Our selectively sourced matcha, from Uji Japan, has a uniquely designed stone mill, which has been family secret for generations. One member of this family is in trusted with this secret, and given the task of hand making these ancient devices. Our farmers also only use the highest grade, shade grown Gyokuro, in turn producing a creamy, smooth, and extra frothy matcha! Buy Wako Matcha
Matcha Flat Bread
Recipe courtesy Melanie Franks: INGREDIENTS: 1½ cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons matcha powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 2 tablespoons olive oil ½ cup cold water 1 teaspoon sea salt 2 teaspoon genmaicha 1 egg white, whisked 1.Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Pulse the flour, matcha tea, salt, sugar, and olive oil in the food processor until evenly distributed. 2.Add the water and pulse just until the dough starts to stick together (about 10 seconds). Remove the dough, press together gently with your hands to form a single ball, and cut into four pieces. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. 3.Roll out each individual piece of dough as thin as you possibly can. I like to use a pasta machine for this process. If the dough starts to shrink up, let it rest a little longer. You want the dough to get very, very…
The problem with quality, is that it is a singular and lonely…
The problem with quality, is that it is a singular and lonely road. You can keep striving for another higher level, just to look back and realize you are by yourself and not many people in your wake. Everything about quality means a deep, rich experience you offer others that you have given blood, sweat, and sometimes years for. But when others are not at a level to appreciate what you do, then how can your quality be of service to others?
Not that Marukyu Koyamaen has that problem. For the last 300 years, they have maintained their status and quality as the finest matcha in Japan. As recent as this generation, they have won more first place awards- or not, when they are the judges. It’s just that the perfection that is their matcha, and the levels they achieve, can not be understood by mere Chanoyu tea ceremony (mistranslation! Not ceremony, according to Mr. Koyama),nor matcha consumption for health. That sophisticated ratio of shibumi, umami, and amami sweetness, along with intense kaori (fragrance), is not something a philistine can argue about. And so, my tour group catches a glimpse of the richness and expertise that a family took to master over 300 long years- why, longer than US history! …..and with that Occidental viewpoint, one will never understand tea.
Beer adventure today. Have to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum of…
Beer adventure today. Have to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum of course, the first beer company in Japan and hailing back to the 1870s. Had a beer ice cream, and a flight of 3 beers. The water here is very crisp and cold, and the hops have the intense bitter aroma. Love those old bottles and graphics.
There’s no good tea in this town- just some bottled tea in ubiquitous vending machines, or hot Sencha with powdered matcha to give it the green powdery color, but in reality, Sencha is yellowish. Or that it’s neither Sencha nor Matcha but cheapest hojicha. The problem with Asia is that free tea is everywhere so people think Sencha should be served boiling hot like these restaurants do. In Uji, one should be hitting Sencha at 50-60 C or the tea police will ambush.
Sapporo Beer is an everyday beer that hits the spot after a long day of walking. And matcha/Sencha free tea goes down well if it’s free, but any China beer other than Tsingtao is undrinkable, and any perfumed scented tea is also undrinkable…..says my palate. Perhaps other professionals might agree.
I ate too much good food everyday. Never liked others posting…
I ate too much good food everyday. Never liked others posting pointless food photos to gloat about what they ate so I rarely post, particularly on this blog, about food. Here, seasonality means bamboo shoots, bamboo leaf wrapped rice, tofu ten ways, enormous spring onions. Lots of desserts made with matcha a million kinds. Here they use real matcha of course, so forget the green tea ice cream etc you’ve had in the US. The only place I feel safe about having matcha pastries is my own teashop- because KoyamaEn matcha was used, not some glow in the dark green powder. Real, seasonal, local ingredients. A huge concept in the U.S. A matter of fact for the rest of the world.
There is a fierce discussion going on at the ISO regarding the…
There is a fierce discussion going on at the ISO regarding the definition of real matcha. There are lots of powdered tea, powdered tea from other countries, and then it gets down to details, as far as Mr. Koyama is concerned, how many days the tea plants are shaded, whether they are deveined and flat or rolled to extract more flavor ( because without shading there is much less flavor), etc. Highly professional requirements that large manufacturers who just want to supply ‘matcha’ to Starbucks wants the definition to stretch. Mr. Koyama was far too gracious, in my humble opinion, in terms of the definition. The best teas grown from the best water source is Uji but matcha doesn’t have to come from Uji per se. Rather, shading the teas more than 20 days ( their top grades are shaded for 1 month) to coax the utmost chlorophyll and flavor, and a production process with such minute care as the family secret stones cut a certain way, as well as not milling more than 40gm slowly per hour per mill, ensuring not overheating the leaves, make a pronounced and very obvious flavor difference. Life is short, we will not be drinking bad matcha, and that is unfortunately, most of what is in the U.S.