recipes.
If you want to know more detail among different matchas, please check out our blog post.

5. Why is matcha from the Uji region better than the others?

As the birthplace of Japanese tea, Uji is considered the most ideal location to make matcha, with its hilly terrain, mild climate and rich fertile soil. With these superior growing conditions and long history of tea culture in Uji, the methods of producing the highest quality matcha have been perfected by tea experts over the years. All of this contributes to matcha from Uji being the best quality matcha and why we only sell matcha from Uji.

6. What accessories do I need to prepare matcha?

Western utensils can be used to prepare matcha, however the results will not turn out as well, compared to when using the traditional Japanese tea accessories. With the correct accessories, you can experience the traditional Japanese matcha ceremony, and also help enrich the flavour and texture, for a PERFECT bowl of matcha.

- Bamboo Matcha Whisk (Chasen)
- Bamboo Matcha Scoop (Chashaku)
- Matcha Whisk Stand
- Matcha Bowl (Chawan)
- Matcha Hand Sifter

7. How to prepare matcha?

Sift 1-2 scoops (1-2g) of matcha powder into a bowl.
Add 70ml of hot water (ideally 80°C) into the bowl.
Whisk it in a 'W' or 'M' motion until a foam covers the entire top of the Matcha.
Drink immediately and ENJOY it!

(Note: if it sits too long, the foam will vanish and the matcha powder will collect again in the bottom.)

8. How to store/keep matcha properly?

Once the matcha package is opened, we highly recommend you to use it up as soon as you can.
For unopened package of our matcha, please keep it in cool (under 20°C), dark place. Or if possible, refrigerator is a better place to keep unopened package fresh.

Thanks for shopping with us.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. :)