Finding the Best Matcha | JAPAN TRIP
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- Опубликовано: 1 сен 2017
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We travel around Japan to teach you the intricacies of matcha tea making and show you how to find the best matcha tea out there.
Matcha green tea is really popular throughout the West but finding the best matcha requires some knowledge. Ceremonial grade matcha sourcing for Mei Leaf is something that we do every year and this year we thought that we would bring you along to Japan to understand how matcha is made so that you can find the best tea for your chawan.
★ Try our different Matcha
* Shizuoka Organic Matcha: meileaf.com/p/tea-orgc
* Uji Hikari Matcha: meileaf.com/p/tea-hmmc
* Matcha Tea Ceremony Set: meileaf.com/p/gft-mchl
★ Watch more videos about Matcha
* Everything you need to know about Matcha: • Everything you need to...
* How to Brew Matcha: • Different ways to make...
* Iced Coconut Water MATCHA - Vegan Recipe
• Iced Coconut Water MAT...
★ Table of contents to help you navigate through the video
1:35
We are at Gyokuro farm in Okabe checking the growing conditions of tea plants, talking about the proper shading and picking for tencha
3:23
Tasting of Yabukita Okabe Matcha and talking about the quality of Okabe tencha
5:12
We arrived in Kyoto prefecture in Japan, a famed area of Uji. Traditional way of cold storing of tencha and its effects on the flavor. Looking above the shoulder of tea pickers during the picking process.
8:00
Visiting aracha refining factory and looking at the process of preparing tencha
10:00
Behind the scene - we are taking you into the Matcha grinding room and explaining the grinding process in detail
11:21
Looking at different tenchas and tasting Uji Hikari Matcha
14:19
Blind tasting! Extensive tasting of 5 different Matchas back in London and choosing of the best Matcha teas to sell at the MeiLeaf teahouse. Diving deep into the flavor profiles and juicy tasting notes.
25:59
And the winners are... Revealing the names of different Matchas used in blind tasting and announcing the winners.
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An ad for Starbucks in front of this. Now thats comedy Gold!
I visited Uji, Kyoto few few months ago and I loved it. As soon as I got off the station and walked about 200m it was like really small village, that's when I felt like I was in Japan. Wherever I looked everything was so bright in green and they even had Matcha wine! Uji was highlight of my trip, so much cheaper than buying online and shop owners knew english and they were so helpful. Matcha dessert shops were everywhere and I really recommend going to Uji if you love Matcha, it will be like heaven for you like it was for me.
17:41 "5 Shots of matcha". And here's my new morning routine right here. #caffeinerush
+Alex French Guy Cooking we are excited to watch you on camera after 5 shots of matcha.
Alex, whilst understanding the urge to do so after this video, I wouldn't recommend you (but would love to see you cooking on 5 matcha shots :))))
Who needs coffee right?
Haha! Recently switched from 6 shots of espresso in the morning to a few scoops of matcha, totally comparable if not better, loving it! Great content Don and Alex! Keep it up :D
Mmm
Your documentaries are getting better and better. Hope the channel grows faster. Cheers to Don and Celine.
Thanks!
I loved this, guess I'm a tea snob.
Tried a lot of different matchas over the past couple of years which were great in different ways but when I received the Uji Hikari, it was a step above with lots of umami. Really worth it at the price point. Great job sourcing it.
your work is legendary thanks.
Thanks, we will keep pushing as long as you keep watching :)
This was so interesting. Absolutely love top grade ceremonial Matcha. Another great vlog.
Finally someone made a video of the best matcha, been waiting for this kind of review!
Amazing material, thanks for that!
I love every single video you make! Thank you for all of your content and education.
Always so excited to see a new video, and a tea documentary! This morning is starting of well!
Best wishes on tea hunting Don and MeiLeaf team!
Jake
Love the video thanks !!! I enjoy it really much and learn .
Good stuff! I'm personally a big fan of matcha from Uji and Kagoshima
epic. Japan is the place for Matcha for sure. great vid, Thank you Don !
Great videos Mei Leaf! Keep up the good work! :D
Couldn't agree more about color and flavor. I started drinking matcha a year and a half ago and was hooked immediately! So I started buying and sampling all different brands and grades. One in particular which was not very expensive, had a beautiful bright vibrant green color. However it was one of the most bitter tasting matchas I've ever had. The company's website described it as ceremonial but it was worse than some culinary grades I've tasted. :-P I have a few favorites that I rotate through and one is labeled as universal. It's actually quite good. :) A little more robust in flavor but very smooth! :D I recently upgraded my tea kettle situation as well. I purchased one with a variable temperature feature that allows you to set it to the exact temperature you need for a particular brew, for both tea and coffee. I love it! It has taken my matcha experience to a whole new level. :)
Was lucky enough to take a business trip to Japan a few months ago and tested matcha for the first time at Ippodo Tea in Kyoto. Amazing experience.
