About Matcha
Matcha
Matcha is a powdered Japanese tea made from the leaves of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis).
After the spring buds begin to sprout, tea plants are cultivated under shade for approximately 20 days or longer, then harvested. The harvested leaves are steamed, dried in a tencha drying furnace, and then stems, veins, and other non-leaf parts are removed. The remaining leaf material is finally ground into a fine powder using stone mills or similar milling methods, thus becoming matcha.
The quality of matcha varies greatly depending on the cultivar, cultivation method, harvesting method, processing, and milling techniques.
Matcha is drunk by whisking the powder into hot water. While traditionally made as usucha ("thin tea") or koicha ("thick tea"), matcha lattes and other drinks have recently gained popularity. Learn how to brew the perfect cup here!
What Matcha is not
Matcha is not just "powdered green tea," as it requires many specific processes to become matcha. Here are examples of "powdered green teas" that are not matcha:
1. Powder made from broken sencha leaves generated during sencha processing ("konacha")
2. Tea grown in autumn without shading, dried in a tencha furnace and milled (“autumn tencha”)
3. Tea harvested in summer or autumn, processed as sencha through kneading and drying, then milled (“moga”)
4. Tea shaded for around two weeks, processed as sencha ("kabusecha"), and then milled.
Matcha Cultivars
A cultivar, or cultivated variety, is a specific variety of the tea plant Camellia Sinensis. Just like grapes can make different wines like Merlot, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon, tea plants have cultivars like Yabukita, Okumidori, and Gokou. You can read more about cultivars here.
Over 100 tea cultivars exist in Japan. Each have key differences in flavor, budding times, yield, and resilience to specific climates. Among them, cultivars developed in Kyoto are particularly well suited for shaded teas such as matcha and gyokuro. Here are some highlights of the Kyoto cultivars we grow at d:matcha:
Gokou
Tenmyo
Ujihikari
Ujimidori
Samidori
Asahi
From Leaf to Powder
How do tea leaves become matcha? Here is a quick look at the most important elements that allow our tea leaves to become delicious high-quality matcha.
Shading
Shading halts the conversion of theanine into tannins, resulting in tea leaves with stronger umami. Under shade, leaves increase chlorophyll production to enhance photosynthesis, resulting in a more vivid green color. Shading also enhances “ooika”, often described as a seaweed- or nori-like fragrance. There are 3 main ways of shading tea trees.
Harvest Season
The highest-quality matcha is always harvested during the spring. At d:matcha, we only ever harvest leaves meant for matcha in spring and summer. Spring first flush matcha powder is vibrant, deep in umami, and high in nutrients. Summer leaves are more appropriate for mixing with milk, sugar, or in confectionaries.
Harvest Methods
Matcha can be handpicked or mechanically harvested. Harvesting methods are closely impacted by the terrain in which the tea is grown, and have large differences in terms of yield, efficiency, and labor cost.
Steaming
Fresh leaves are processed by steaming and drying to produce tencha. Steaming halts oxidative fermentation. Adjusting steaming conditions according to leaf characteristics requires technical expertise. After steaming, the leaves are agitated, cooled, spread, and loosened to prepare for drying.
Drying
Tea leaves are dried in ovens. There are two main types of tencha-drying ovens: Horii-style brick furnaces, traditionally used by farmers in Uji, and the modern net-type tencha drying furnace. At d:matcha, our in-house tencha factory uses Horii-style brick ovens.
Refining
After purchasing crude tencha, processors perform refining to remove stems, veins, and other non-leaf components. Insufficient refining can result in inconsistent, heterogenous powder.
Grinding
Tencha is ground into matcha powder using mills. Traditionally, tencha is ground using granite stone-mills. Newer, more efficient methods now exists, such as ball-mills and bead-mills.
