Is buying matcha worth the price?

try rishi teas that sell a 32 oz bags, more tea per buck, stay away from over priced matchas that sell over 10 dollars and probably just weigh under 5 ounces. Those are worth drinking hot and deservedly so because of its high grade. Why waste good matcha or dulling out the flavor of good matcha where yo can buy dirt cheap ones that are made to drunk everyday? I’d say stick to Rishi sweet matcha sold in large bags.

The price on matcha depends on the quality. When I was in Japan I could find both cheap matcha at the local 100 yen store and very expensive matcha at more specialized tea stores. If you like your tea weak, I think you should still go for the cheap alternative, as 2g of high quality matcha would probably not be so different in taste when mixed with 1l of water.

As for the question about personal economy combined with matcha cravings, the answer would usually depend on that individual’s income and expenditure and how important a bowl of matcha is to that individual’s life. Some people may afford it with ease, while others may perhaps not. The craving for matcha would presumably also differ a lot. I myself usually drink matcha only when attending tea ceremonies or visiting tea houses.

Therefore, the best advice I can give to you is to limit the amount of matcha as your personal economy sees fit, and enjoy the few moments of matcha you have even more. Doing so might even make it taste better.

Sorry, but I wouldn’t say the sweet matcha is as good a deal as it appears. http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/instructions/SweetMatchaOriginalNutrition.html apparently for every 13 grams there are 12 grams of sugar. So your 125 gram bag is actually only 9.6 grams of tea.

there is a difference in flavor between powdered sencha and matcha… and in my opinion, Matcha is much better… so yes, it is worth the price. Especially if you’re going to drink it. The way I see it is that as long as you’re enjoying something, it’s worth it.

I suppose you are right about drinking it. I have a lot of disappointing teas that just sit in my cupboard getting stale. Even though I know I’ll drink it because of the quality, I still have to be careful about buying it. It can be so expensive It feels more like buying wine than tea.

I’ve never made matcha myself. But from what I observe on other people, it seems you only need a tiny little bit for each cup (other wise one would be highly caffeinated and totally hyper). So I guess when you buy matcha, your dollars can go a long way. Besides, if one loves matcha, it’s a lot less expensive than diamond or Prada :-D

Thanks for the replies, I don’t see why it was necessarily to focus on how much water one uses though. I’m still new to powdered teas so it doesn’t matter how weak I make the tea I’m going to be intrigued by the flavor. I figure trying tea is sort of like trying hallucinogens, there really is no point to making your first hit intense and overwhelming. Someone brewing their first batches of a new tea weak isn’t butchering the tea, they just know that there will be plenty of time to enjoy it strong in the future when they are used to the flavor.

Anyway, Perhaps it is worthwhile for me to buy a tea grinder so that I can make my own matcha from what ever tea leaves I want. I understand that most teas that were not grown to be powder will be bitter but I may get lucky with a certain variety and end up saving a lot of money.

Price depends on quality but as well what I have heard is that cheap matcha may be either stale – years old or sold to China and never sold there and so shifted to the western market or it could just be a Chinese version of matcha – these are what I imagine are sold when you buy the big huge bags of matcha. Neither of these things are necessarily bad, especially if you’re just using matcha for something like cooking or youre going to be adding something to the tea like milk or sweeteners that will end up changing the flavor anyway, but I am a proponent of the idea that you should know what youre getting. Chinese versions of Japanese greens have been said to be very different even though they follow the same processes I think.

Also, while I have never successfully made matcha myself (I always get the cheap tins and use it for cooking) I was under the impression that you don’t use much, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 a tsp for like 3 oz of water?

I enjoy a nice cheap matcha to make matcha cake/muffins, but I’ve never tried to drink it. For cooking, especially in recipes where you use a lot, its really not worth getting the expensive stuff.

This is going to be my next order!