This is something you don’t see too often – a matcha seller who sells a couple different types of ceremonial matcha. BeMatcha has 3 different ceremonial grades of matcha as well as a culinary and a spring/2nd grade.
I am tasting two of the BeMatcha Organic Ceremonial matchas today – Mana and Ten Yu. I sampled both matchas not knowing the differences, but it is likely suspicious which one is nicer when one comes in a bag and another in a tin. Both BeMatchas are from Uji Japan and Certified Organic. Apparently even their fertilizer is GMO free.
Packaging
Mana came in a resealable bag. I much prefer tins, but I am happy the bag is resealable. Ten Yu came in an unsealed tin, but inside the tin was a sealed foil pouch. The foil pouch had an expiry date on it.
Out of all the matcha sellers, this one is the most strict on shelf life stating 4 weeks, ouch. I keep my matcha around a lot longer than 4 weeks. I do notice quality go down, but if I refrigerate the matcha stays pretty stable for a few months.
Dry Leaf
Side by side, you can see quite a difference between the two matchas.
Ten Yu is on the left. Before even seeing the powder I could smell it and knew it was going to be good – it is sweet, fresh, and creamy. As you can see the powder is impressively better as it is more vibrant green. Mana’s powder is on the right. Mana is darker and not as vibrant with a weedy scent.
Matcha Instructions
I found the instructions on the packaging quite vague and really high on matcha powder for my personal tastes. For a new buyer, the bag/tin instructions are lacking information, but luckily their website has a good instructional guide to making matcha. I went with my go-to and made a small amount, 1/2 teaspoon (1.5 to 2 grams), 175F water temperature, 3 to 5oz of water (88ml to 147ml). I sifted the matcha before hand.
Tasting of BeMatcha Organic Ceremonial Matcha
Mana prepares up with a weak foam, you can see some bald spot. The colour isn’t very vibrant and the green is moving towards army green.
The flavor of Mana BeMatcha is okay – it is strong grassy, not weedy like the powder scent. It has a fresh sweet grass finish but a lingering dryness in the throat. This one is fair – it lacks some complexity or excellent sweetness or unami, but has a pretty simple fresh grass taste to it.
Mana is priced as the cheaper option at $20 for 30 grams, which I think is a good deal especially for organic. It is a starter Japanese matcha. It isn’t knocking off my boots, but it is solid and I’ve had much worse for more money.
Ten Yu foams up well, close to spackle wall thick. Great appearance! The scent while whisking is amazing – a sweet, rice cooking scent. This one was quite heavy of powder and potent. Half a teaspoon gave me more weight than expected (2 grams) and I needed to water up to 5oz.
The flavor is super fresh. it is grassy, tinge of sweet and tangy and refreshing. There is a bit of unami in the background. The finish is fresh, grassy with a bit of floral in it. This is like drinking fresh wild grass in summer. As it cools I get a good creamy body and an awesome freshness.
This one clocks in at $25 for 30 grams and is a pretty good deal, plus you get a tin for better storage.
Comparison and Comments
Between the two, TenYu BeMatcha Organic Ceremonial Matcha is much more superior. Apparently Mana is the bigger seller likely due to price, but I think the price jump of $5 is well worth upgrading to BeMatcha’s Ten Yu. The Ten Yu has more complexity, it is sweeter, and more fresh, not to mention prettier. Both matchas are very fresh tasting, but Ten Yu is like the 2.0 improved taste.
Now, to compare both the BeMatcha’s products to other matchas – Mana is a solid “starter matcha” choice for someone not wanting to spend much, prefers organic and wants to try matcha. Ten Yu is a bit harder to compare as it is organic and I tend to find organic matchas to not taste as good and priced higher. I’d say it is top-middle of the pack of organic matchas – there are ones a bit more expensive that are better, but this one tastes great for the price point. If you LOVE fresh tasting matcha, forget what I just said and you’ll want to try BeMatcha asap, this was one of the most freshest flavor profile matchas I’ve had.
The third ceremonial matcha is Mukashi-Katari, which is sold out and sounds even better!
(tea provided for review)
