5th tea tasting event: Matcha by Marukyu Koyamaen

Another tea tasting organized by local vendor Teatrade.sk took place this Saturday in the same teahouse as all previous tastings- after green teas from Meng Ding, oolongs from WuYi,Japanese green teas (except for Matcha) by Marukyu Koyamaen and teas from Himalayas and Korea, this was the fifth event from now periodical series of interesting tea tastings.

This time, the theme was Matcha by my favorite Matcha producer, Marukyu Koyamaen.

This tasting was a bit different than all previous in a way that it was accompanied by PowerPoint presentation about Matcha along with video from Marukyu Koyamaen, basically describing how their tea is produced and so on. It added quite nice educative element to the evening, and I really welcomed that.

There was also this pleasantly sweet little surprise in the beginning - tiramisu desert flavored with cooking-grade Matcha. As most of you probably know, it's not very wise to drink Matcha with empty stomach, so this, apart from pleasing our taste buds, also helped as something small to eat.

Finally, after the desert and presentation, we drank these three kinds of Matcha, all prepared as usucha (thin tea):

- Matcha Seijo no Shiro, which is used as official Urasenke koicha (thick tea)

- Matcha Unkaku, fourth highest grade of MK Matcha from their principal offering

- Hatsu Kaori Shin Matcha Silver, fresh Matcha from 2010 Shincha (seasonal)

After these wonderful Matchas, we tried some fresh teas from Shizuoka which just arrived to Teatrade - two grades of Sencha, one Kukicha, Kawayanagi (Bancha) and Houjicha. These teas are generally more affordable than those of Marukyu Koyamaen and are, in my opinion, very suitable for everyday drinking and even brewing in larger quantities.

At the end of the event, we watched some photos and videos from Teatrade's owners recent trip to China.

Overall, this was another interesting evening with good tea and nice people.

Another tasting- of Phoenix oolongs - is going to take place in the same teahouse on 7 August, though I unfortunately won't attend it, as I am leaving for Czech republic tomorrow and will spend some time in its second largest city, Brno.

Everyone is welcome, though, I can just recommend.