Matcha - Unsweetened

Kagoshima, Japan

Vegetal, grassy, nutty

Whisk 2t matcha into 1oz hot water. Add 7oz warm or cold milk and stir. Sweeten to taste.

30-50 mg/cup when brewed according to Steeping Instructions

Our organic matcha Konomi is a very unique style of matcha as it is produced during the Autumn months, as opposed to more traditional matcha harvest time during the Springtime and Summer. Located in the southern-most growing regions in Japan, Kagoshima has a slightly different seasonality, with warmer and more humid climates, which allows the tea bushes to have a much longer yearly production cycle.

We have collaborated with our producer partners to secure the highest quality tea materials from the Autumn harvest, to be used for our Organic Matcha Konomi. The main benefit of using the Autumn harvest for matcha is the finished tea is much smoother in taste and has a very soft mouthfeel, compared to mid-summer and even some Spring harvest matcha. Along with the smoother taste, the Autumn production also provides a vibrant and unique leaf color, which renders a very deep green liquor in the brewed matcha.

Processing: the tea bushes are fully shaded for approx 2-4 weeks prior to harvest time. The fresh leaves are collected and processed immediately into a green tea called Tencha, which is the base tea for matcha. Careful sorting by highly calibrated machinery removes all of the extra stem and fibrous material in the Tencha, allowing only the most tender leaf material to be used for matcha. Once sorted, the Tencha is stone-ground into a very fine powder, and packed immediately to preserve the color and fresh flavor of the tea. 

We call this grade “Konomi” as it loosely translates to the term “practice”: In the traditional matcha ceremony (chanoyu) training process, students spend hours practicing their matcha brewing technique and artistry to master the method of brewing matcha. Rather than practicing with the highest quality “ceremonial grade” matcha, students often use a grade which is considered one step below traditional ceremonial grade, so as not to waste the extremely high quality matcha for practicing purposes. The quality of Matcha Konomi is still very high, but it is important to recognize that many resellers in the West tend to misuse the term “ceremonial” when describing non-ceremonial quality grades, so we wanted to provide a new/different grade name which is a more accurate descriptor of the actual quality.