Matcha Vendors

[Pentox]

Where does everyone source their matcha from? Considering not all sencha vendors have matcha I was wondering what vendors you guys use.

[tenuki]

I'm not a matchahead, but I do drink it almost every day.

I get my matcha at a local store called Uwajimaya. They have various brands of matcha ranging from 8-38 bucks / 30g. I generally get the 12 dollar generic/store brand that is really quite good for the price, but lately have been splurging on the DoMatcha premium they have. Not much help I know. You can get DoMatcha online too and they are canadian so the shipping is very fast and cheap compared to japan, but I'm not enough of a green powderhead to know how it stacks up against ippodo, etc. I'm only mentioning it so you remember to check local sources too.

Seattle Urasenke links to Matcha and More and My Green Tea. I'm guessing they know what they are doing.. I've had matcha from both and liked them but they both have a wide variety of grades.

Then there is the usual Ippodo recommend that I'm sure is forthcoming from the matchaheads around here.

[britt]

Where does everyone source their matcha from? Considering not all sencha vendors have matcha I was wondering what vendors you guys use.

I use O-Cha.com exclusively. I regularly use the following ones, which come in 30 gram cans. I think these three are each awesome for the money. You can read customer reviews of them on the O-Cha.com website.

Kira No Mori @ $15.95 (thin type) -

I was very surprised at the high quality for the low dollars that this matcha provided.

Organic Kaoru Supreme @ 34.95 (thin type) -

More than twice the price of the first but this is the best thin type I have tried.

Uji Matcha Manten @ $59.95 (thick type) -

This is the best matcha I have ever had by a very large margin. Expensive, yes, but so is a Lamborghini. Thick style using 4 scoops is still mild, but this can be stretched even further by using it as a thin matcha with 2 scoops. It works great both ways.

[Space Samurai]

I use O-cha the most. Hibiki-an is also good. Joel raves about the matcha from Ito-en. I didn't care for Den's. Matcha and More is a re-seller, so there stuff is good, but you pay more than you would if you bought it from the original store.

[tenuki]

Ok, I'll take one for the team and order some from ocha so I can compare.

[olivierco]

Ocha, Ippodo, Hibiki-an, Kaburagien

[inspectoring]

without a doubt - itoen. In US, they are the freshest source of matcha in my opinion. And they are reasonably priced. Their thick matcha costs about 19 $ for 30 gm (0.7 oz).