Matcha Daimatsu 2017 No.325

Matcha Daimatsu (大松抹茶, meaning “great pine”) is a premium matcha from the Yoshida Mei tea garden, specially selected for Zhao Zhou.

Matcha (抹茶), the powdered green tea, is the zenith of Japanese tea ceremony.
Similarly to Gyokuro, the tea plants are shaded for three weeks before the harvest so that the leaves stay small, fresh and juicy, and their taste sweeter and softer.

Like any other Japanese green teas, after plucking, the leaves are steamed and dried. Then, having carefully selected the leaves, they are milled into a soft, bright green powder. This powder-tea is prepared with a bamboo chasen (茶筅, tea whisk) in a chawan (茶碗, tea bowl). The result is an emerald-coloured liquid with rather intense greenish flavour and a sweet, lightsome, jade like foam – the bigger the foam the better the tea.

One of Uji’s ancient tea-gardens, the Kōzan-ji (高山寺) temple is tended by the Yoshida family for 16 generations now. This degree of proficiency echoes in their teas too: refined and extremely balanced flavours supplemented with beautiful elegance.

Preparing Instructions:

Quantity: 2 grams per 80ml
Water temperature: 85ºC. From fresh spring, mineral water or filtered water

More about the finely ground tea leaves and how to make it, please follow the link.