Every year or so, all of us are subjected to a mass of hype regarding some new “superfood” that can supposedly cure cancer, change lightbulbs and teach canaries to sing Mozart.
This has happened so often that we’re skeptical about any claims that don’t pass the “sniff test”, but we can tell you this: matcha is simply delicious.
It’s so good, in fact, it has found its way into everything from noodles to ice cream. Any chef with an experimental bent will love playing around with this stuff. As a drink, which is still the most popular way to enjoy it, the fine powder is mixed into the water instead of being allowed to infuse and then separated.
Though it comes from the same plant, matcha is not green tea. Instead, depending on how much of a purist you are, it’s green tea grown specifically in Japan, raised and processed with almost religious devotion in accordance with practices dating back centuries.
In this case, Jade Leaf ticks all the boxes, including being milled between grindstones instead of in more efficient industrial grinders. It’s also certified organic, which improves the flavor and nutrient content significantly.
Top-notch flavor is indeed what you can expect from this brand of matcha, but it’s worth taking a moment to think about how important drinking the very best matcha is to you. People who aren’t used to tasting fine green teas will probably not even notice a difference compared to cheaper, culinary-grade matcha – you can actually buy a whole tea ceremony set for the price of one ounce of Jade Leaf.
If you insist on the very best, however, this tea is actually priced quite reasonably. The flavor is both bold and complex with little bitterness, and the airtight metal jar it comes in makes it a good gift as well.
