Brilliant Green Matcha Recommended by Ceremonial Tea Master
In a nutshell: I have tried these matcha brands: DoMatcha (ceremonial and second harvest), Seredipitea, Teazer’s brand matcha, Maeda En (universal blend), and ebay generic matcha my friend gave me. Before Ippodo became my gold standard, I loved DoMatcha the most. But then, this happened and I fell in love with the brilliant green, smooth powder that is Ippodo matcha: A fellow graduate student’s girlfriend is from Japan and I couldn’t help but ask him if by any chance she drinks matcha and if she does, what brand of matcha would she recommend? Well, as luck would have it, not only does she drink matcha every day, but her auntie is ----this is literally what she is ---- a master of the ancient art of the matcha tea ceremony. She literally prepares ceremonial matcha for a living. My classmate promised to ask his girlfriend to call her aunt in Japan and ask what brand of matcha she used. Long story short, her auntie got back to her and recommended three brands through email: two of which were in Japanese Kanji and are apparently only available through Japanese language websites. The third was Ippodo brand matcha and I found it here on amazon. It was about the same price as a ceremonial 1 oz tin of DoMatcha and I happily purchased it. Ippodo, according to her auntie, is a very popular brand in Japan, kind of the standard for matcha; not as prestigious as one brand she mentioned (could only find that brand at a Japanese website), and not her personal favorite either (like the other brand that I couldn’t find at all), but it is still highly regarded by her auntie, the master of tea ceremonies, and by others. The only issue that would affect my purchasing decisions has to do with the length of delivery time. I got my Ippodo matcha about a month early and that still meant a one-month wait. As it is an import, Ippodo takes quite a while to arrive if you forget to purchase the expedited shipping, which would be a serious concern if it hadn’t been for the amazing quality and color of the matcha powder when it finally did arrive. Upon removing the foil from the small dark tin I sliced open the top and peered in to see the most neon green powder I have seen outside of DoMatcha’s ceremonial quality matcha. The texture is smooth, not clumpy. I don’t even need to use the mesh strainer because the tea is so finely ground that the powder rarely clumps into small green balls (most people use a tea spoon to measure out matcha, then they push the powder through the mesh strainer into a chawan [bowl] and lastly they will whisk the matcha powder into the hot water with a bamboo chasen [whisk]). I don’t need to do the step with the strainer because the powder is not lumpy at all. Compare this to culinary brands that I found locally and there is no denying that Ippodo matcha is high quality without being exorbitantly expensive. Good matcha is hard to come by, especially now that matcha has become a dietary fad in the States. There are plenty of cheap matcha products out there, but they won’t be as green, as smooth, and as lightly flavored as Ippodo. The flavor for cheap matcha reminds me of seaweed flavor. The flavor for this Ippodo matcha reminds me more of a bitter green tea rather than flat out seaweed flavor. I trust Ippodo more than others not only because of the taste and appearance of the matcha, but also of the amount of time the tea company has existed. According to their website, they have been grinding tea leaves for centuries and I believe them due to the fine, pulverized texture and the brilliant green color. I trust that they have perfected their machinery and processes over the past century and I am willing to pay extra for their expertise. Thankfully, I don’t have to pay extra for the product, as it costs about the same as other good quality matchas (unless you pay for expedited shipping in which case it costs about ten dollars more) To conclude, I was lucky enough to get the name of Ippodo out of a master of tea ceremonies in Japan after trying multiple brands on my own. I had tried just enough brands of matcha to recognize Ippodo’s high quality. I had struggled with swallowing little green balls of clumped matcha from clumpy powder and I had taken to covering the bitterness of cheap matcha by adding sugar, cloves, cardamom, star anise, ginger, and half and half. Now, I just add a single whole clove and half and half to my matcha so Ippodo is one of the better brands for beginners due to its smooth, less bitter, earthy taste. The powder is smooth so I never have to spit out little green balls of clumpy matcha again! I intend on buying this regularly, as often as I need it, although in the future I will splurge on expedited shipping (add another ten dollars or so). After this, DoMatcha is my favorite, followed by Maeda-En. Thanks for reading and enjoy your cup of tea! Read more
