Matcha tea - a couple of questions

[RichardRi]

Hi

I've recently started drinking matcha tea. It's from a company that produces 3 grades, and it's the highest grade -- price is between €28 and €35 for 30grams depending on where I buy it. It's great.

I'm looking for high grade matcha tea and seeing if it's possible to pay less – without going to lower grades.

...of course all brands will make claims about their tea. But what brands etc of matcha should i consider, to know I'm buying high grade?

i'm based in ireland, but i guess most places worldwide will ship it to me.

I'm thinking another way I could pay less is by buying it in bulk -- perhaps a bag intended for wholesale

...so if I do that, a big bag will take me a while to get through -- what's the shelf life of matcha?

and what brands or companies should i buy a wholesale-size bag from, to be sure i'm getting high grade?


thanks.

[mcrdotcom]

I'm shocked to find another Irish person on teachat at last! :O (Assuming you don't just live here but are indeed irish.... )

Maiko and O-Cha offer excellent Japanese tea at fair prices for the quality, and EMS shipping to Ireland takes about 5 working days usually, or less sometimes.

http://www.maiko.ne.jp/english/shopping/maccha.htm

"Matsu no midori" is less than €20 for 40g and is very nice in my opinion and was recommended by another teachatter on another thread.

Now, of course when ordering from Japan you must pay the hefty EMS shipping charge, so I would suggest buying some sencha/gyokuro to make it worth your while (same applies to O-Cha.com). I wouldn't "bulk" buy matcha (Maiko offers 200g tins but I wouldn't be so sure about keeping that fresh for long enough) or any Japanese green tea due to storage issues, but someone more adept to storing Japanese greens unopened for long periods of time will have better advice with regard to that!

Finally, where in Ireland are you from/are you Irish at all?

Edit: I suggested the wrong matcha, changed it to the correct one

[BioHorn]

I agree with MCRDOTCOM.
O-cha is great.

Check out Yunomi. I just had their roasted matcha. It is now my all time favorite, beating out others at higher price points.

I also just tried their Azuma Okumidori, which at Yunomi's current price, was less than spectacular. I have the other Azuma cultivars and am going to try them over the coming months.

Ippodo is very good. Their Fuku-mukashi is a very good quality matcha at a nice price point for daily drinking. The autumn Tsukikage was also very good, but is seasonal.

One of my matcha stayed in the freezer for 15 years! That is not so recommended, but it seems they generally should be used within 6-9 months. Maybe others will lend more insight.

Let us know what you find and enjoy!

[entropyembrace]

I'm shocked to find another Irish person on teachat at last! :O (Assuming you don't just live here but are indeed irish.... )

Maiko and O-Cha offer excellent Japanese tea at fair prices for the quality, and EMS shipping to Ireland takes about 5 working days usually, or less sometimes.

http://www.maiko.ne.jp/english/shopping/maccha.htm

"Matsu no midori" is less than €20 for 40g and is very nice in my opinion and was recommended by another teachatter on another thread.

Now, of course when ordering from Japan you must pay the hefty EMS shipping charge, so I would suggest buying some sencha/gyokuro to make it worth your while (same applies to O-Cha.com). I wouldn't "bulk" buy matcha (Maiko offers 200g tins but I wouldn't be so sure about keeping that fresh for long enough) or any Japanese green tea due to storage issues, but someone more adept to storing Japanese greens unopened for long periods of time will have better advice with regard to that!

Finally, where in Ireland are you from/are you Irish at all?

Edit: I suggested the wrong matcha, changed it to the correct one

Those are both really good places to buy matcha

I don't know if there's a specific issue with customs in Ireland but to Canada I have no problems with using SAL or standard airmail as shipping options. These take 2 weeks (vs 1 week for EMS) to arrive but are much less expensive.

[mcrdotcom]

I'm shocked to find another Irish person on teachat at last! :O (Assuming you don't just live here but are indeed irish.... )

Maiko and O-Cha offer excellent Japanese tea at fair prices for the quality, and EMS shipping to Ireland takes about 5 working days usually, or less sometimes.

http://www.maiko.ne.jp/english/shopping/maccha.htm

"Matsu no midori" is less than €20 for 40g and is very nice in my opinion and was recommended by another teachatter on another thread.

Now, of course when ordering from Japan you must pay the hefty EMS shipping charge, so I would suggest buying some sencha/gyokuro to make it worth your while (same applies to O-Cha.com). I wouldn't "bulk" buy matcha (Maiko offers 200g tins but I wouldn't be so sure about keeping that fresh for long enough) or any Japanese green tea due to storage issues, but someone more adept to storing Japanese greens unopened for long periods of time will have better advice with regard to that!

Finally, where in Ireland are you from/are you Irish at all?

