Hello – it’s me again (I hope you didn’t forget me in my small leave of absence)! Many life events are occurring at the moment, but I am trying to slowly but surely bring tea back into daily practice. To do that, I thought….why not start with Matcha Monday?

Bonsai Cha specializes in selling matcha straight from the source, founded by mother/daughter duo Donna and Avery. Avery had the opportunity to relocate to Fukuoka, Japan, and there she found an absolute love of Matcha. After Donna visited Avery, she was introduced to the same amazing matcha in Kyoto – and they knew they needed to bring it back to Canada. With Avery in Japan and Donna in Canada, it presented the perfect opportunity to share the amazing matcha they found with the world. Here are my thoughts on their certified organic Kogane Matcha.

Kogane (Organic) Matcha

My eyes near popped out of their sockets when I opened this matcha tin. Imagine being in the springtime when it is raining every other day, and just how vivid Green the grass is – that was about how green and vivid the matcha was. I have absolutely no filters on the above pictures, it was so green and beautiful. I just had to sit in awe of it for a while. It had a soft texture to it and easily spread across the board when testing it. The aroma also just hit my face when I opened the bag in the tin. It was sweet, slightly grassy with maybe a small hint of vanilla cream. Just incredibly fresh.

As I prepared the matcha, I noticed that the brilliant green matcha turned into a lighter green with a lovely froth. It just made me excited to take a sip and feel the matcha on my tongue. It was crisp, fresh, floral, and creamy. It was absolutely so similar to the aroma. It almost reminded me a bit also of some night blends with chamomile or flower petals, like some floral notes. The matcha was so smooth and mellow, and just clarified the mouth after each sip (there was no taste that was left in my mouth). After a few sips, I confirmed (to myself I guess) that the sweetness was more of a grassy sweet instead of a fruit sweet. Overall, this matcha was beautiful for the eyes, nice to the taste buds, and amazing just to experience in the morning.

Source: Uji, Kyoto, Kogane
Cultivar: Yabukita
Harvest: First Flush
Grade: Superior Ceremonial

Matcha Process: The tea leaves are shaded for 21 days, then carefully hand-selected and stone ground by their tea master to create top-quality organic matcha made exclusively for Bonsai Cha.

Price: This green beauty is $89.99 (at the time of posting, on sale for $56.99). That is quite high, but if you are looking for high-grade matcha, it could be a worthwhile purchase.

Packaging: The matcha came in a tin, which also had a bag in it to safely store the matcha. I love tea tins, and they are so much easier to keep in my fridge as well between cups.

Sourcing: They give a lot of tea sourcing information, which I really enjoyed. They focus more on that information over that of it being organic. The only additional ones I could see benefitting the tea source itself is revealing more information about the tea master themselves, and the farm it comes from.

I don’t know about you, but there is nothing worse than yellow matcha. I believe it has become too much of a standard in matcha today, especially when consumers get it off of large retailers instead of small producers/businesses. This is why I really enjoyed working with Bonsai Cha, and cannot wait to share this review with all of you! Happy Brewing!

-Danielle