Help out a matcha n00b?

January 21, 2012 1:29 PM

I've recently grown to love the Japanese green tea sold at Costco. I especially like the matcha powder in each bag that I can sprinkle on my cup of tea. I'd like to try out a Japanese matcha powder, but there are so many choices and price ranges.

I basically want to buy it for drinking first rather than flavoring, though I love green tea flavored things and might use it for that, too. Can anyone recommend a good, affordable, "starter" matcha for me? It doesn't need to be super cheap, just good value for the money. Online sources are fine. I have a Teavana near me but am wary of their upselling. (No, I don't need any of your overpriced tins kthx!)

A similar question has been asked before, but it's several years old, and I'd like some updated info.

Thanks!

posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

I'm not really into matcha but I've bought several kinds from o-cha.com in the past: uji kiku mukashi, kyou mukashi and kiri no mori. They were all very good, I recommend trying any or all of them, and I regularly buy other teas (mostly senchas) from o-cha and they're always a great store for tea.

I generally prefer sencha because it has much less of a caffeine kick for me than matcha, and a bit easier to brew, and I like taste a bit better, overall.

By the way, you need to have a matcha bowl, a bamboo whisk and a sifting screen to make matcha properly, and a small measuring spoon (something like 1/4 tsp would work). I think you can find cheaper matcha accessories in japanese or larger chinese supermarkets (compared to o-cha). At first I thought sifting screen is not necessary, but I'd always get clumps of matcha without one, no matter how well I whisk. Proper technique also includes pre-warming the bowl and drying it before adding matcha, but I always skipped the drying part and it worked fine for me.
posted by rainy at 1:44 PM on January 21, 2012

Matcha / green tea ice cream is better than humans deserve. You can usually find it at Asian markets or Whole Foods. Trader Joe's sells the Mikawaya mochi ice cream, ice cream balls wrapped in sweet rice balls.

The Starbucks green tea latte...things are nasty. Stay away.
posted by nicebookrack at 2:04 PM on January 21, 2012

I don't know where you live, but if there is a Lupicia near you, they let you sniff everything in the store before you buy it. (Japanese grocery stores aren't particularly keen on this.) They have some matcha-sencha combinations, as well as pure matcha, and they sell the whisks and things, too. Everything is marked with its place of origin and information about whether it's good cold, hot, etc., and there are notes about whether you should use boiling water or near-boiling, etc. Their floor personnel are trained and can tell you how to make everything. Lupicia is a Japanese company with shops in Japan, the US, Taiwan, and Australia. (They also make about the only flavored teas that I think are worth bothering with, not counting tea with spices like masala chai, of course.)
posted by wintersweet at 2:27 PM on January 21, 2012

While I'm not familiar with their matcha, I have loved all of the other teas I've gotten from Mountain Rose Herbs. Their quality and prices are both excellent.
posted by decathexis at 3:44 PM on January 21, 2012