Emerald Crystal – Flight of Matcha

As I was enjoying a bowl of matcha whilst daydreaming on one sunny afternoon, I thought that doing a flight of matcha is akin to starting a fantasy adventure in search of a magic crystal.

This journey would begin with what is referred to as the ‘Organic Matcha G5 Premium Culinary Grade’. Sitting around a wooden table with friends and beers, a conversation comes up about a magic crystal hidden deep in the rocky mountains. You laughed it off (it’s drunk talk) but this friend seems so passionate about this, he began crudely sketching the crystal on a napkin. You lean in for a closer look; it is kind of neat. Honestly the concept of adventure is exciting because you don’t remember the last time you actually did something out of your comfort zone. The topic of conversation changes, you grab the napkin and stuff it in your pocket. As the night winds down you mention to your friend that it could be fun to try looking for this thing; and if he really wanted to do it, you would join him.

When trying a culinary grade of matcha you can firmly plant your feet on the ground and say you’ve had something with over 1000 years of history. Somewhere along the way new techniques were developed making the manufacturing process easier, which in turn made the product more affordable and accessible. You will get a rough idea of what matcha is through this, but I need to emphasize rough. It’s a great reference point to observe matcha’s essential flavors, and how the presentation of those flavors can be refined and improved upon.

You head out to the west arriving at the first town in the mountains. Asking around town, you are pointed in the direction of someone who had supposedly seen the crystal in the past. When you met this man, he warned you about the road ahead. He said it isn’t easy, and there are lot of variables which can hinder your progression. You show him your paper napkin and he laughs in a kindhearted way. He goes to a backroom in his shop and pulls out a meticulously drafted image of the crystal along with a map of how to get to it. He encourages you to take it, and gives you advice during your departure. He said that the crystal demands observation. He said that once you find it you can’t happily leave its radiance, but this was the price of seeing true beauty. He points you in the right direction, gives you some travel tips and you sees you off. Unfortunately all of this was rather discouraging to your friend, an insurmountable task he thought. He apologized to you and wished you the best of luck before departing home. Looking forward to several weeks of adventure you eagerly march towards the subsequent mountains.

We are at the ‘Yunomi Matcha Basic Ceremonial Grade’. It’s a big jump in price but it is a huge leap forward in refinement. Ceremonial grades of matcha imply that they could be (or are) used for that Japanese tea ceremony. Attending such a cultural and formal event brings a certain expectation of quality. There is at least a bar which is met but a tea of this caliber likely wouldn’t push the bar higher. In arguably a negative sense this tea can taste bitter, astringent, and tart. If you have had matcha before, this is likely the level of matcha you have been exposed to. It has room to improve but because of it being of ‘ceremonial quality’ I feel that a mental barrier is created. Although everything else in the tasting is also of ceremonial quality, it does get better, much better.

Following the mans advice you soon arrive at the edge of a cliff. Looking off into the vast expanse you see the mountain you’re searching for to which we have a testimonial poem.
(I did not write this poem, it’s from an excellent book called “The Journey to the West”)
The peak’s pines and cedars join the sky in blue;
Wild creepers hang on the cliff’s briars and thorns.
Ten thousand feet, lofty —
A thousand tiers, sheer hanging —
Ten thousand feet of lofty, rugged peak;
a thousand tiers of sheer, hanging buff.
Jade-green moss and lichen on dark rocks spread;
Large forests formed by tall junipers and elms.
Deep in the forest,
Listen to the birds:
Their skillful voices make singable songs.
The brooklets water flows like splashing jade;
The roadsides petals rests as mounds of gold.
This wretched mount
So hard to scale!
Walk ten steps and not even one is flat!
Traveller’s meet in pairs the foxes and deer;
They face in two’s both black apes and white fawns.
All at once there’s a fearsome tiger-roar,
or the crane-cry that reaches Heavens court.
Yellow plums, red apricots make worthy fruits;
Wild grass and flowers are of name unknown.

During the ascent, you come across a small cave nearly hidden by shrubbery. An apt location to take refuge from the sun and rest your legs. As you peel back the branches and step over the lichen strewn rocks you peer into the cave looking for; but hopefully not finding danger. Upon entering the cave you feel a strong sensation, the hair on your neck stands up as a resounding energy echos through the air.

This is fantastic matcha; known by this company as ‘Uji Matcha C3 Standard Ceremonial Grade’. Most people could happily stop here and even for someone with a lot of experience, a matcha of this caliber is hard to beat. Through direct comparison with the latter 2, you can determine for yourself if the ‘cultural appraisal’ of quality matches your own. You will also gain the knowledge and ability to be objective with matcha in the future. Unlike the first two, C3 has a beautiful richness and mouthfeel; with confectionery aromas such as green tea cookies, white chocolate, soybean flour, and toasted rice. The flavor has a lot of depth to it, but in a negative way it is slightly bitter. It has room to improve. I love this tea where it is, but there are still 2 grades higher to go. I also want to state for the record that this is probably my favorite of the 5.

