The flagship product of Kumiko Matcha, it's the top of premium organic matcha tea, harvested on Kyushu island and expertly blended by a chai master.

I discovered "matcha tea" in 2013 in a cafe in China where they served matcha lattes. It was not super (too bitter and sweet), but at the same time this new experience awakened my curiosity.

I discovered that matcha tea comes from Japan and I entered into this fascinating world...only to come back to France to find matcha tea that was often bitter, not very good, and not organic.

So, I decided to find a premium organic matcha from Japan to offer a better experience to tea enthusiasts in France!

The result is our Kumiko Matcha premium organic matcha from Japan.

It is sourced from the largest producer of organic matcha in Japan, with more than 200 organic farms on Kyushu island in southern Japan.

The main characteristic of premium organic matcha is the "chai master" (like for champagne) who selects the green tea leaves among those harvested by the farmers to create a blend that assures the same quality of premium organic matcha from year to year.

Here, I am with the "tea master," who is also the brother of the company president. He selects the leaves and creates the premium blend.

We selected and tasted some of the tea leaves from April's harvest. You can see from the picture, we can clearly differentiate the lower leaves, which are more "yellow" in color, from the upper leaves, which are very green.

les feuilles de aracha sont triées par qualité

les feuilles de aracha sont triées par qualité

Speaking of harvests, for premium organic matcha tea, there is only one harvest per year. This is the standard for premium organic matcha teas.

This logic is the complete opposite of most matcha producers in Japan, who cover their fields in pesticides and chemical fertilizers and who carry out a minimum of two harvests pour year to maximize yield.

In fact, 98% of the matcha produced in Japan is reserved for the Japanese market, and only 2% is designated for export. And organic farms are really rare since very few Japanese people are educated about organic consumption.

So, having access to this premium organic matcha is really exceptional.

With Kumiko Matcha, I sell exclusively organic products for 3 reasons:

to protect the environment
to protect the health of the entire Kumiko community, all the way from the farmers at the tea plantations to you, my client
to be a force for good in the world and to embody the change that I wish to see in the world

The Kumiko Matcha premium organic matcha is hand harvested to select only the best leaves: the youngest and newest three leaves on each branch While most matcha teas are harvested with a machine that roughly cuts the leaves.

Often, retired women in the region carry out the year's harvest to stay busy during the seasonal period (yes, in Japan older people have small jobs as taxi drivers, for example...or tea harvesters!)

Kumiko Matcha premium organic tea plants are covered with a black net that blocks 80% of the sun's rays for 4 to 6 weeks just before the harvest.

This increases the concentration of chlorophyll and forces the plant to source more energy and nutrients from the soil since it has very little energy from the sun.

This also causes the plant to grow plenty of new young, green and tender leaves that "look for the sun." These are the leaves that are harvested to make premium organic matcha.

After the harvest, the leaves are dried whole and then pre-cut by the farmers. At this stage, this "unrefined" tea is called aracha.

The aracha leaves are brought to the chai master, who sorts them and selects the best leaves to make the blend.

You have to follow strict decontamination protocol to enter the production center:

The green tea leaves are then passed through steam to stop the oxidation process.

Then, they go through several machines that dry them, separate their parts, cut and recut them, filter, and separate the particles several times!

The final product of this process is "tencha" tea, this basically looks like tea leaf confetti. It's ready to go to the mill!

In this picture, I am grinding the tea manually to reduce it to a very fine power... matcha tea!

In fact, there are artisans specialized in the creation of these matcha tea mills.

The mills are made of granite, since it is a "cold" rock that does not heat up too much with friction.

The artisans sculpt 2 granite stones that interlock, leaving a hole in the middle to feed in the tencha tea leaves.

The grooves are designed to let the tea powder (the matcha) be pushed to the exterior when the upper rock is rotating.

