How to choose your Matcha?

How to choose your matcha?

There are 3 clues by which you can easily determine the quality of a matcha: 

• The colour : must be bright and lively. If the matcha has an emerald green color it means that it has been stored and transported with care, without contact with oxygen and daylight, so the tea has retained all of its properties. If the matcha has a dark or dirty yellow color it means that it is simply not pure matcha or that it has lost its properties due to interaction with oxygen or sunlight. For this reason, after purchase never pour matcha into a transparent jar and store it in a dry and dark place.

• The smell: it must be pleasant, soft and at the same time saturated. If matcha smells like dry hay with hints of bitterness / seaweed (fish) or jasmine (like Chinese green and white teas), then this variety has nothing to do with real matcha or it has lost its properties during processing or storage.

• Taste : The taste of a good matcha is sweet, light. It certainly shouldn't taste like fish or seaweed! The taste of matcha depends greatly on the variety and the season when it is harvested. The May harvest has a deeper, rich taste and sweet aroma, and respectively, contains the highest amount of antioxidants and chlorophyll. Harvested later than July, matcha may have bitterness and it contains fewer vitamins and minerals than in the early varieties.