Typed in “Matcha Unkown” to see if any entry already existed, and what do you know! One did! So even though this hasn’t been used in a few years I’m going to co-opt it for my tasting note…
A few months back, because Montreal went back into more heavy lockdown, I had the chance to “work from home” at one of my coworker’s houses – not for much of a particular reason, other than it’s nice to spend time with other people and because we’re already “exposed to” each other in our office it wasn’t adding to either of our Covid risk/circles. While I was there, throughout the day, her partner made matcha for us to have a matcha tasting! He’s actually a bigger tea drinker than she is, despite working for a tea company, and he recently had a friend in Japan mail him about a half dozen types of matcha (each from different regions of Japan) to taste through. It was very kind of him to share in his matcha haul, and it was a really nice activity for throughout the day.
We didn’t taste through all six regions that he had matcha from, but we did make it through four of them over the course of the day! I was definitely getting the matcha shakes by the time I went home. I, sadly, don’t remember what the regions were but here are some notes I jotted down for each of the four matchas!
Matcha One:
- Sweet and fresh with floral elderflower/peony notes
- Refreshing garden snap pea finish; vegetal but juicy sweet vegetal
- This was my favourite tasting matcha
Matcha Two:
- The creamiest of the four both in terms of mouthfeel and flavour
- More umami underneath the initial creamy notes
Matcha Three:
- A bit flat in terms of taste with a thinner mouthfeel
- Vegetal
Matcha Four:
- Pleasant taste with umami/bok choy notes
- Courser mouthfeel though; a touch gritty/grainy
Very general tasting notes, as you can see – but I wanted to capture it because it was a really nice experience and a very special moment of friendship and tea community nestled in between the dumpster fire that has been 2020.
<3
It’s been a tough year and I’m happy you experienced a fulfilling moment :)