The Way of Tea: Understanding Ceremonial Matcha

The word matcha has been so thoroughly colonised by the wellness industry — matcha lattes, matcha protein bars, matcha-flavoured everything — that it is easy to forget what it actually refers to: one of the most refined and historically significant beverages in the world, the product of centuries of cultivation, processing and ceremony in the tea gardens of Japan.

Ceremonial grade matcha is something else entirely from the green powder sold in most Western shops. It is made exclusively from the youngest leaves of the tea plant, grown in the shade for three to four weeks before harvest to maximise chlorophyll and L-theanine content. The leaves are then steamed, dried and stone-ground on traditional granite mills at a rate of approximately 30 grams per hour — a process so slow that a single mill can produce only about 40 grams of matcha per day.

The result is a powder of extraordinary fineness and a colour — a vivid, almost electric jade green — that is immediately distinguishable from lower-grade products. When whisked with hot water (never boiling: 70-80°C is ideal), it produces a bowl of tea with a naturally sweet, umami-rich flavour and a froth of remarkable delicacy.

Our ceremonial matcha comes from a small producer in Uji, the historic tea-growing region south of Kyoto, where the combination of river mist, fertile soil and centuries of accumulated knowledge produces some of the finest tea in the world.