Starter Experience

You hold a pouch.

Inside is a tea meant to be drunk every day.

One Region

Chiran, in Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu.

Volcanic soils. Long, warm springs. Longer growing seasons than the older tea regions further north.

The tea from Chiran has body without heaviness — a clean, saturated green that carries well through milk, water, sweetness, cold. It is a tea that works.

Autumn, Unshaded

This is an autumn picking, grown in open sunlight.

Most matcha is shaded before harvest. Blocking the light holds back the leaf's bitterness and builds the amino acids that read as umami — and the longer the cover stays on, the more the tea costs. Our ceremonial grade sits under cover for about three weeks. Our standard, about one.

This one sits under none. It is brisker and more direct, closer to the taste of the leaf itself than to the deep umami of a shaded tea. That is what makes it hold its shape in a latte, and what makes it forgiving with sugar, ice, and milk.

We could have left this off the page. Most brands do.

Matsudacha

An artisan producer in Yuki-gun, Ibaraki, working continuously since 1898.

They do not grow this tea. The leaf comes from a single region — Chiran, in Kagoshima — and is sorted and milled at Matsudacha. We say so plainly because the alternative is to let you assume otherwise.

Each production run is measured in kilograms, not tonnes. The current head, Matsuda Koichi, handles the final work himself.

Everyday

Not every tea is meant for a special occasion.

A daily bowl trains the palate — the difference between yesterday's water and today's, between one bowl and another. Without the daily, the rare loses its meaning.

This is the tea for the daily.

Preparing

Best as a latte, cold matcha, or a base for cooking.

For a latte:

Sift one level teaspoon (about 2 g) into a cup.

Add 30 ml of hot water, at 70–80 °C, and whisk until smooth.

Pour in 200 ml of steamed milk of your choice.

For usucha and other preparations, see our preparation guide.

After

The pouch holds 100 g. At one bowl a day, it will last about seven weeks.

When you have finished it, you will know more about matcha than when you began. Some will want another pouch. Others will be ready to try something they would not have chosen at the start.

The starter is an opening, not a destination.

Draw your Kekkai.