Organic Uji Shirasagi Matcha

Description

The garden this tea comes from belongs to the Nakanishi family. Located in the heart of Uji – the home of Japanese tea culture – it covers just 1.25 hectares and has been organic since 1980. One of four premium grades of Matcha made by the Nakanishi family, this tea is made from the tea cultivar “Goko”, which is known for its sweet flavour and mouth-filling quality. Extremely rare (typically less than 100 tins containing 30g each are made each year) the entire production of this tea until the Tencha stage, is carried out entirely by hand

Both the dry matcha powder and the frothy tea are vivid green. The flavour fruity and chocolaty – it reminded me of a salted caramel praline – with no trace of bitterness. Long after the tea has been drunk one is left with a creamy aftertaste that makes one long for the next opportunity to drink another bowl!

To prepare “thin” Matcha (Usucha) in a Matcha Bowl (Chawan): 

• Put 1.5 – 2g (2 matcha scoops) into your matcha bowl. If necessary, sieve the matcha into the bowl to remove lumps.
• Add ca. 80 ml of water that has been heated to 70 – 80℃.
• Whisk using your matcha brush until small bubbles appear – your Usucha will have the consistency of a strong espresso with a nice foam on top.

To prepare “thick” Matcha (Koicha) in a Matcha Bowl (Chawan): 

• Put 3.5 – 5g (3 heaped matcha scoops) into your matcha bowl. If necessary, sieve the matcha into the bowl to remove lumps.
• Add ca. 20 – 40 ml of water that has been heated to 70 – 80℃.
• Stir the matcha into the water using your matcha brush until it has the consistency of thick, melted chocolate.

Because Matcha in such a highly concentrated form as Koicha takes some getting used to and only real premium qualities reveal their sweet and complex character when prepared this way, we recommend that only the highest-quality teas be prepared as Koicha. Having said that, how you like your tea is down to your individual taste. Although we wouldn’t recommend trying more basic Matcha teas as Koicha, we would recommend preparing the premium quality teas both as Usucha and Koicha to see which style of Matcha you prefer.