Teaopia typically buys bulk from the lowest bidder, and flowers it up with herbal blends, and sell it to consumers at inflated prices. Ok, I’ll try to stop being a snob on this, after all the practice of tea-blends has been around for over a thousand years, and these tea-chains are help revitalizing the interest in the loose-leaf tea industry. Also, you can’t flower up a matcha.
Brewing instructions: 2 scoops from a chashaku, 1/4 cup of 175F(78-80c) water.
The previous reviewer (chocobubbo), lists this as a Usucha. I tend to disagree. The sweetness is more akin to Koicha, and the price is more in-line with Koicha. Otherwise its a “higher quality usucha” that for the money could be better spent on a higher quality koicha. Clumping is not as much of a problem with this matcha – good if you’re in a rush. The colour is darker, more oxidized, than I would like, but the sweetness is pretty good, despite this obvious indicator of lower quality. So, good if you’re in a pinch, such as you ran out, and need some this very second(since there’s like a billion teaopia stores). Otherwise I would advise serious matcha fans to look elsewhere.
