Looking for a everyday matcha

Good morning everyone.

As I mentioned yesterday we got matcha from tea shop “A” and “B” to compare. They both have tea-grinding mortars and are milling the tea at the store and selling fresh matcha.

We usually buy teas from “A”. They have a variety of Japanese teas such as sencha, hojicha and matcha. They also have tea wares, sweets for tea and even green tea ice cream. The store looks nice and has a little tea space as well.

This weekend we went to the store “B” for the first time that our master recommended. It was a small poky store. But you can find many tea boxes on the shelves at back of the counter in the dimly-lit store. They are a matcha manufacturer's retail store, so they can provide good matcha in reasonable price. According the lady at the store, their teas are sold almost double of their price at department stores in the city.

We could not find exactly the same price matcha from both stores. So we got 1400 yen for 40g matcha from “A” (on the left in the picture) and 1200 yen for 40g match from “B” (on the right). The matcha powder from A is a little brighter than tea from B. Other than that they are almost the same and also brewed teas looked the same to me. Both smelled well, and has nice green tea aroma. I daresay that tea from A has a slight of bitterness in the smell. There is not a big difference in the taste between them. However, you can find more umami (the fifth taste sensation) and sweetness in the tea from B. They are not high-end tea, so you can find bitterness in both of them. I taste stronger bitterness in tea A. Hiro and I liked matcha from B. We will probably buy matcha from shop “B” from now on.

Even matcha in the same price range could be different in the taste, so you should try couple different matcha from different stores. Have a good day!