I prefer coffee for my every day drink but when I need extra brain power, High grade matcha is simply amazing.
Love your videos. Great stuff.
Great video. Love your passion.
Awesome information! great work
Loved this! I want to buy this and start to drink it as soon as possible. Im a tea lover...
I am so tempted to get this now
Great video! Thanks!!
Great video. Thanks!
I really loved your video. I’m not a connoisseur but I love my morning matcha 🍵
Amazing, thank you Don for sharing the experience with us. I hope some day to visit Japan and a green tea farm :)
This is excellent. I want to try a high end matcha.
Hi Don! The names Ryan, about a week or two ago i stumbled upon a gong fu brewing website when looking at steep times for my loose turkish tea ive put in a bag. I was so amazed by this, due to the fact of extreme boredome in life and how un tasteful and bitter i realized my tea was. Today i purchased a gaiwan and a few other teaware essential to do gong fu brewing. Along with some possibly good tea! (I would love to have some of your teas, and tea ware but unfortunately i live in the us, so shipping was too much at the time and im moving in a month) i was researching gong fu brewing i found your youtube channel. It is purely amazing the things ive learned. I just can't get enough of tea. I want to thank you for these videos and your devotion! I hope to come to London one day and visit your tea shop! Ive had quite the odd life, and quite a bad family accident happen to me a few years back.. and tea might just bring me the happiness ive been searching for for awhile.
Hey Bobby thanks for taking the opportunity to write. Tea will bring you to great places so follow the never ending trail and enjoy the tea journey. Come visit us if you are in London and I am always so happy when I hear that we have helped others find a passion in tea.
Another great video demonstrating so much knowledge and respect for matcha. Bottom line: How does this translate for us enthusiastic novices when it actually comes to buying matcha? It would be really useful if you could do a video review of what's on the market in terms of the top 5 cheaper brands, top 5 moderately priced and top 5 high end. (Or indeed, which brands to avoid!) How and where to access them etc. Love the way you show your expertise without being pretensious. You have a fantastic array of colourful adjectives to describe matcha. Thanks again, and keep those videos coming. 👍
Great video Don! I so want to accompany you on one of your trips. I wish to submerge myself into the tea making process. I know it’s not impossible but it just feels like it.
Well done video. Thanks!
bucket list
A huge matcha fan here. Agree, the color can be deceptive, a vibrant toxic green matcha may not be the best, but at the same time serious Japanese tea producers are trying to achieve both goals - the appearance and the flavor. Ofc this combination comes with a premium price. So for average Joe for daily matcha you just find something that you like at a price you like.
love you! Thank you!
❤️🍵thanks for your help.
Great Job Bro!
Great video. Very informative
Great video
I would really enjoy to travel with you through japan and taste tea and matcha :) Maybe this would be a possibility? To travel with other tealovers for one or two weeks through japan ;)
Nora Grey I just came back from Japan and went to Uji, managed to join a tea ceremony there with other fellow tea lovers! It's a great detour for a few hours if you are in Kyoto.
Now I am jealous :) I´m from Vienna, Austria, so most (or maybe all) of my friends are Coffee-Lovers rather than Tea-Lovers. And traveling alone sucks :D
We don´t even have a good teahouse in Vienna, only overprized shops for flavored tea - and not the good ones if you know what I mean. Vienna is really missing a quality tea shop. I was even considering to open a teashop myself, but I think there is much more to learn first. But I teach interested people how to drink loose leaf tea haha. Something I learned from this channel. And they are always amazed how different and much better it tastes than bagged greentea :)
We have been getting a lot of requests for some tea trips to be organised by us. We are talking with tour companies to work out if this is a possibility.
That would be pretty amazing. Keep us posted.
Mei Leaf So.......
Very good and informative video. I would Love to watch a video about umami. People here cant really grasp it!
I would love to try some of the Uji Hikari matcha, but I still have a lot of matcha from my last two travels to Japan so I can't really justify getting more. Hopefully some of the matcha I got this year will be as good as that one :) Visiting Uji and experiencing the various forms of matcha there was almost as great as my visit to Wazuka.
From your description it sounds like I would really love the Uji Hikari more.
Omg I want the super creamy buttery one!
could you make a video on tea storage on all types of tea especially ripe puerh
Euan Shields that's a good idea!
On our list for you!
I was going to say "um DUH, go with both!"....but I watched further and that's exactly what you did. glad I finished before posting lol
:) trigger happy comments are always forgiven!
I’ll love matcha 🍵 💚💚
Thanks for another awesome video. I'm intrigued by the description you made on the last matcha you tasted. Buttery, Creamy, hot peaches... It sounds delicious. Will it be sold at Mei Leaf?
