SADŌ CULINARY MATCHA VS KYOTO CEREMONIAL MATCHA 

Speaking solely from KLEAN TEA's matcha perspective, here are some guidelines to keep in mind. As a whole, the best way to shop for matcha is to determine the authenticity of the tea.Always ask these four questions when purchasing matcha:1) Is the matcha from Japan2) Has it been shade growth ? If so, for how long?3) Is the matcha produced only from nutrient-dense, spring-harvest tencha tea leaves? (Hint — in order for matcha to be made from tencha, the tea leaves must have been shade-grown). Matcha is not made from sencha or gyokuro!4) Has the matcha been traditionally stone-ground? Or powdered by other means? True, authentic matcha will have been stone-ground.To summarize, poorly processed matcha will not be from tencha tea leaves, will not be shade-grown, or shade-grown for a very small duration, or not stone-ground at all. All the above qualities must be in place to make true, authentic Japanese matcha.We can't speak for other companies, but we are proud to say that here at KLEAN TEA every matcha we sell — from our high-end Organic Ceremonial Matcha all the way to our Organic Culinary Matcha meets the above four requirements!Culinary matcha has received a bad rap because — unfortunately! — in the mass market the term culinary has been used to pass off very poorly processed matcha. If you've bought matcha online before, you might have experienced it: super bitter and/or metallic, yellow, dull, oxidized powdered green tea! Remember: it's not matcha if it hasn't hit the mark of all the production factors we listed above.Cheaper, "culinary" matcha is usually harvested from autumn harvests. In Japan, these can taste ok if *purely* used for mixing into cakes, cookies, or skincare uses etc. We wouldn't recommend it for lattes or for drinking. However, the majority of mass-marketed culinary matcha is just plain, poorly processed powdered green tea.This has led consumers to believe that they must spend the money on ceremonial matcha, even when they want to mix it with milk for lattes, for example.Of course, you can do whatever you'd like with any matcha you buy! But if you were to ask our opinion, we think ceremonial tea should be reserved for enjoying the matcha's nuances on their own! That said, if you love your ceremonial matcha with milk, we're not going to stop you — the best kind of tea is the one you enjoy the most. What should you be looking for in flavour? The keyword here is "bitterness."High-quality matcha will yield a refined, balanced, and smooth flavour with reduced bitterness, while lower quality matcha displays stark, coarser flavours that will not be enjoyable if the tea is not sweetened or mixed with milk, cream, etc. As such, high-quality matcha will be used as a "ceremonial" grade, while lower grade matcha will be determined to be a "culinary" grade to make sweets, soba, latte, ice cream etc.But pay attention: here, it is interesting to note that high-quality matcha can have a pleasant bittersweet quality. In fact, in the Japanese tea industry, there are two words for bitter: nigai, which means displeasing bitterness that makes your face twist, and shibui which means "pleasant bitterness." Shibui is the light bitterness that will give body, balance, and an interesting character to the overall flavour of a good matcha.It is our recommendation to save your money to enjoy ceremonial teas as a special experience, and use KLEAN TEA's ceremonial matcha as an every day, high-quality culinary tea to truly enjoy the matcha flavour in your lattes, smoothies, iced teas, lemonades, etc :) KLEAN TEA's ceremonial matcha is the best option to make your favourite mixed matcha creations, and the ceremonial teas are wonderful option to enjoy pure matcha.