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What is matcha?
Matcha is shade-grown Japanese green tea ground into a fine powder on stone mills and whisked into water rather than steeped — so you drink the whole leaf. In the weeks before harvest the plants are shaded from the sun, which boosts chlorophyll and L-theanine and gives matcha its vivid green color and sweet, umami-rich taste.
What is special about matcha?
With ordinary tea you steep the leaves and discard them; with matcha you consume the leaf itself, so a bowl carries more caffeine and antioxidants than a steeped cup. The caffeine works together with L-theanine, which smooths the effect into calm, sustained focus — fresh, juicy and energizing, without coffee's spike and crash.
Where does matcha come from?
Tea reached Japan with travelling Buddhist monks, and from the 7th century it was grown there using techniques of Song-dynasty China: leaves were steamed, pressed into briquettes, then ground to powder and whipped with hot water into a froth. That whisked-powder method faded in China but survives to this day as the heart of the Japanese tea ceremony. Our matcha comes from Japan's classic regions — the Uji plantations in southern Kyoto Prefecture and Shizuoka at the foot of Mount Fuji — imported directly in small batches for freshness.
Ceremonial vs culinary matcha
| Grade | What it is | Taste | Best for | Tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremonial | Youngest shaded leaves of the first harvest | Naturally sweet, delicate umami, vivid green | Drinking pure, whisked with water | Matcha bowl (chawan), bamboo whisk (chasen), scoop (chashaku) |
| Culinary | Later, more robust harvests | Stronger, slightly more bitter | Lattes, smoothies, baking, ice cream | Electric frother or shaker is enough |
Choose by how you plan to drink it, not by prestige: culinary matcha's extra bite is exactly what cuts through milk and sugar in a latte, while ceremonial grade rewards nothing more than water and a whisk.
How to make matcha at home
Sift 1–2 g (a heaped chashaku scoop) into a bowl to remove lumps, pour in 70–80 ml of water at 75–80°C — never boiling — and whisk with a bamboo chasen in a quick W motion until a fine foam forms. For a latte, make a concentrated shot with double the powder and top with steamed milk of your choice. No whisk yet? A small electric frother does an honest job. Once opened, keep the tin sealed and refrigerated and finish it within a couple of months — freshness is everything with matcha.
What do you need to prepare matcha?
Three tools cover the traditional ritual: a wide matcha bowl (chawan) to whisk in, a bamboo whisk (chasen) for that fine foam, and a bamboo scoop (chashaku) to measure the powder. We carry all of them separately and as complete matcha sets — a practical way to start, and a lovely gift.
Matcha in Amsterdam
We buy our matcha directly from Japanese producers, and orders ship from our Amsterdam warehouse across the Netherlands and Europe. Want to try before committing to a tin — or learn to whisk it properly at one of our tea workshops? You can always taste before you buy at the Moychay tea club — Rozengracht 92H, Amsterdam.