We may stock it once the Uji Hikari sells out but we will resample of course.
Subscribed!
Great video guys! A video about the difference between Japans tea-varietals would be very interesting! I know there are several (like the ones you mentioned) but the only really famous one in the west seems to be yabukita :)
I'm going to Japan myself from next week on to learn and research about tea, but I would love to hear Dons opinion on this topic as well :D
Cheers
Thechadude
Great idea. We have sampled many varieties and we are getting a good handle on the characteristics of each one but we have to do a bit more tasting before we release a video.
Oh I see you have visited Kobayashi San... we offer 4 of their Matchas and we are about add one more.
We also have 2 Gyokuro and Sencha... amazing products
As always fascinating. Please do a video about all the health benefits of green tea. Is matcha the best for health? Do different teas have different benefits? What's the best way to make tea for health, is there a best time of day to drink etc???? Thank for another great vid 🙏🏽
matcha is the best for health, since it's like you consume all the leaf. yes different teas have different benefits, e.g green, white, black, oolong. there is no best time of day to drink tea, depends on your preference, black suitable for morning since it has the highest caffeine, oolong/green for morning - afternoon, white can be for evening.
Hi @Mark, you can find most of that info in this other video from Mei Leaf: ruclips.net/video/zzMyC_9iaMQ/видео.html
Denise Fernandes Brilliant thanks so much. M
herman trisno thank you very much. M
I like the style of combining the sourcing process with the tasting of the matcha in the video. Videos on Japanese teas have been overdue (not because I was looking forward to them, but since they haven't really been covered so far).
More Japanese videos are coming.
Excellent work! Your passion for tea is inspiring. Would you say that the Heath benefits are equal between ceremonial grade and food grade?
+PristineGreen I do not have any test data so this is all speculation but ceremonial grade is made from spring harvest and shade grown for longer. This would suggest higher levels of theanine which would improve some of the health benefits.
OMG yeah went to Uji this year and wow, the difference between a high quality gyokuren vs dept store bagged teas is mind blowing. Funny enough I like the more savory quality of kukichas in comparison to the pure leaf gyokurens.P.s. Can I beg a tea video about the different banchas available in Japan? ( kukicha vs houjicha vs kyoto bancha) P.p.s Konbucha/kelp tea? I haven't seen much info about this sort of tea aside from bogus health websites and would love to learn more about it since I drink it a lot.
Dropping Knowledge
I'm definitely a sucker for Uji matcha. Not that other regions aren't nice as well but it just has something special. It's tough on the wallet having such expensive taste though ;)
:) the wallet takes a hit whenever we travel and do tastings!
Uji matcha might cost a bit more but you know where that money went when you drink it. Absolutely top shelf tea.
For high grade matcha I would suggest Marukyu -Koyamaen, and from Yame Hoshino Seichaen, these are the two top producers of matcha when it comes to high grade.
It's important to know that ALL matcha products are good from a health viewpoint.
The ratings 'better' or 'best' are about artistic values --taste, fragrance, appearance.
Cool new to matcha, about a day old (though I've been drinking tea daily for 4 years already). It's expensive about double per 200ml cup than white tea or green tea/other teas but it's equivalent to 10 to 25 cups of the medicinal benefits of tea (coz' partly with matcha, pure matcha not a blend like matcha green tea or matcha powder).
God bless, Proverbs 31
You could get some Opaque cups with lids to not be swayed my the color. I'm thinking Yeti tumblers or the like, Lids are fairly solid
Thanks man~~|!!
Hey Mei Leaf! You should make a little video about Tibetan Butter tea, it is a wild way to make puerh!
I wonder what the rpm rate is for those grinders? How many matchas are on your long list at the beginning, is it like 100 types?
Just ordered from the company Zen Green Tea. The Matcha they claim is from Kyoto. I will let you know what it’s like once I receive it :)
Great video once again! Very educational and beautifully done in the same time. I've tried your Uji Hikari already ( I must admit I was slightly skeptical in the beginning) and i give it to you: it's a great tea. For anyone wanting to try this matcha, I suggest you drink it as a koicha (thick tea), as Hatsu Mukashi is going to bring out its best notes in this form ( I've tried both usucha and koicha form). P.S. : the price is justified ( this coming from a matcha addict)
Thanks for trying the tea and I agree Koicha is my way of enjoying this one.
I'm waiting on the arrival of this beauty (in my large order). What g to ml ratio would you suggest for the perfect Koicha experience? And what water temperature did you go with?