So here are the mills for Kumiko Matcha:

Look, they put the tea leaves inside like this:

For most matcha tea of lesser quality, the mills turn more quickly to increase the yield to 50 to 60g per hour.

For Kumiko Matcha's premium organic matcha, the mill turns for 1 hour to make 30 to 40g of tea.

When the mill turns more slowly, there is less heat produced and the powder maintains more of its raw qualities. Plus, when the mill turns more slowly the powder is even finer.

The powder is gathered and then passed through a spinner with a filter that lets only particles measuring 100 micros or less pass through (this is about the diameter of a human hair).

There are many tests conducted in the lab, both to assure quality and for the organic certification process.

Finally, the premium organic matcha tea is packaged into 30g white iron boxes. These box are air-tight and the material protects the matcha from heat. Plus, they are recyclable! I also recommend that you reuse them to stock your Nakai 2016 matcha.

The result of this intense and complex process is an exceptional product. A powerful green matcha with a floral taste full of umami, that is produced organically to respect the environment, and that transmits all the health benefits of our planet to you!

It's the end of bitter, dusty, yellowish matcha that has been produced with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Welcome to Kumiko Matcha: eternal beauty, starting now.

A delicate, intensely jade green powder A rich and mellow mouthfeel with a delicious flavor. A taste with a rich and velvety mouthfeel, herbal and vegetal initially, subtly sharp, with a hint of tannin followed by a sweet aftertaste. Lots of umami. It is not bitter, like matcha of inferior quality.

When it is whisked, this matcha produces a buttery mousse. Ideal for daily consumption and for smoothies.

Matcha is prepared in a bowl using bamboo utensils.

Use the spoon to measure your matcha into the bowl (1 to 2 spoonfuls) then add cold water and whisk until you have a fine and buttery mousse.

Then add hot water (caution: not boiling water). During your own personal matcha tea ritual, leave the majority of the bowl empty to admire the color contrast. Take note of the texture and of the reflections of the bowl, the brilliant, jade green color of the matcha.

Breathe and it's ready! Happy tasting

premium organic matcha tea
net weight: 30 grams
use 1 to 3 grams per cup
certified organic, imported from Japan
best kept in the refrigerator
reusable and recyclable white iron box

delivery and warranty:

delivered intact, or replaced
free speedy delivery in 3-4 business days for orders over 40€, or for 6€ for all other orders
1 business day delivery - 12€

average nutritional content for a 1g serving:

Calories 2.71 kcal or 11.34 kJ
Fats 33.7 mg
......including 7.9 mg of saturated fat
Carbohydrates 337 mg
.....including 19.8 mg of sugar
Protein 266 mg
Sodium 0.045 mg
Fiber 317 mg
Tannins 104 mg
ORAC Score 1699
Calcium 3.63mg
Potassium 22.35mg
Caffeine 32mg
Catechins 122mg
.....including 67mg of EGCG
Amino Acids 27.53mg
.....including 10.37mg of L-Theanine

mandatory legal notice

price per kilo : 1167€
average nutritional content for 100g:

Calories 271 kcal or 1134 kJ
Fat 3370 mg
.....including 790 mg of Saturated Fat
Carbohydrates 33700 mg
.....including 1980 mg of sugar
Protein 26600 mg
Sodium 4.5 mg
Fiber 31700 mg
Tannins 10400 mg
ORAC Score 169900
Calcium 363mg
Potassium 2235mg
Caffeine 3200mg
Catechins 12200mg
.....including 6700mg of EGCG
Amino Acides 2753mg
.....including 1037mg of L-Theanine

Buy 5 organic Japanese matcha teas and get one free - add 6 to your shopping cart and enter this code at checkout: PREMIUM6
subscription can be interrupted at any moment with no penalty by connecting to your personal space at this address: https://kumikomatcha.fr/gestion-abo or by contacting us (we generally respond within 24 hours from Monday to Friday)

subscription offer

premium organic matcha from Japan

€35,00