Matcha Grade Guide
OMGTea uses only the highest quality matcha across all our products and we have four different grades of matcha to suit different tastes and usages.
We created a simple ‘A’ system to differentiate between each product and in turn help you select the one that best suits your needs. This system is similar to how high-end guitar makers select the finest grains of wood. The matcha quality is determined by the harvest time, blending process, and the specific leaves used.
AA Grade Organic Matcha
Leaves: A blend of first and second harvest leaves.
Best For: Lattes, smoothies, or recipes, but can also be consumed as tea.
Flavour Profile: More robust flavour than some of the higher grades but still smooth, with a delicate aftertaste.
Unique feature: A more robust taste means it stands up well to other flavours when used as an ingredient in food and drink recipes.
AAA Grade Organic Matcha
Leaves: First harvest leaves.
Best For: Everything. High-grade and ideal consumed straight as tea but also great for lattes, smoothies.
Flavour Profile: Mild and smooth, with distinct umami.
Unique Feature: A great value, high-grade, all-rounder.
AAA+ Grade Organic Matcha
Leaves: Premium first harvest leaves, blended from different tea plants and fields.
Best For: Drinking straight Japanese style to truly appreciate its exquisite taste.
Flavour Profile: Sweet and smooth with a silky mouthfeel and rich umami flavour
Unique Features: The high quality of this matcha makes it ideal for koicha (thick tea)
Green Gold Organic Matcha
Leaves: Premium first harvest, hand-picked leaves.
Best For: Green Gold delivers pure enjoyment and is best consumed as tea to experience its true quality.
Flavour Profile: Delicately sweet, smooth, and creamy with a lingering umami. No bitterness.
Unique Features: Available in limited quantities, it is our highest grade matcha and one of the finest organic matcha teas produced in Japan.
AA Grade Organic Matcha
Leaves: A blend of first and second harvest leaves.
Best For: Lattes, smoothies, or recipes, but can also be consumed as tea.
Flavour Profile: More robust flavour than some of the higher grades but still smooth, with a delicate aftertaste.
Unique feature: A more robust taste means it stands up well to other flavours when used as an ingredient in food and drink recipes.
AAA Grade Organic Matcha
Leaves: First harvest leaves.
Best For: Everything. High-grade and ideal consumed straight as tea but also great for lattes, smoothies.
Flavour Profile: Mild and smooth, with distinct umami.
Unique Feature: A great value, high-grade, all-rounder.
AAA+ Grade Organic Matcha
Leaves: Premium first harvest leaves, blended from different tea plants and fields.
Best For: Drinking straight Japanese style to truly appreciate its exquisite taste.
Flavour Profile: Sweet and smooth with a silky mouthfeel and rich umami flavour
Unique Features: The high quality of this matcha makes it ideal for koicha (thick tea)
Green Gold Organic Matcha
Leaves: Premium first harvest, hand-picked leaves.
Best For: Green Gold delivers pure enjoyment and is best consumed as tea to experience its true quality.
Flavour Profile: Delicately sweet, smooth, and creamy with a lingering umami. No bitterness.
Unique Features: Available in limited quantities, it is our highest grade matcha and one of the finest organic matcha teas produced in Japan.
Blending and Quality
Tea leaves from different plants and tea fields are combined by the tea master to create the different grades in the same way grapes of different varieties are combined to create some wines.
The most important aspects of matcha are its colour, flavour, and aroma. While each leaf may not have a perfect balance of these elements, blending allows the tea master to enhance these desirable characteristics by segmenting the leaves into different grades.
How to test the quality of your Matcha Tea
We regularly benchmark all of our matcha grades against other products on the market, to ensure we continue to deliver the highest quality. This video demonstrates the Matcha Finger Test, one aspect of the benchmarking process, and is something you can do at home.
Colour
When doing the test, it's best to use white paper so that you can see the true colour of your matcha. Quality Matcha is a vibrant green. Matcha is shade-grown which results in a significant increase in the production of chlorophyll and L-theanine. These are the critical Matcha ingredients that give it its nice bright green colour. Lower quality Matcha, by comparison, tends to be made up of leaves that have not been properly shaded, or that may be older and/or harvested from lower on the stalk of the plant; and therefore, the colour will not be bright green.
Feel
The feel and texture of the Matcha powder is also an indicator of quality. A high grade Matcha is very fine and silky. Its particle size is only 5-10 microns, making it as fine as baby powder. A lower quality Matcha has a bigger particle size and will feel coarser when you pull your finger down the paper or if it is rubbed between your fingers.
