Matcha Green Tea Powder Organic - USDA – 4 oz - 50%-50% Mix of Ceremonial and Culinary Japanese Matcha

Earlier this year I was curious if there was really that much difference between the lower priced Matcha from China I was seeing on Amazon and the higher priced from Japan. From the lower cost Chinese brands to the high end Japanese brands there is an over 13x per gram cost difference. I decided to order 5 different brands ranging in cost and do a comparison between them. I made my purchase in March 2016 so for review purposes I will be using the prices from that order date, though the prices do fluctuate. I also did the comparison & photos at that time though its taken me awhile to post the reviewFor my review I used  American Weigh Scales GEMINI-20 Portable MilliGram Scale, 20 by 0.001 G  and  SEOH Plastic Hexagonal Weigh Boats Micro Dish 100pk  to weigh all the samples within .01 grams of one another. I used the same 5 exact cups with water all the same warm temperature for tasting purposes cleansing my palette between each sample and then redoing them again.The following is the brand name, the price for the quantity I purchased, the quantity in grams in that container, the final price per gram (at time of purchase), and the country of origin. These are listed from cheapest to most expensive. The photos are listed in the same order from left to right - cheapest -> most expensiveMatcha DNA 19.95 283.45 .0704 p/g ChinaOne Organic 19.95 250 .0798 ChinaUse Matcha 25.25 113 .2235 JapanMidori Spring 26.47 30 .8823 JapanKyoto Ippodo 38.99 40 .9748 JapanFirst you will notice that the cheapest "Matcha" comes from China with a substantial increase in price for Japanese Matcha. Also in the photos of both the powder and the liquid there is a very clear transition from left to right from a browner darker green to a brighter more vibrant green - One Organic being the outlier which looks the brownest and as if it would belong farthest to the left. What I found a little surprising was that the level of bitterness seemed to almost directly correspond to the color of the matcha which also almost completely corresponded to the price. Again from left to right the cheapest on the left was the most bitter with the least bitter the very expensive Kyoto Ippodo on the right - One Organic being the outlier here again and being the most bitter, and most brown, more so then the Matcha DNA. I also found the ease with which the Matcha mixes follows the same trend - from left to right the powder becomes finer and easier to mix with One Organic the outlier.So which is the best? Well I'm going to give all of them 5 stars. Why? Because a single rating system as we have here on Amazon creates conflicting ratings depended on the reviewers criteria. If you are rating on an absolute scale of Taste Kyoto Ippodo would be the 5 and One Organic a 1. But the Ippodo costed over 12x as much as the One Organic when i purchased it! Personally I'm going to attempt to rate these based on what I paid for them. The One Organic at my time of purchase costed more then the Matcha DNA and was both aesthetically less pleasing, mixed worse, and was more bitter so it deserved a lower rating but if it were to price itself less it would be a better buy. Checking now as of 8/8/2016 the Matcha DNA is now $19.94 (one cent lower then at purchase) but One Organic is now 14.95 making it a substantially better buy depending on your criteria.If you want Matcha for traditional ceremonial Tea you will probably not want to go lower then the Use Matcha and quite likely the Midori Spring or Higher. For making lattes & shakes Use Matcha may be your sweet spot - needs far less sweetener then One Organic but more than 1/3 less the cost of Midori Spring. For baking purposes it depends again on how much your baking, how bright green you want it without food coloring, and how much sweetener you are willing to add.Personally in the future I do not think I will consider anything below the Use Matcha quality. Perhaps China has some good Matcha but the difference in bitterness between these two and the Japanese Matcha in this review was substantial. As for the other health properties of Matcha - anti-oxidants / improving alertness. While anti-oxidants can probably be measured fairly straightforward with the right equipment science seems to be increasingly mixed on whether more is really better since it determines when & where these anti-oxidants are delivered in the body. Increasing alertness & clarity can be difficult to objectively measure since many other factors would skew results. But it does make me wonder if these properties would follow the same trend.I also wanted to note that I purchased all of these myself. I've seen quite a number of reviews where people were being provided these products free - and who knows how many more where they did not disclose it.

From the research that I initially did on Matcha, Japanese Matcha is the best, because they are all about their cultural pride in producing high quality Matcha. I have been using this brand for years and finally decided to write a review, because of their consistency in the quality of their product that they sell. I wouldn’t trust any Matcha that is from China. This brand specifically states that their Matcha is from Japan. When I first came across Matcha years ago, I tried different brands, including expensive ones. I settled on this brand, because of the price and quality. I love Matcha, because it’s a natural alternative to energy drinks and coffee. Also like, because I can drink it on an empty stomach without it upsetting my stomach like coffee. It is also calming and energizing at the same time without the occasional case of jitters like coffee. I sweeten it with stevia leaf powder and sometimes with liquid stevia extract. You don’t necessarily need hot water. If you’re on the go and can’t get hot water to brew it, just use cold water. I make sure that I drink it before eating anything that will cause me to be tired. Love, love, love Matcha. Also I had a friend who purchased Matcha powder and never used it and threw it away after the expiration date. I was disappointed that she didn’t give it to me, because it was still good after the expiration. One last thing to note, is that it has this funny effect on making me more productive. Coffee has the same effect on me also, but Matcha just feels better without a crashing feeling afterwards. :)

I bought it for the price and perception of value, and the packaging shows a bright green colored product. They mix 50-50 culinary grade and ceremonial grade matcha powder. Ceremonial grade is expensive, culinary is cheaper. My product was a duller green color. I know the better tasting, more expensive matcha is supposed to be as bright green as what is shown on the packaging, but mine was not. The taste is ok, but I'll probably upgrade to ceremonial grade for tea drinking, and use this just for making smoothies and matcha lattes.

This Matcha is AMAZING!!!! Okay if you actually like the strong matcha taste you will love this stuff. I have tried a few other products hoping to mimic the taste of the Starbucks Matcha latte and the Green Tea Frap and none have come as close taste wise at all. It gets pricey buying these drinks so making them at home has always sounded appealing to me. I was also interested in coming up with some of my own creations. This Matcha is strong and has a good amount of flavor. Most others I've tried are sweeter and not nearly as strong I think because Matcha takes getting used to for some people many companies add sugar hoping people will like it more. All I can say is if you really love tea and the taste of real Matcha then this is what your looking for I highly recommend it!!! I love tea and usually don't like much extra sugar or sweeteners so this is perfect for me. I received this product at a discount in exchange for a fair review but I am already planning to buy more at full cost because I like it that much. Worth the price and I am enjoying adding this to my morning smoothies!

I really want to like this stuff and reap all the amazing health benefits, but my mouth just isn't impressed. I have never drank matcha tea before so I have nothing to compare it to, but to me it tastes just like plain tea. I added sugar and now it tastes like sweet tea. It's just kinda blah, I guess. I'll keep at it, because I'll be damned if I'm going to let that much money go to waste.