Kimberley's Kyusu

Happy Matcha Monday! Today I want to share with you a unique matcha that I had the opportunity to try recently. The matcha in question is Chakouan’s Ureshino Kamairi Matcha and it uses Kamairi (pan-fired) Tencha that is ground into fine matcha powder with a stone mill. When I was placing my last order with Yunomi and I saw this matcha, I knew I had to add it to my order because I had never tried a matcha made with Kamairi Tencha. I was very intrigued to see how that simply change in the process would affect the matcha overall.

On the Yunomi website they describe this matcha in the following way:

”Unlike the ordinary matcha, Ureshino Kamairi Matcha uses Kamairi (pan-fired) Tencha that is ground into fine matcha powder with a stone mill. Light, sweet, and roasted taste; will be a perfect matcha for usucha (thin tea) or matcha beginners”.

Session Notes

The dry powder is a mid tone creamy green, with a super light and delicately soft texture. It’s aroma is deliciously mouth-watering and filled with notes of browned high quality salted butter, roasted walnuts, yogurt coated rice cakes, creamy crackers and seaweed butter.

Upon the addition of water, the colour changed from a mid tone creamy green to a darker forest green. The aroma didn’t really change too much aside from the additional hits of mirin and a touch of low sodium soy sauce and stir fried brown rice.

In both it’s wet and dry form, the use of pan fried tencha is immediately noticeable with mild roasted and nutty aroma.

At this point I have now had the opportunity to try this matcha prepared as both usucha and koicha. I’ve also been able to try it with the addition of milk and I’ve also had it paired with sweet treats. The following notes are based my experiences with this matcha as usucha and koicha.

The taste of this matcha is so bright and when it took my first sip I was a little taken aback by it. While that sounds like a negative thing, I assure you I do not mean it in that way, in fact it’s what sets this matcha apart from so many others I’ve had. It has quite the level of bitterness to it but a very low level of astringency. This brings a bright vegetal note that washes over your whole tongue each time you take a sip, causing a slightly tingly sensation that is at it’s strongest at the sides of your tongue, and doesn’t linger for a long time. But this is what makes this matcha incredibly unique for me, because I’ve never experienced that with any other matcha.

One that had dissipated, a fantastic level of floral sweetness appeared and lingered for a very long time, intensifying every time I took a breath in through my nose. This is yet another aspect of this matcha that took my by surprise, making it stand out even further for me. The notes that were transferred from aroma to taste included: Seaweed on creamy crackers, dried seaweed, roasted walnuts and yogurt coated rice cakes.

Over on the Yunomi website they recommend this matcha to those wanting an espresso version of matcha which is what I usually turn to koicha for, but you get that in this matcha when simply preparing it as usucha. I did find that even for me, using this matcha to make koicha was a little too much, due to the fact that it is on the stronger side without having to be highly concentrated. It absolutely blew my socks off, so I would recommend using it to prepare usucha only unless you want that same experience.

I have also had this with the addition of milk and while it was delicious and did calm down that level of bitterness, it took too much away from this matcha for me, it muted that brightness that washes over your tongue each time you take a sip, it took away that floral lingering sweet aftertaste and for me those are the best things about this matcha. I personally would not use this to make lattes, or recommend that anyone else does either. This truly is a matcha shines best when unaltered and should only be drank as usucha.

During my session with this matcha when prepare as usucha, I have paired with with some Korean jelly candies in a multitude of flavours including: sweet potatoes, apple and blackcurrant, and while it has paired well each, for me the perfect pairing was the sweet potato candy, because it has a more muted flavour and just the right amount of sweetness, that it didn’t distract from the matcha or overly effect the overall experience. The fruitier ones did and therefore I would recommend you choose a sweet treat that is along similar lines to the sweet potato jelly candy I enjoyed with this matcha, if you want to recreate the same experience.

Each and every session I have had with this matcha I have conducted around mid morning because it is the perfect matcha to drink when you’re still waking up, those bright vegetal notes I spoke of earlier will wake up up instantly and leave you energised enough to take on the rest of your day. Matcha in espresso form is absolutely the best description for this and because of that I think I’d not recommend this to beginners, but instead someone who already loves matcha and is looking for a super unique matcha experience.

Should you want to try this matcha out for yourself, you can find it over on the Yunomi website. Remember to use my Code INFKKYU to get ¥1000 off of an order of ¥5000 or more. As always if you have any questions at all be sure to leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Until Next Time, Happy Steeping – Kimberley