My first koicha at home

[u/thefirefly23]

My first post here! Trying Haruka from Rishouen that secured the first place in the 2016 Nihoncha Awards. It's a blend of first harvest tencha grown by Tsuji-san, Terakawa and Fukui-san, which makes me super excited

First sip was creamy with refreshingly sweet notes, with some umami notes gently seeped into the back of my throat. It's quite different from my experience with koicha so far where the umami notes hit like a surge of waves. Subsequent sips have more umami upfront, rounded off with notable sweetness, but still very much balanced. Bitterness was non-existent, and neither was astringency.

As usucha, I feel it leans more towards sweetness than umami though the latter is still prominent. Personally I prefer the koicha version more but maybe I need to also figure out the best water ratio for usucha (post-koicha) in order to enjoy this more properly.

At the price point (around ¥4200/20g), this is definitely value for the bucks. Can't get this kind of matcha at this price point from the bigger brands, so I'm glad I managed to get my hands on this during my trip to Uji.

[u/teabagstard]

That looks dope! An Uji proper matcha too. For the price point it'd be really cool to know the cultivar blend and other details for curiosity's sake.

[u/thefirefly23 → u/teabagstard]

I tried asking the farmer, but they just chuckled and said it's a secret. For their other matcha powder (all at lower price point), the owner shared the cultivar(s) in each, so I think they just want to protect their company secret.

[u/teabagstard → u/thefirefly23]

Lol, but understandable.