Ceremonial vs culinary vs supermarket matcha

Matcha from the first harvest of the year, typically shade-grown for around twenty-one days before picking, then steamed, dried and milled to a very fine powder.

The point of all that is drinkability. Good ceremonial matcha is sweet and savoury enough to drink with nothing but hot water, no sugar and no milk to hide behind. That is the test.

Matcha from later harvests, where the leaf is tougher and higher in the compounds that read as bitter. It is often coarser, and duller in colour.

This is not a bad product, it is a different one. In a sweetened latte, a smoothie or a cake batter, a bolder and more bitter matcha actually survives better than a delicate one. Using ceremonial matcha in a brownie is mostly a waste of money.

Most matcha on a UK supermarket shelf is culinary grade, and the label often does not say which grade it is at all. It has usually also been sitting in the supply chain for a long time, which matters more than grade.

That is why supermarket matcha so often tastes bitter and looks khaki rather than green, and why people conclude they do not like matcha when what they actually do not like is old, late-harvest matcha.

Colour. Ceremonial is vivid green. Culinary is duller, more olive.

Taste in water. Whisk a little with hot water and nothing else. Ceremonial should be drinkable and faintly sweet. Culinary will taste sharp and astringent.

The label. If it does not tell you the harvest or the region, assume the answer is not flattering.

If you are drinking it as tea, or making a latte you do not want to sweeten, buy ceremonial. If you are baking with it or making sweet blended drinks, culinary is the sensible choice and cheaper.

All three of our teas are first harvest from a single Uji tea house, milled monthly and packed weekly in London. We do not sell a culinary line.