Product review

-- Product Review -- 

Midori Spring's Ceremonial Matcha is 100% organic, gluten free, gmo free, pesticide free, vegan and also kosher certified. You won’t find any soy or wheat or any other additives; this is a pure product. The leaves are harvested from the finest shade-grown tea gardens in the regions of Aichi and Kagoshima in Japan and it is “certified and tested by 9^th degree tea masters” to ensure perfection” (according to the company). Midori Spring is so confident in their product they offer a 100% quality satisfaction guarantee.

Initially, the communications for this review project started around July 9^th, and the product was sent our way soon after that. Amazon’s order confirmation gave us a wide date range for delivery: July 23 – August 3rd, however we picked up on July 18^th. It arrived in a 7.5” wide X 8.5” height X 5.5” tall box with a lot of excess air bubble packaging – the box was way bigger than necessary for the tin of tea powder.

While I am familiar with green tea and some other teas (blck, red, brown and white) made from the same variety of plants, I was new to matcha… so I did some research online. Here is what I found out:

Matcha is a flour-like powder “super-food” made from green tea leaves, used traditionally for ceremonial purposes mainly in Japan. It is considered special because it allows the user to benefit from the whole leaf. Green tea as many people are already aware is a powerful health food, rich in antioxidants (higher than pomegranate and goji or wolf berries; more than 137 times than what is found in steeped tea) and nutrients. The tea will increase a calm alertness due to a small amount of l-theanine and caffeine that it contains – it has less caffeine than the more mature brown, red or black leaves of the same plant, however. Green tea is also known to improve metabolism, boost the immune system, reduce inflammation and encourages elimination of toxins and chemicals. Matcha also has the highest known rating for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It also offers cancer fighting Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCg).

There are different classes of this ceremonial tea – this brand falls under the “emerald” class, which equates to a mid-range level of grades in quality. The higher the quality means there will be a higher price. This brand is a product of Japan but is distributed by Life & Food Inc. (Silver Springs NV - USA)

This product comes housed inside a nice, compact, reusable aluminum tin. Inside the tin, there was a non-recyclable 100g. foil bag that you have to cut open to get at the product.

When I opened the food-grade envelope I discovered a very fine, flour-like powder that was bright green in color. The powder can be air borne easily so be careful when using not to stir it up to much or breath in the dust.  The company recommends keeping the envelope intact, resealing it to keep the product fresh.

I have a sensitive stomach that reacts to black, white, red and green teas (tea variations made from the same plant) – so we use this product in our yogurt or milk based fruit smoothies (instead of other suggestions by reviewers and the company website) and because smoothies are made in our Vitamix blender the powder is mixed in really well, without common clumping issues. The powder has a slight green vegetable, sweet-like aroma.

Ying, my contact from Midori Spring (www.midorispring.com), offered several resources for our readers to learn more about the brewing process, recipes and answers to common questions:

http://www.midorispring.com/perfect-matcha-brew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5uCNHcvp7A http://www.midorispring.com/faq

www.facebook.com/midorispring

Amazon.com has a retail list price of $30.46 (US) for this product. While Amazon.ca offers this product to Canadians for $42.05 (CDN). 

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