Lucky man! Well, as with brewing any tea, koicha depends on the brewer's taste(some like it thicker than others). On average I usually add about 30-40 mls of 80-85C to 3-4 bamboo scoops of sieved matcha and whisk it with a bamboo whisk until smooth ( don't try to create a foam, doesn't go with that thickness) . Enjoy! ( But be aware if you haven't had koicha before, it's somewhat of an acquired taste, very strong, but delicious with the right matcha grade)
We go for about 3-4 bamboo scoops of matcha with 40ml water this equates to 1.5 to 2 tsp of matcha. We use between 70-80 degrees but depends on the balance of flavour you enjoy really.
Contessamy Hey, thanks for your comments. Really helpful. Quick question: Where did you manage to source Hatsu Mukashi in the UK? Love to get hold of some based on your recommendation. In fact, where's the best source of any decent matchi in the UK that's good but not hugely expensive? Any particular brands I should try? Thanks 👍
Tea Documentary!
Does matcha have a lot of caffeine? I remember drinking a McDonald’s iced coffee and the caffeine made me feel horrible... I think it was tachycardia. Is decaf green tea worth it??? If so, which brand do you guys recommend??? And is there any matcha with a lower amount of caffeine?
I plan to come to London. Next summer. Will you and your wife be there then? I'd love to come and visit
Hi, I watched your video and would love to buy your top 2 choices. How do I order them?
Which is best MATCHA to drink with monk sweetener or honey in the morning? I don’t know that much about it.
A list would have been nice
Where would i be able to buy and how do spell the type of tea you chose
I am new to match and would like to drink often but I shy away because of fake brands. Where can I purchase tea and be assured it is real match tea. Do you have an online shop?
Interesting video, thanks. How many grams is the Uji Hikari matcha? 30g? 20g? Do you keep the matcha in cold storage?
Matthew Mitchell sorry it is 30g tin, we have updated the website.
OK thanks. I might go ahead and purchase some soon.
The reason I asked about the cold storage, is because I've heard numerous times that refrigeration is important to avoid matcha losing freshness. Though as this recent matcha, I wouldn't be concerned anyway. I can only assume that matcha stored in airtight oxygen-free tins are also quite resilient regardless.
Sorry we forgot to answer the second part of the question. Yes we do store our green tea and matcha in airtight and cool conditions. The Tencha is usually stored very cold before grinding.
Thanks for the answer. I went ahead and bought a tin. I'm looking forward to trying it!
Great work godfather
:D thanks
What do you think about the Hagoromo Matcha ?
Any opinions on Tenzo Matcha tea?
Hey. Is Uji Hikari Matcha organic? Thanks.
He's says at the end that it's not label or branded as organic but he knows they do not use any pesticides or chemicals from knowing the farm . So in a since, it's organic.
Soooo WHICH ONE DO I BUY 😫😫😫 they all sound soo good
Master's Matcha is the absolute best out there! meileaf.com/tea/masters-matcha/
@@MeiLeaf Is it good for koicha?
Would love to have the final verdict in writing as I have no clue how spell the names of the regions you mention and I'm really interested in trying them but can't order them because I can't say them let alone spell them
lol the links are on the description!
,is there is Matcha Plant in the Philippines sir?
Everybody buys and drink matcha for its antioxidant properties . Is there any way to know which sample has maximum antioxidant?
Usually, the more bitter and green the more antioxidants and l-theanine it has . As long as you get good quality matcha you should be fine. Also, if you're just drinking it for the health benefits, then Brew hoter and longer
hello may I know the whole name of your 2 favorite matcha brand? like where I can buy? and what it looks like the packaging? because there's no sub. thank you
Our own Brand - Mei Leaf. Available at Meileaf.com
I thought Shizuoka are better being near to mt fuji. I was quite wrong😅
😊😊😊😊
You say "tea trips play list" but I can't find it
Hi. How do you check teas on pectisides
Sorry for the question but... can you snort Matcha? And what will happen!?!
+Francesco Vezzola super green nostrils and a crazy buzz I guess.
👍👍👍
How many ounces of matcha 🍵 should one drink daily to take advantage of it health benefits?
Soy Lopez07 50grams
I need to learn how to make Matcha how can i contact you
Before getting to the very end of the video, I was thinking, “Sounds like Don is about to have 10kg of Ujihikari in his private collection.”
I like my matcha but 10kg is a bit excessive for my personal collection!
👍
I knew the decision from the very beginning. Salesman.
I'm learning sooo much from you----and I thank you!
Is there ever a time when you use a palate-cleanser? Curious---
Water is our palate cleanser really. We use coffee beans to reset the nose when we assess aroma of a tea.
Thank you, Don! :)
If this is a horse race... =D
I'm interested in drinking matcha tea. Does matcha tea taste like your drinking wheatgrass?
Allen Miller no not at all!!!
Hello Mei Leaf, You are amazing. I want to ask you, where i can find to buy good matcha by internet? can you give me some e-shops address. Thank you. Best regards from Lithuania :)