Kimberley's Kyusu

It’s the last matcha Monday of June, wow were getting through this year fast aren’t we? I feel like I blinked at the end of March and landed at the end of June. Despite the amplified speed that time seems to be passing at, I have still been sipping on lots of fantastic tea including some of Azuma Tea Farm single cultivar matcha, which I have posted about time and time again as I have luckily had the chance to try so many of them via Yunomi Tea.

I have been working on sipping down my tin of their Ipponmatsu Okumidori matcha most recently, so I thought it was about time I reviewed it and released the notes I have been collating throughout the many sessions I have been able to get out of a 30g can.

The dry powder is a delicate, fully easy to sift powder that is a beautiful, vibrant creamy green in colour, with a sweet and creamy aroma that has notes of toasted rice, vanilla macaroons, fresh air and subtle butterscotch candy notes. With the addition of water, the aroma became much more vegetal, and had heightened notes of soba noodles and freshly made sticky rice. There was also a sharpness in the aroma, like that of the aroma of steamed greens. It was much less sweet than the dry aroma and didn’t have those vanilla macaron and subtle butterscotch notes, and that once creamy vibrant green powder took on more of a deep and rich emerald tone. 

This matcha holds lots of complexity and depth within it, with a fantastic level of sweetness in it’s aftertaste. It is refreshing, well balanced, and has medium level of astringency so works best as usucha or for matcha lattes given it’s already fantastic level of creaminess. It is also delicious iced, but it is not well suited to koicha because of its level of astringency. It’s creamy and mildly sweet but had more of a savoury feel than I was expecting with those soba noodle and sticky rice notes from the wet aroma carrying through to the taste. The vegetal notes were bright, slightly sharp and fresh. 

It’s texture is soft, creamy and light in the mouth, but with a touch of sharpness that both arrives and dissipates in quick succession.  it has a long lasting finish, especially for a matcha that starts with vegetal freshness and some astringency, but the lingering notes are both creamy and surprising sweet which was surprising because of those aforementioned savoury notes.

Overall this matcha is incredibly well balanced and ticked every box throughout the session, from sweet to savoury and everything in between. From my very first session to the very last this morning, this was such a fantastic matcha to sip my way through, being complex and transformative and yet another impeccable addition to the line-up of matchas from Azuma Tea Farm.

Whenever I try another from them, I am always blown away by how different they truly are despite coming from the same producer, it really does just go to show how different cultivars are and the differences they make to taste, aroma and texture, even when grown and produced within the same terroir. 

Art Pairing: Blue and Green Music, Georgia O’Keeffe, Oil on Canvas, 1921.

With this being my first pairing of matcha and art I found it a little harder to nail down which direction I wanted to go in for this pairing. But in the end I decided to pick a piece that exemplified the transformative aspects of this matcha’s aroma, taste and texture. For me the piece of art work that most actually doe that is Georgia O’Keeffe’s – Blue and Green Music.

Painted during her New York years, Blue and Green Music uses the contrast of hard and soft edges and geometric forms to convey the rhythm and movement of music. While the original piece was inspired by music, I thought the contrast of hard and soft edges and the many different forms were a great way to show how much this matcha changes and develops throughout the session. The prominent light, white, wispy waves in the centre perfectly showcasing the delicious throughline of creaminess.

If you want to try this matcha or any other the other matchas from Azuma I have reviewed both here on my blog and over on my Instagram, you can find them here on the Yunomi Website. Remember to use my code INFKKYU to get ¥1000 off an order of ¥5000 or more.

If you have any questions about the matcha featured or want to discuss my choice of art pairing let me know in the comments here or message me on my Instagram. I’m always happy to talk tea and art.

Until next time, Happy Steeping – Kimberley