Our Different Grades of Matcha Tea
OMGTea uses only the highest quality matcha tea across all of our grades and we created our simple ‘A’ system to help differentiate between each product. This system is similar to one often used to select the finest grains of wood to craft high-end guitars.
Our AA matcha is blended using first and second harvest leaves and is of a quality on par with ‘ceremonial grade’. It is ideal for drinking as a latte or in a smoothie but can also be consumed on its own as tea and used as an ingredient in matcha recipes.
Our AAA+ and AAA matcha teas are both made exclusively from premium first harvest hand picked leaves.
OMGTea AAA Grade is a premium ceremonial grade for Matcha lovers who appreciate the fine taste of quality matcha and who like to consume it traditionally straight Japanese style and can also be used in other matcha drinks and recipes.
AAA+ is our most premium grade and ideal for drinking straight Japanese style.
Similar to our AAA Grade, it is made with leaves from the first harvest. However, tea leaves from different plant and tea fields are combined in the same way grapes of different varieties are combined to create some wines. This is where the invaluable tea master comes in; his palate, knowledge and experience is used to blend the leaves to create the different grades, so although they are both high grade, the AAA+ is even higher.
Regarding the critical blending process, the most important aspects of matcha are colour, flavour and aroma. The colour should be a vibrant green and you should taste a delicate astringency that blossoms in your mouth. The aroma is mild and sweet but this does not guarantee that each tea leaf contains a balanced amount of these aspects. This is why blending is an integral part of enhancing the desirable characteristics. During blending our tea master segments different levels of quality into several different grades of matcha.
From a nutritional perspective they are similar but the AAA+ will have slightly more L-Theanine and caffeine and this lovely combination is what gives the Zen feeling people experience from drinking quality matcha.
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. The video below 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.