Organic Matcha Kaoru Supreme

Only after my O-Cha matcha starter kit arrived and I started brewing did I realize…I think this may have been my first real cup of matcha! A bit of a revelation for a ‘genmaimatcha’ and matcha dessert junkie. If only it hadn’t been prepared by a rookie (who did read the O-Cha instructions and watched a youtube video – yay youtube). I have absolutely nothing to compare it to, but it was delicious. I can’t wait to start having a cup every morning. It just had so much of that bittersweetness I love. Even just opening the liner bag, the tea exploded with a sweet green scent.

It may be bad enough that I compare everything to Bigelow teas, but I’m going one better here. The only times I’ve tasted a really discernable matcha flavor like this one has been in one ice cream at a soba place in NYC and the Il Laboratorio gelato. I’d mostly given up on ever finding that flavor again whether at Starbucks or in that miserable Hagen Dazs version.

So in a field of one, this tea has set the bar for me and made me excited for future matcha adventures.

UPDATE: Usually, when I find a general kind of tea I like, I want to taste them all until I find a favorite. Not so with this one. I just want this tea every single day. Luckily, I already have the non ‘supreme’ version of this for later comparison, but when that’s gone, I think I just have to get a monthly subscription on this. So, so good.

My dad drinks his green tea (gyokuro) so strong we often joke it is like matcha. So this year for fathers day I thought I would cut to the chase and source him some real matcha. Which may or may not have just been a convenient way of scratching my own itching desire to try matcha myself and getting a fathers day gift out of the way at the same time (yes I have one of those ’hardest fathers in the world to buy presents for).

As a lover of green tea and Asian (especially Japanese) culture matcha and the tea ceremony has always held a special allure for me. So needless to say this was a step in my tea-drinking life I was excited to take.

I scoured the internet for a high quality, traditional, but not exorbitantly expensive matcha and O-Cha’s Organic Matcha Kaoru Supreme was what I found. I’m concerned about ingesting pesticides etc at the best of times, so for matcha, where you are actually eating the leaf, one of my fixed criteria was that it be organic. This was the tea I went for, and these are the tasting notes:

Aroma: Vegetal and very grassy. Slightly roasty undertones (like the toasted rice in an Gen Mai Cha). Not surprisingly, the nose is like a concentrated gyokuro or grassy sencha.

Palate: Wow. Like a fist full of green tea in the face. Loads of up-front green grassy flavour backed with an astringent bitter edge. Gives way to a well rounded toasty backbone but that lingering bitterness is ever present and stays with you long after your last sip. This is definitely not a taste for everyone! Of the four of us who sipped on this particular morning, the responses went something like this:
Dad: ‘Mmmm, bitter but great’
Me: ‘Wow – full on. I like it but would have to be in the mood for some serious tea action’
Mum: ‘Ooh no. I’d drink it for a tea ceremony, but not because I like it!’
Girlfriend: ‘Oh my. Yuk’

Overal: As a matcha virgin I don’t feel overly qualified to comment on the quality of this particular variety. However as for matcha itself it is certainly not for the faint hearted, but a pretty incredible tea drinking experience. I love the process (even without the full tea ceremony) of making this tea and I like that macha packs way more green tea goodness into one drink. In short, I think I’ll get myself some matcha, it wont be my every day drink, but I’ll look forward to the ceremony, the experience, and the extra caffeine on a weekend morning!

Can someone who knows how please fix the broken image for this? I tried but couldn’t get it to work.

Eureka! I finally got sea green foam today for the first time in a long time. The secret? MORE MATCHA.

O-Cha recommends 1.5 to 1.75 chashaku. I did 2. I sifted. I heated the water to 175 in the Breville, then measured .5 cups and whisked. The foam came almost instantaneously!

I also used a different bowl. Not sure whether that makes a difference. I can’t think of why it should.

In any case, everything worked very nicely.

I don’t know whether it is psychological or not, but I think matcha tastes better with foam. Is it just that thing where a sandwich tastes better if someone else makes it? Or is it real?

This has a fluffy mouthfeel from the foam. It has a mild flavor with a slight downturn that isn’t sour or bitter but could be headed that way. In any case, it is pleasant, not disturbing.

It has an interesting, sweet pea note at the front of the sip and a grassy, seaweed finish. Not marine, like yesterday’s. More reminiscent of a field than an ocean.

My success today makes me want to go back and try all of the other matchas that were a miss in the foam department over again.

All in good time.