Changes

While it There are two main types of Matcha—“ceremonial grade” and “ingredient grade.” Ceremonial grade Matcha is possible meant for you to make your own matcha tea powdermixing with water only, it could prove to be labor intensive because you would need a considerable amount of hand-picked tea leaves and should have a smooth finish with little to stone-grind them into a fine powderno bitterness. It's more convenient to purchase Cooking or mixing this grade with anything else would just mask the matcha green powder from tea vendors and online retailersmild flavor. Teavana carries premiumOn the other hand, ceremonial ingredient grade matcha tea powderMatcha has a more bitter, which astringent flavor that is traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremoniesgreat for mixing with other ingredients (like milk, sugar, flour, etc). Ceremonial grade matcha reportedly has a creamy, sweet taste compared to the food grade matcha, which has a bitter taste. To prepare * Good quality Matcha is vibrantly green in color—often described as jade green—and lower qualities tend to have a cup of matchamore yellowish/brownish hue.* A high quality Matcha should smell sweet and vegetal, simply combine 2 ounces of matcha green thanks to the L-theanine amino acid that is preserved in the shade. Open air grown teas lose their amino acids because they are converted to catechins when exposed to the sun.* The same amino acids that give Matcha its sweet smell should actually make the tea taste slightly sweet, too. When grown properly, a ceremonial grade Matcha shouldn’t be bitter. Ingredient grade Matcha should be slightly bitter, but not too much.* You might not think to feel your Matcha, but it’s actually a great indicator of quality. A high quality Matcha should feel very fine and silky—similar to the feel of eye shadow or baby powder . The particle size is only around 5-10 microns, which is actually even finer than baby powder! Lower quality Matcha will have larger particle sizes that feel coarse between the fingers.* When you vigorously whisk a good quality ceremonial Matcha with 6 ounces a bamboo whisk, it shouldn’t be too hard to create a layer of hot waterfoam on top. No matter how hard you try, whisking a lower quality Matcha will often just result in large air bubbles (and stir until dissolvedfrustration). Making drinks or baking with your ingredient grade Matcha should result in a deep green hue, and a pleasantly mild tea flavor. The taste shouldn’t be too bitter or too mild, but should perfectly compliment the other ingredients.