As a person who loves tea, I wanted to try another tea product from Tea Kitamura. This time, I’m checking out the Tea Kitamura Organic Matcha Green Tea.
I absolutely enjoy Japanese tea and I was quite pleased to see that Tea Kitamura from Nagasaki, Kyushu, would be releasing their tea worldwide via Amazon. Giving ocha lovers the chance to try their delicious, organic tea.
The company was founded in 1954 by Kitamura Chikaji, who would take a rough mountain terrain to cultivate his own tea farm.
But his biggest challenge was when a customer requested him to produce a completely organic tea crop which was unheard of as most tea farmers utilized pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
And while he wanted to take on the challenge, others scoffed at him, because they didn’t think it was possible. But for Kitamura, he wanted to produce a safe tea that his grandchildren can drink.
And it wasn’t an easy success, it took many years of trial and error and now Kitamura Tea Farm has become one of Japan’s most respected producers of certified organic single origin green teas.
In 1995, he was awarded the Japan Agriculture Pioneer Award and in 2012, he was awarded the Yellow Ribbon Medal of Honor by the Japanese emperor.
The company’s teas are also certified organic by the Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
So, the Tea Kitamura Organic Matcha Green Tea is loose leaf tea. But what is Ryoku-cha? Ryokucha is a tea made from tea leaves and is heat-treated to prevent the enzymatic reaction (called “fermentation in the tea industry”. Hot water is poured into it to extract the ingredients.
As for me, my first time trying matcha green tea in Japan was in a restaurant at the foothills of Mt. Fuji and I noticed the nuttiness, the grassy taste with a hint of bitterness (but not bitter tasting). Since then, I have drunk green tea throughout Japan and ordered Japanese matcha online to prepare at home.
And since then, I have drunk matcha many times but I learned a lot about loose leaf matcha green tea and this applies to Tea Kitamura Organic Matcha Green Tea and that is:
- Never use hot boiling water or it will become too bitter because it releases polyphenols too fast.
- Increase the steeping time a little but not a whole lot or else it will become bitter. [NOTE: This will take experimentation but you’ll eventually get it down]
- Do not use too much leaves. 1 TSP is enough for most green tea, with the exception of Sencha which 2 TSP is more appropriate.
The tea has a nutty, grassy taste but green tea matcha, will always have a tiny hint of bitterness, but shouldn’t be bitter or too bitter. I think many people tend to equate the green tea they drink from a store bought green tea which has been sweetened in the US or a green tea latte and expect that from Japanese loose leaf tea in terms of taste and that is not the case.
Overall, this is another high quality tea from Tea Kitamura. The Tea Kitamura Organic Matcha Green Tea (Ryoku-cha with Matcha) is highly recommended!
