Ippodo Matcha - Smooth - Sayaka-no-mukashi (40g)

In a nutshell: I have tried these matcha brands: DoMatcha (ceremonial and second harvest), Seredipitea, Teazer’s brand matcha, Maeda En (universal blend), and ebay generic matcha my friend gave me. Before Ippodo became my gold standard, I loved DoMatcha the most. But then, this happened and I fell in love with the brilliant green, smooth powder that is Ippodo matcha: A fellow graduate student’s girlfriend is from Japan and I couldn’t help but ask him if by any chance she drinks matcha and if she does, what brand of matcha would she recommend? Well, as luck would have it, not only does she drink matcha every day, but her auntie is ----this is literally what she is ---- a master of the ancient art of the matcha tea ceremony. She literally prepares ceremonial matcha for a living. My classmate promised to ask his girlfriend to call her aunt in Japan and ask what brand of matcha she used. Long story short, her auntie got back to her and recommended three brands through email: two of which were in Japanese Kanji and are apparently only available through Japanese language websites. The third was Ippodo brand matcha and I found it here on amazon. It was about the same price as a ceremonial 1 oz tin of DoMatcha and I happily purchased it. Ippodo, according to her auntie, is a very popular brand in Japan, kind of the standard for matcha; not as prestigious as one brand she mentioned (could only find that brand at a Japanese website), and not her personal favorite either (like the other brand that I couldn’t find at all), but it is still highly regarded by her auntie, the master of tea ceremonies, and by others. The only issue that would affect my purchasing decisions has to do with the length of delivery time. I got my Ippodo matcha about a month early and that still meant a one-month wait. As it is an import, Ippodo takes quite a while to arrive if you forget to purchase the expedited shipping, which would be a serious concern if it hadn’t been for the amazing quality and color of the matcha powder when it finally did arrive. Upon removing the foil from the small dark tin I sliced open the top and peered in to see the most neon green powder I have seen outside of DoMatcha’s ceremonial quality matcha. The texture is smooth, not clumpy. I don’t even need to use the mesh strainer because the tea is so finely ground that the powder rarely clumps into small green balls (most people use a tea spoon to measure out matcha, then they push the powder through the mesh strainer into a chawan [bowl] and lastly they will whisk the matcha powder into the hot water with a bamboo chasen [whisk]). I don’t need to do the step with the strainer because the powder is not lumpy at all. Compare this to culinary brands that I found locally and there is no denying that Ippodo matcha is high quality without being exorbitantly expensive. Good matcha is hard to come by, especially now that matcha has become a dietary fad in the States. There are plenty of cheap matcha products out there, but they won’t be as green, as smooth, and as lightly flavored as Ippodo. The flavor for cheap matcha reminds me of seaweed flavor. The flavor for this Ippodo matcha reminds me more of a bitter green tea rather than flat out seaweed flavor. I trust Ippodo more than others not only because of the taste and appearance of the matcha, but also of the amount of time the tea company has existed. According to their website, they have been grinding tea leaves for centuries and I believe them due to the fine, pulverized texture and the brilliant green color. I trust that they have perfected their machinery and processes over the past century and I am willing to pay extra for their expertise. Thankfully, I don’t have to pay extra for the product, as it costs about the same as other good quality matchas (unless you pay for expedited shipping in which case it costs about ten dollars more) To conclude, I was lucky enough to get the name of Ippodo out of a master of tea ceremonies in Japan after trying multiple brands on my own. I had tried just enough brands of matcha to recognize Ippodo’s high quality. I had struggled with swallowing little green balls of clumped matcha from clumpy powder and I had taken to covering the bitterness of cheap matcha by adding sugar, cloves, cardamom, star anise, ginger, and half and half. Now, I just add a single whole clove and half and half to my matcha so Ippodo is one of the better brands for beginners due to its smooth, less bitter, earthy taste. The powder is smooth so I never have to spit out little green balls of clumpy matcha again! I intend on buying this regularly, as often as I need it, although in the future I will splurge on expedited shipping (add another ten dollars or so). After this, DoMatcha is my favorite, followed by Maeda-En. Thanks for reading and enjoy your cup of tea!