Edit: I suggested the wrong matcha, changed it to the correct one

Those are both really good places to buy matcha

I don't know if there's a specific issue with customs in Ireland but to Canada I have no problems with using SAL or standard airmail as shipping options. These take 2 weeks (vs 1 week for EMS) to arrive but are much less expensive.

I think with Maiko I was forced into EMS, but with O-Cha there is a standard mail option indeed!

[entropyembrace]

I think with Maiko I was forced into EMS, but with O-Cha there is a standard mail option indeed!

maiko tea also lets you select airmail and SAL. I think it defaults to EMS and the combo-box is small so it might have been easy to miss.

[RichardRi]

Thanks for all those options. Now there're so many options I'm not sure which to try...

...has anyone done a grade-versus-price analysis?

The best price for the highest grade, or a very high grade...?

I love the tastes of some green teas, but for my matcha, I'm more interested in the health-giving stuff and energy-giving properties. The way my brain works, I'll acquire a taste for it if I know it's good for me.

At some of those links, it says the tea can be stored for up to 6 months – and someone else mentioned 6 to 9 months. So I'll buy a good whack of it, and save on the bulk buy.

mcrdotcom,

I’m from Timbuktu.

Not really. I’m from Cumbria.

But I do have past-life memories of being a grasshopper in Timbuktu.

[KaiRong]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here, and have the sort-of-same questions like OP
I have been drinking tea for a couple of years now. So far I have been more into Chinese greens, but of course I like good grade sencha and gyokuro, too.
However, I've just discovered the world of matcha, I bought my first can of this green jade powder some months ago, and got on the hook of matcha. It is actually quite weird, because in wintertime, below 5 Celsius I simply can't drink green tea - it makes me feel cold and dizzy, so I mostly replace greens with roasted oolongs/reds/shu puerhs. The only exception is matcha, I can drink 1 to 3 bowls per day even during winter without the unpleasent side effects.

The local Japanese tea room here sells Koyamaen matchas, I bought and tried Aoarashi, Isuzu, Yugen and Gabaron. The problem is that due to the low demand for good quality tea in Eastern Europe, there is no higher grade option locally that could le me continue my road of matcha. And even these low-grade and low-mid grade teas are quite pricy here (the cheapest was the Aoarashi - 18$ for a 40g can, Yugen is 35$), so I would like to receive some recommendation where to buy and what to buy. Some mid-grade, reasonably priced matcha would be preferred. I have never ever tried matchas other than Koyamaen's ones, but if anyone can recommend me some other decent tea producers, that would be much appreciated Thank you very much in advance!

[mcrdotcom]

RichardRi: Soooo English? (I googled Cumbria...)

Are you based in the north or republic? Im in Dublin!

KaiRong: check out Maiko tea and O-Cha! They sell reasonably priced matcha for the quality, and O-Cha has an excellent reviewing system so you should have something to go on As for locally, I don't live in Eastern Europe so I can't comment!

[chingwa]

I can drink 1 to 3 bowls per day even during winter without the unpleasent side effects.

wheeeeeeeeeeee!!! Live life large, that's what I always say

Your best bet for matcha is probably mail order. Even if you can get good quality stuff locally, you don't know how old it is and it can go stale quick if not taken well care of. I've never had much luck personally, anyway, of getting it locally even in NYC. I can 2nd O-Cha, but also the upper end matcha from Hibiki-an is good, as is the mid-to-upper end at ippodo. I don't usually bother with matcha below the $30 level.

mcrdotcom - this is completely off-topic but I spent a week in Ireland for the first time last year, lovely country you have there!

[entropyembrace]

Thanks for all those options. Now there're so many options I'm not sure which to try...

...has anyone done a grade-versus-price analysis?

The best price for the highest grade, or a very high grade...?

I love the tastes of some green teas, but for my matcha, I'm more interested in the health-giving stuff and energy-giving properties. The way my brain works, I'll acquire a taste for it if I know it's good for me.

At some of those links, it says the tea can be stored for up to 6 months – and someone else mentioned 6 to 9 months. So I'll buy a good whack of it, and save on the bulk buy.

I think Maiko tea gives the best value. They have quite a few low priced teas that are still very good to drink, and they also have high end teas which can get expensive but don't disappoint. Also like I said before they have affordable shipping options.

And if you're going for bulk matcha they have the 200g cans...which is really a lot of matcha but if you're really keen on it and drink it every day consistently you should be able to get through it before it goes stale.

O-cha doesnt sell big cans of matcha but I do find the Kiri-No-Mori in particular is a very good value also

[RichardRi]

I gave hibiki-an a go – thanks for all the recommendations; I'm guessing all the options'll be good – I'll probably try a few over the next few months.

mcrdotcom – I'm in Dun Laoghaire.