It arrived!! Ok, actually it arrived Saturday after the Tea Fest, but I was a little distracted by the awesome to play with it. Ben bought me (ok both of us) some new toys, specifically a wax sculptor’s kit for sculpting Green Stuff and a helping hand magnifying glass. I know, I have a giant Otte light with a magnifying glass, but it is kinda massive and hard to use, the tiny helping hands will help with sculpting. So far my sculpting escapades have including making a wooden floor for my Jakob Lynch Malifaux mini, Jakob Lynch who in my color scheme is old west Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat, because win.
Matcha time! Yes, it time for Matcha Monday, and today I am looking at Yunomi’s Factory Direct Matcha. This powdery green goodness hails from Kyoto and was shaded for four weeks before being harvested in the Spring, you know this might be the first Matcha I have reviewed that tells me how long it was shaded, extra information makes me immensely happy. The aroma of the Matcha is so very green, delightfully so, blending sweet hay, sweet grass, wildflowers, bamboo leaves, and a touch of sesame seeds. It reminds me of the smell of spring time and growing things, it is quite excellent. Once whisking the Matcha, the aroma that wafts out of my chawan is delectable, blending sweet wildflowers, sweet sticky rice, straw, and a touch of bamboo leaves. It balances out green and sweet notes pretty well.
The Matcha starts out a touch bitter like kale and Brussels sprouts and then within instants the taste explodes into sweetness and fresh green notes! It was pretty abrupt and impressive how quickly that initial bitter green notes switched to sweet, there are notes of honey and straw, these move to spinach and bamboo leaves, with a finish that is both nutty and kelp umami notes. The aftertaste is sweet and slightly floral, it lingers for a bit. This is one of my favorite everyday Matcha, it has a great presence and balanced taste.
I decided, on a whim, to try this Koicha style…it is not really intended for that, but I am still kinda curious what it is like. One day I will be able to afford the really fancy stuff that is actually created for Koicha! The taste is something else, it starts out intensely bitter, like a mouthful of kale and unripe persimmons, like the Usucha it switches almost immediately to intensely sweet, like honey and wildflowers. This transitions to a rich umami blend of kelp and spinach with a slight finish of bamboo leaves. That was certainly an experience, not entirely unpleasant, but not entirely pleasant either, maybe I should stop drinking Matcha in ways it is not intended!
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/06/yunomi-yunomi-factory-direct-matcha.html