I'm a person who prefers tea over coffee though I decided to try matcha again as my daily driver for energy source (after having so much pour over coffee). My 2nd time was having ceremonial grade matcha from Kenko Tea which I recently reviewed. I can say that that Kenko's is really good but I decided to embark on a bit of a matcha journey. One of the brands that I stumbled upon was Kyoto Ippodo and apparently this is quite the popular brand in Japan. After finishing my Encha ceremonial grade and Domatcha 2nd harvest, I decided to order and try Kyoto Ippodo's Sayaka no Mukashi and here's where all the matcha currently stands: Kenko Tea - This has a really vibrant and green powder and it's pretty silky but not as silky as the other three. Definitely has a grassy and earthy taste with a bit of sweetness and umami (slightly) Domatcha 2nd harvest 2.82 oz - I found this to be a little bit weak in terms of flavor and it has a more grassier taste than Kenko's and slightly bland but reason why I liked this matcha was that it gets the job done in terms of buying in bulk. Now, I know that there's other brands out there that provide matcha in bulk but this is pretty generous in that category. Definitely tastes way better than the first time I had matcha (mistakenly bought a 8 oz matcha for 12 bucks. If anyone ever comes across this type of deal, please skip it. Sadly I can't remember the brand name for the life of me but I know I'll never buy that brand again. The normal pricing for matcha is 20 - 30 bucks for a 1 oz ceremonial.) Encha ceremonial grade 1 oz - This matcha comes in a resealable pouch and... I must say I liked this way better than Domatcha and Kenko in that the taste was very balanced. There was no bitterness at all and it had a sweet taste to it and it was very silky. For some reason, it almost tasted like milk to me which was really pleasing. I could've sworn I was drinking milk tea every time I had this specific matcha. Kyoto Ippodo Sayaka no Mukashi - I tried this matcha for the very fast time and... I can just say that this has become the gold standard for which I buy matcha. I still have to try other brands like Grace matcha and Mizuba but man... the matcha is really vibrant (more so than the others) and eating the powder by itself doesn't really bother me since it doesn't taste bitter but rather earthy and somewhat seaweed like. Once you prepare and actually have a bowl of this... it's like your in a different world (for like the minute or two that you consume the beverage). This transcends all the matcha that I've tasted but I can't say much yet until I try out other brands. I would gladly purchase this again and again. There maybe a few other factors that I'm missing and I'm aware that not everyone will have the same experience that I did but for those who are wanting to get into and/or have been wanting to find a really good brand, look no further.

Earlier this year I was curious if there was really that much difference between the lower priced Matcha from China I was seeing on Amazon and the higher priced from Japan. From the lower cost Chinese brands to the high end Japanese brands there is an over 13x per gram cost difference. I decided to order 5 different brands ranging in cost and do a comparison between them. I made my purchase in March 2016 so for review purposes I will be using the prices from that order date, though the prices do fluctuate. I also did the comparison & photos at that time though its taken me awhile to post the review For my review I used American Weigh Scales GEMINI-20 Portable MilliGram Scale, 20 by 0.001 G and SEOH Plastic Hexagonal Weigh Boats Micro Dish 100pk to weigh all the samples within .01 grams of one another. I used the same 5 exact cups with water all the same warm temperature for tasting purposes cleansing my palette between each sample and then redoing them again. The following is the brand name, the price for the quantity I purchased, the quantity in grams in that container, the final price per gram (at time of purchase), and the country of origin. These are listed from cheapest to most expensive. The photos are listed in the same order from left to right - cheapest -> most expensive Matcha DNA 19.95 283.45 .0704 p/g China One Organic 19.95 250 .0798 China Use Matcha 25.25 113 .2235 Japan Midori Spring 26.47 30 .8823 Japan Kyoto Ippodo 38.99 40 .9748 Japan First you will notice that the cheapest "Matcha" comes from China with a substantial increase in price for Japanese Matcha. Also in the photos of both the powder and the liquid there is a very clear transition from left to right from a browner darker green to a brighter more vibrant green - One Organic being the outlier which looks the brownest and as if it would belong farthest to the left. What I found a little surprising was that the level of bitterness seemed to almost directly correspond to the color of the matcha which also almost completely corresponded to the price. Again from left to right the cheapest on the left was the most bitter with the least bitter the very expensive Kyoto Ippodo on the right - One Organic being the outlier here again and being the most bitter, and most brown, more so then the Matcha DNA. I also found the ease with which the Matcha mixes follows the same trend - from left to right the powder becomes finer and easier to mix with One Organic the outlier. So which is the best? Well I'm going to give all of them 5 stars. Why? Because a single rating system as we have here on Amazon creates conflicting ratings depended on the reviewers criteria. If you are rating on an absolute scale of Taste Kyoto Ippodo would be the 5 and One Organic a 1. But the Ippodo costed over 12x as much as the One Organic when i purchased it! Personally I'm going to attempt to rate these based on what I paid for them. The One Organic at my time of purchase costed more then the Matcha DNA and was both aesthetically less pleasing, mixed worse, and was more bitter so it deserved a lower rating but if it were to price itself less it would be a better buy. Checking now as of 8/8/2016 the Matcha DNA is now $19.94 (one cent lower then at purchase) but One Organic is now 14.95 making it a substantially better buy depending on your criteria. If you want Matcha for traditional ceremonial Tea you will probably not want to go lower then the Use Matcha and quite likely the Midori Spring or Higher. For making lattes & shakes Use Matcha may be your sweet spot - needs far less sweetener then One Organic but more than 1/3 less the cost of Midori Spring. For baking purposes it depends again on how much your baking, how bright green you want it without food coloring, and how much sweetener you are willing to add. Personally in the future I do not think I will consider anything below the Use Matcha quality. Perhaps China has some good Matcha but the difference in bitterness between these two and the Japanese Matcha in this review was substantial. As for the other health properties of Matcha - anti-oxidants / improving alertness. While anti-oxidants can probably be measured fairly straightforward with the right equipment science seems to be increasingly mixed on whether more is really better since it determines when & where these anti-oxidants are delivered in the body. Increasing alertness & clarity can be difficult to objectively measure since many other factors would skew results. But it does make me wonder if these properties would follow the same trend. I also wanted to note that I purchased all of these myself. I've seen quite a number of reviews where people were being provided these products free - and who knows how many more where they did not disclose it.