Bumbling around the empty cave, you really start to wonder why it feels like it does. Nothing seems out of place here but alas you recall a proverb that states the best place to hide something is in plain sight. Observing the room again you consider what you see. Stalactites and stalagmites, boulders, puddles of dripping water, and of course pools of water. If you go into the water there is no telling what could happen. These flooded caverns can be several kilometer long labyrinths which are pitch black and probably quite cold; but if you consider what you would do if you were hiding a treasure like that it seems to be the most likely route. You frustratingly rub the exhaustion from your face, toss your backpack and clothes on top of a boulder, and sit on the cold stone floor with your feet dangling in the abyss below. You take one big breath and push yourself in. Feeling in front of your face like a blind man, while also trying to pull yourself through the water, cope with the cold, and manage your air proved to be difficult. There was success for all of this though, as your hand pierced the surface back to air you pulled yourself up for a victorious breath. Standing outside of the water in an area you would come to call ‘Section 2’ you stood staring off into absolute black. It feels no different, in fact it feels worse because you realize you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing. As you breathe in the stale cold air and chatter your teeth. You use your right foot to find the edge of the water you emerged from and decide to go back. Going forward like this is impossible.

Soon arriving back at the mouth of the cave, you sit out in the sun to warm up. You suppose that maybe the gut feeling you had when you came into the cave might have been false hope. You put your clothes back on and go to reach the backpack you tossed on top of the boulder. It was a little high up so you climbed on the boulder to reach for it. You felt the boulder wiggle and jumped off in panic. You walked around to the other side of it, grabbed your pack and noticed a small opening hidden near the ground. That feeling is back. Are you this lucky? You go outside and grab a fallen tree to wedge the boulder out of place. You have discovered a crawlspace, you can’t ignore this; it’s totally dry! You once again carelessly throw your pack to the side and enter the rabbit hole.

‘Yunomi Matcha Premium Ceremonial Grade’. When it comes to any beverage, be that whiskey, wine, tea, etc. There are good examples, there are great examples, and then there are excellent examples. A way I describe the difference is in what you get from them. A good beverage has strong, identifiable notes which you may relate to something. This wine smells like cherries! A great beverage has more complexity, it may smell like goats cheese with dried cherries rolled inside it covered with vanilla salt and oak ash. An excellent beverage will bring back memories of days past, it would smell like the goats cheese and dried cherry truffle I ate in Paris in 1995. It was raining that day and we only went into this little brasserie to escape the sky but we sat down with the most beautiful glass of Burgundy and cheeseboard that I’ve had in my life. It’s a memory that has escaped me as part of my greater trip to Europe until now, until this very moment where I had this drink! Amazing. This grade of matcha brings me back to one of my favorite places on earth, Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. The memories I have of wandering those streets, shopping, seeing hundreds of crows roost in the late October sky. It becomes hard to compare matcha at this level, they are all great. You may notice the texture takes a step back from C3, but the flavor becomes more assertive. You could spend your whole life tasting matcha at this level and never get bored. It becomes a challenge though, because in wandering this labyrinth will you develop a strong sense of subjective tasting that it makes it very difficult to accept if something is debatably ‘better quality’.

It’s not completely dark, there seems to be some light diffused through the air. It must be a drainage canal for when it rains and the cave floods. As you crawl through the eon old rocks in a cavern which is likely older than civilization you get a feeling of pride. Weeks ago you were milling about in the city, working to pay your bills, casually drinking with friends to talk about mundane activities and spousal arguments. How far you’ve come! This seems so natural to you now, crawling through rocks, marching through forests full of beasts. A true adventurer. The crawlspace opened up to several possible paths, you chose to follow the one with the upwards inclination. The cold smooth surface started to become somewhat mossy. It started to become spacious, enough for you to squat and walk on your feet. You began to feel gnarled roots which seemed to pierce and weave through the stone walls. Soon you were climbing the roots like a natural ladder, ascending nearly vertically. Your vision became gradually less black, and once the terrain leveled out you stood staring into a fantasy story.

Illuminated by rays of sunshine which seemed to impale the caves vine covered roof stood an altar. Your adrenaline is going crazy. Above the altar layed a brilliant emerald green crystal. You didn’t need to confirm this is what you were looking for. You can feel its beauty, it’s radiant. The translucent green is teeming with life and positivity. Trying to immortalize this feeling, you boil it down to the raw concept. If someone would understand the concept of Yin and Yang. This is Yang. This undaunting beauty clears your mind, there are no more thoughts to have.

The Emerald Crystal is labelled ‘C1 Master Class Ceremonial Grade’. This is the pinnacle of matcha, the pride and joy of the Japanese tea culture at the highest level. Of course while there are many siblings of this tea in the world, it stands amongst the elite. Matcha without flaws. Matcha which is not bitter, astringent, or sour. Matcha which invokes memory to the point where it distorts it; creating artificial memories of things that never happened. The flavor can be inspiring to the point in which describing it without hyperbole is an injustice. This is a matcha that unless you’ve heard this story, I couldn’t convincingly explain to you the reasons this deserves the praise it does.

From a subjective point of view, the ‘yang’ quality of this seems out of place, I prefer my matcha to be ‘yin’. From an objective point of view, this is damn near perfect. It carries an energetic lime leaf flavor through to a high acidic resonating finish without becoming sour, astringent, or bitter. On top of that it’s inspiring enough to spend hours typing away a story no one will read.

To do the flight of matcha is to experience something significant, drinking with forced perspective is an enlightening and rare treat. To pick and choose one from the list, I think it’s a wasted opportunity to drink below C3 but good times are sure to be had with any of them.

– Josh