From leaf to cup

Ceremonial grade isn't an official label, and it's worth knowing before you buy: it's a trade convention for matcha made from the year's first harvest, the youngest leaves. Those leaves are the most tender, the richest in amino acids and the least fibrous, three reasons why they make a fine powder and a cup you can enjoy on its own.

Later harvests in the season produce tougher, more astringent leaves. They make excellent culinary matchas, designed for baking and sweet drinks, where milk and sugar round off the bitterness. These are two different products, not a good one and a bad one: what matters is knowing which one you're buying.

Colour. A fresh, first-harvest matcha is a clear, almost electric green. A dull, yellowish or khaki powder has either aged in air and light, or been harvested late. It's the quickest test, and you can do it the moment you open the pouch.

Texture. Rubbed between two fingers, a good powder feels like talc: so fine it leaves a mark on your skin. A gritty powder was ground too fast, often by machine. Stone-grinding is slow because speed heats the leaf, and heat carries the aromas away.

Smell. A lively matcha smells of freshly cut grass and soft greenery. If it smells of hay, cardboard or a stuffy cupboard, it has absorbed moisture. It's still drinkable, but the flavour is gone. Hence the advice to keep it airtight, away from light, and to enjoy it within a few weeks of opening.

With regular tea, you steep the leaves and throw them away: some of what they carry stays in the strainer. With matcha, you drink the whole leaf, ground into powder. Everything it contains ends up in your cup: the antioxidants and L-theanine, but also anything that might have been sprayed on it.

That's why we only sell organic. The term is regulated under EU law and guarantees cultivation without synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilisers. For this particular product, it's not a marketing line: it's the only way to know what you're drinking.