Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: The Tao of Tea
Tea Description:
Also known as “powdered green tea” and traditionally used in Chanoyu – the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Matcha has a special spiritual significance in Japan. It is said that a person operating within the rules of Chanoyu finds the five senses working at their fullest. Matcha is essential to Japan’s traditional art of the tea ceremony, bringing about with each cup mental concentration, emotional stability, and composure of the mind. Unlike black tea and green tea whose ingredients are infused in water and discarded, Matcha has ingredients that can be utilized fully to activate the organic functions of the human body. It is a beverage good for both the mind and the body. Matcha contains essential vitamins and minerals and has shown long term health benefits due to its many disease fighting nutrients. Matcha has 9 times the beta carotene of spinach, 4 times that of carrots, and approximately 10 times the polyphenols and antioxidants of regular teas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Over the past few years, I’ve consumed quite a bit of Matcha. Some is better than others, of course. This Liquid Jade from The Tao of Tea is a good one – not the best, but certainly better than some others that I’ve tried.
What I like best about this Matcha is the flavor of it: sweet, with very little of the bittersweet flavor that I usually detect with Matcha. This one is sweeter. Very pleasant and not quite as vegetative, although there is some seaweed-ish taste to it that is especially noticeable right at the finish, just before the aftertaste. And that part is weird for me because typically, I am not fond of seaweed. But … this I like! Perhaps it is because the seaweed flavor is a bit sweeter than it is savory.
It coats the palate with the silky mouthfeel, and I like that it doesn’t feel chalky, nor does it taste chalky. Instead, it tastes and feels buttery smooth. It’s really quite delicious.
The Matcha stays suspended in the liquid and doesn’t settle to the bottom, and that’s a big plus in my book. On the downside, there is not as much froth as I would have liked and the color is not quite as bright as I would have liked. I would say that this is a really good, mild-tasting Matcha, and it would be good for those who are new to Matcha as well as for those who typically find Matcha to be a bit too much for them. I find the silky smooth texture and taste of this Matcha to be much more palatable than some of the stronger Matcha teas that I’ve tasted. Overall, it is a very enjoyable Matcha. OH… and another big plus: it’s organic!
