Sunlight makes tea bitter.

So we take the sun away.

Twenty-one days under cloth.

The leaf turns sweet in the dark.

Ceremonial matcha from Kagoshima. Shade-grown, single origin.

Choose your size Why shade

The leaf turns sweet in the dark.

Ceremonial matcha from Kagoshima. Shade-grown twenty-one days, single origin.

Choose your size

Single origin / Kagoshima, Japan

This is what twenty-one days of shade tastes like.

One field. One harvest. Ground slowly between two stones until it is fine enough to disappear into water.

The matchanella tin and both pouches on a beige counter beside a poured glass.

Why it is not bitter

Bitter is a growing mistake, not a flavour.

Tea left in full sun builds up the compounds that taste sharp. Put it under cloth and the leaf slows down. It keeps its amino acids and its sweetness instead. That is the whole trick. It is also why your matcha should never taste like a lawn.

The matchanella 30 gram tin, brushed aluminium with a cream paper label.
Thirty grams. Ten mornings.

Twenty-one days

Hold to draw the cloth.

Press and hold. Watch the leaf go dark.

Day 00 under cloth
Press and hold the button to advance twenty-one days of shading. Keyboard users can press and hold the space bar or enter key.
Sweetness up. Sharpness down. Colour deep.

The part a grade cannot tell you

Judge it on these, not on the word ceremonial.

Origin
Kagoshima, Japan. One region, one field.
Shade
Twenty-one days under cloth before picking.
Harvest
First flush.
Nothing else
No sugar, no filler, no blend.
The matchanella 30 g tin, 100 g pouch and 500 g pouch on a sunlit beige counter.

Anyone can print the word ceremonial on a bag. These are the things they would have to prove.

Ninety seconds

Three steps. Nobody is watching.

Step 01

Sift

Sift 3 g through a small sieve, about a heaped teaspoon. This is the step everyone skips, and it is the one that kills the clumps.

A fine sieve resting on a dark tea bowl, a mound of jade matcha powder in it.
Step 02

Whisk

Add 30 ml of water just off the boil, around 70 degrees. Whisk in a W, not a circle, until the top holds a foam.

A bamboo whisk standing in a dark bowl of whisked matcha with a fine foam.
Step 03

Pour

Drink it straight, or pour it over cold milk and ice.

Two tall cut glasses of iced matcha, green settling over milk.

No bamboo whisk yet? A small milk frother gets you most of the way. Start there and buy the whisk later.

Three sizes

Three sizes. One harvest.

Cup prices are worked out at 3 g, the amount in the three steps above. Prices include VAT. Shipping is €4.90 per order, however much you buy.

Why we sell 500 grams.

Buying guides warn that a big bag means old stock, and they are usually right. Ours is not a different tea in a bigger bag. It is packed from the same first flush as the 30 gram tin, nothing older. Buy the size you will finish inside two months, keep it sealed and cold, and the size stops mattering.

Two other ways to buy

One to taste and one to keep. Or never think about it again.

The same tea from the same harvest. These two exist because a single pouch cannot do what they do.

Monthly

100 g pouch, every month

€52.90 €64.80
Save €11.90 · 18% €1.59 a cup · shipping included
Subscribe

Cup prices are worked out at 3 g, the same as above. The old price is what the same tea costs bought separately. Prices include VAT. Shipping is €4.90 per order; the Monthly plan includes it.

Do not over-buy.

The rule from the sizes above still holds: matcha fades at about two months once it is open. At three grams a cup the Explorer is forty-three cups, which is six weeks of most people's drinking. The Monthly is a hundred grams, thirty-three cups, which is a cup a day for a month — it arrives as the last one runs out, and you can stop it whenever you like.

Buying for a business?

Cafés, shops and offices buy on different terms. Tell us what you go through and we will quote you.

Trade accounts

What is actually in the cup

Matcha. Like coffee, only better.

Three grams carry roughly half the caffeine of a cup of filter coffee. The shade also raises the leaf’s L-theanine — the amino acid behind the sweetness and the broth-like depth. It is a flavour compound first. How the cup sits with you is yours to find out; we would rather you tasted it than read about it.

Two tall cut glasses of iced matcha on a pale counter.

The questions people actually ask

Before you spend anything.

Ceremonial grade is not a protected term. Why should I believe yours?

You should not, on the word alone. Believe the facts instead: Kagoshima, twenty-one days under cloth, first flush. If a seller will not tell you those three things, walk.

Will it taste bitter?

It should not. Bitterness in matcha usually comes from sun-grown leaf, water that was too hot, or powder that has sat open too long. Sift it, keep the water off the boil, and close the tin.

Do I need a bamboo whisk?

No. A small milk frother works, and so does a jar with a tight lid. The whisk makes a better foam, so buy one when you know you will keep drinking it.

How long does it keep once I open it?

About two months at its best. Matcha does not spoil, it fades. Keep it sealed, cold, and away from light.

How much caffeine is in a cup?

Roughly half a cup of filter coffee, at three grams. If you are coming from coffee, that is a smaller dose than you are used to.

Is 500 grams too much for one person?

Almost certainly. At three grams a cup it holds over a hundred and sixty cups, far past the two months it stays at its best. It makes sense where several people drink it daily. Start with the tin.

Coffee is glare. This is shade.

Start with the tin.

Thirty grams. Ten cups. If it tastes like a lawn, we have failed and we want to hear about it.

Choose your size

Or leave your address and we will write once, when the next harvest lands.

This opens your own email app with the message ready. Nothing is stored on this site.

Your email app should be open. Send the message and you are on the list.