Matcha Ceremonial Grade Uji Saemidori Hand Plucked

About Matcha Ceremonial Grade Uji Saemidori Hand Plucked

A profoundly special and hard-to-find handplucked AVANTCHA Platinum Ceremonial Grade Matcha from Uji that we sourced this year upon our extensive travels in Japan. You have to taste it to believe it and we fell in love at first sip, savouring the super rich, creamy and sweet flavour balanced with a deep, vegetal umami and high notes of spring flowers. The colour is almost hard to believe in a mesmerising, vivid-green with a soft, foamy texture. This is a truly magical Matcha.

About Uji

Is there anywhere so famous for Matcha as Uji? It’s widely renowned as the ultimate terroir for growing the tencha leaves needed to make Matcha. With a unique microclimate that comes with the protection of hilly terrain inland, the tea plant can thrive here, nourished by the warm summers, cold winters, and cooling breezes and mist from the Uji river.

Cultivation & Processing

The tencha leaves for this Matcha are grown under straw shading, tended to by Masayuki Yamashita and his son-in-law. The farm is 6th generation, beginning in the early 1800s, growing both organic and non organic teas across their different gardens. Originally, all of their teas were handplucked, but they now balance this with the use of machinery. It is increasingly rare to find tencha leaves for making Matcha that are picked in this way and, in the height of the season, there are 40 pluckers a day for a whole month. It’s strenuous, skilled work that pays off in the creation of a sublime product.

Effects

As with any Matcha, there is a sense of calm focus that comes as the result of imbibing a good level of caffeine that is released slowly into the body. With this Matcha, there is an even deeper sense of satisfaction and wellbeing owing to the complete balance of aroma, colour, flavour and texture, and knowing that you are drinking something incredibly rare and special.

How to Enjoy

Savour slowly, enjoying the complex flavours and texture. If you like, enjoy with small, traditional Japanese sweets like mochi, or kintsuba.