Matcha Morning

It's a beautiful cool misty morning here in Burien, Washington. I've got the door open at Phoenix Tea and I can smell the sea. My tea of choice today is a high-quality matcha (抹茶) green tea called "御薄茶万代昔" from 上林春松本店 in Japan.

Big 謝謝 to my friend Jason for hooking me up with this delicious treasure.

Genmaicha with Matcha

Today was cold and rainy here in Seattle. I made a pot of genmaicha with matcha for my afternoon tea. An unusual choice for me but it really hit the spot.

"美味しい"

DoMatcha's Organic Ceremonial

Last week my good friend and former coworker Tiffany P. asked me if I'd like to review DoMatcha's Organic Ceremonial tea on my blog. I've had a couple of great experiences with DoMatcha's products in the past at World Tea Expo so I happily agreed. Just two days later a can of tea and a new bamboo whisk (aka chasen) appeared at my door!

You may already know this (but it bears repeating) in order to taste good, matcha must be prepared well. It really takes skill, and that means a lot of practice. I'm by no means a skilled matcha whipper. I've only had a couple of short tutorials and seen a few videos. I don't drink matcha very often but I am lucky to already possess a very nice Japanese matcha bowl and chasen.

This morning I set up a serene matcha tasting under my cherry tree. As I opened the can I was delighted to find a small red booklet explaining matcha preparation waiting under the lid. Very classy.

The tea smells fresh and has a lively green color. I'll try my best to whisk it well!

I used two scoops from my bamboo matcha scoop (aka chashaku) and a few ounces of 190° spring water. I whisked as smooth and quick as possible in a zig-zag pattern for about 20 to 25 seconds until it looked like this:

Wide shot:


Close up:

The tea has a heady, sweet aroma and felt rich and substantial in my mouth. The texture was not at all chalky. My tasting notes included green banana (in a good way), and sugar snap pea. My daughter, who has never tried matcha before, took one small sip and stated that "Drinking matcha tea makes me feel like a sweet apple." (It should be noted that she is three years old and happened to be eating an apple at the time.)

I don't claim to have a well developed palate for matcha tea but I'd rank this one as very good.

Kenya White Rhino Matcha

Today I tasted a tea that I'd never tried before, in fact before last week I'd never even heard of it. It's called "Kenya White Rhino Matcha" and it was imported by a well regarded, Can-Am outfit called Metropolitan Tea Company.

The Rhino (as I've come to call her) is a Kenya grown white tea that has been powdered like matcha. The powder...

...which looks like this...

...has a very nice, heady, fresh, white tea aroma. I tasted a tiny bit with my finger and it was very bitter.

I used a small, level, half teaspoon, of powder (about what I wound use when I whip myself a bowl of regular matcha) and about 4 ounces of 180° water. I'm certainly not a skilled matcha whipper, but I gave it my best, and the result looked and smelled pleasant.

Ick... way too bitter... like badly over steeped yinzhen (銀針) (silver needle white tea) (think 30 minutes, with boiling water and too much leaf). It was undrinkable and just two sips made me feel shaky.

I cut the amount of tea powder down to about 1/8 flat teaspoon (almost like a "finger nail" amount") and tried again with 160° water. Ah... much better flavor for me. It was a bit too weak and watery but I think that an experienced matcha whipper could probably coax out a little more body and sweetness.

If you've ever had a decent Indian or African white tea you can sort of guess at the flavor profile. I really struggled to put my taste perception into words with this tea so I'm just going to stick with "malty and grassy."

I didn't love the Rhino, nor the shaky, "not-mellow-buzz" that she left me with... but I did find her to be a very interesting and worthwhile beverage. Has anybody else ever tried any powdered white teas?