Matcha Green Tea Powder

When people speak about green powder tea they are almost always referring to a Matcha green tea.

Green powder tea was first made popular by the Chinese (who ‘invented’ green tea) literally thousands of years ago. They pressed their green tea powder into bricks and was even used as a form of currency at one point.

Green Tea Powder Comes To Japan

Green tea powder eventually lost its place in China as time and history transpired. Thankfully the same Monk Myoan Eisai who brought Zen Buddhism to Japan was such a fan of green powder tea.

He felt so strongly about it because of the benefits for people he witnessed when studying Buddhism in China. When he returned to Japan he carried green tea seeds with him.

He went on the write two entire books about green powder tea and was responsible for the spread of green tea throughout Japan. Japan’s ruling class and then the warrior class soon recognized the special benefits that the Chinese had known for thousands of year.

The green powder tea was typically prepared by using a whisk and briskly stirring the Matcha powder. That practice evolved into the art form we know as the Tea Ceremony.

The tea ceremony has always used Matcha green tea powder. What people in the U.S.A. don’t seem to know is there are lots of varieties of  of this type of green tea.

Matcha green tea powder is what is known as a Shade Tea, which means the tea bushes are shielded from direct sunlight several weeks before harvest. Bamboo scaffolding and grass mats are used to block out the direct sunlight in order to manipulate the taste of the tea.

The quality of the tea powder also depends on factors such as where on the tea bush the leaves came from. The new growth at the top of the plant is where the plant tends to deliver the bulk of the available nutrients and the new leaves are softer than the more mature leaves.

The Japanese have made every aspect of growing green powder tea into a art form. That includes the method of turning the dried leaves into the Matcha powder we consume.

This is done through stone grinding the tea leaf. If this process is done incorrectly the tea is ‘burnt’ and adversely effects the flavor of the tea.

Many Matcha green powder teas seem to have a rather bitter after taste. I’m happy to say the Haraki-Gordon Matcha we distribute is the smoothest I’ve ever tasted.