While this tea was beautifully green, it did have a little heavier taste of hay/grass, and less sweetness than I have had in other Matcha's I've tried. It was a nice fine grind with no clumps.

This matcha is good, HOWEVER this is not the type of matcha that is advertised in the product description. The description advertises the highest grade of ippodo matcha, ummon-no-mukashi. The matcha I received is Sayaka-no-mukashi, a lower grade than the ummon. The worst part here is that this is priced in line with the ummon grade, as seen on ippodo’s website. This is false advertising by the seller, and I will be seeking a refund.

This is a superb matcha green tea well packaged enclosed in tin foil. I highly suggest you use a sifter as I have encountered some minor clumping issues when adding directly to my matcha bowl. The taste is without bitterness or astringency, but it’s very hard to differentiate between lower priced matcha’s. I generally experience an increase in energy and focus with matcha, but with this brand I have experience more stress reduction than energy. My only explanation is that it must be because of the high quality and L-Theanine content. I could not afford to drink this every day; but as a once a week Sunday treat when I want to sit and calmly reflect. For daily tea drinking I will continue to drink Encha which is another very high quality brand of matcha green tea.

You purchased this item on August 4, 2017. Verified Purchase....Sent a cheaper item than what i paid for.

This is the tea you should be throwing your money at. This stuff could probably regrow limbs, wash away your sins, and looks like it was pressure squeezed from an emerald. Put down the fake matcha-flavored Pocky and have a cup of this sonnet-inspiring ambrosia instead. Your whole perspective on life will change. Like, instead of thinking about trivial matters, you'll be thinking about waking up to the sweet aroma of matcha tea, looking up recipes for matcha cake, and wondering why you ever bothered with drinking the swill that other manufacturers try to pass off as "tea". Sure, you COULD still drink other things - like, for example, water - but, quite honestly, you won't want to. You'll drop your former favorite beverage like a dollar bill pulled from the crotch of a hooker with the clap. All kidding aside, this really is the best matcha tea I've ever tasted. I've tried quite a few and none come close to this. My 2nd favorite would be Teavana's matcha and even that doesn't hold a candle to Ippodo.

日常使いには十分な品です このお値段でこの品質… お勧めです 和菓子といただきましょう

super fine

僕は茶道を嗜まないのですが、嫁さんが裏千家でいろいろ習っていたのでたまにいれてもらいます。この抹茶はとても香りがよく、仄かな甘味もあるので誰にでもお勧めできるものかと思います。嫁さんいわく、練習などでは安いお茶を使うそうなのですがすぐに飽きてしまうとのこと。その点、このお茶は飽きもこず美味しいとのことでした。 パッケージも高級感があっていいですね(^^)/

結構苦いのですね。 私はもう少しまろやかな方が好みかなので、今度は違う種類の物を買ってみたいと思います。

地元の商店でこの商品を扱っているところを知らなかったので、こちらで購入しました。お濃茶を練ると良い香りがパッと発ち、口に含むと馥郁とした甘みと深い味わいがあり、満足しています。お薄で頂いてももちろん美味しく、苦みが苦手な子供でも喜んで頂けるお抹茶です。