Powdered Sencha and Matcha?

hmm I found this.....

maybe a good introduction to powdered green tea for me? .....I dont know about the quality though, although the website/company looks very "legitimate".

Help! : )

The "kona cha" or powdered sencha is the lowest grade possible, it's what you get in the cheapest restaurants. The page says their product is done with "good sencha", but well, if you had good sencha, why would you want it powdered ? I don't think you're going to drink whisked "powdered sencha" as a cheaper tea ceremony. There is not much ressemblance in taste and texture with matcha that is done with a different type of leaves. I wouldn't pay the price they ask for that. If you intake powedered tea for

*health reasons* as they suggest, pick up the cheapest green tea available at your local supermarket and ground it yourself just before using it.

Kuri

Well, I would imagine that the powdered sencha, imported from Japan....would be of a different quality than the cheap green tea I'm buying now. I do think that is a good idea though, and I may buy the powdered sencha from O-Cha (less expensive) or from JapaneseGreenTeaOnline (more expensive), and compare them with some $1.50 / 48 teabags of cheap green tea (which I will grind up) from the supermarket. Im wanting to use "powdered" because right when I wake up, I hate waiting for the tea to steep in my impatient groggy state, and I would also like more catcechins/vitamins/polyphenols/HEALTHiness too.

: )

If your desire for something immediate comes from caffeine-deprived impatience, then you might want to try another route. Because "powdered" green tea is not "instant", no matter what the website says. It doesn't dissolve easily. You will be standing there with a mug of microwave-heated hot water, and stubbornly bobbing on the surface will be a big, dry, green clump, which you'll desperately try to force into solution by stabbing with your spoon, your violence checked only out of fear of spilling even a drop of your rejuvenating caffeine fix.

Regular sencha takes one minute to steep. That's 60 seconds. Kona-cha takes only 15 seconds. Save yourself the frustration and make tea the normal way. If later in the day you feel a need for catcechins/vitamins/polyphenols/HEALTHiness, eat some of that powdered sencha talc with yogurt or something.

--crymad

I have found the powdered teas really unusable for making a beverage, at least if you want to drink the beverage.

I suppose if you're taking it intravenously or something it might be fine.

They ARE excellent for making green tea ice cream, as well as sticky rice flour balls that are flavoured with green tea. I suppose it might actually not be bad to make a green tea yoghurt....

--scott

We use matcha to make green tea syrup for shaved ice in the summer. That green tea yogurt idea was just me being flip...but come to think of it, it might be tasty, but just in something like vanilla yogurt with too much native sweetness. The sourness of plain yogurt combined with the bitterness of matcha would make for a foul concoction.

--crymad

I happened to try this powdered sencha from o-cha.com. It is clearly not as good as matcha (becomes quite bitter and unpleasant if you put too much, and has a rougher taste overall), but I found it a very good (inexpensive) solution to regular drink in the office.

Being inferiour to any matcha I tried (the cheapest of which was twice as expensive as this powerdered sencha), it still tastes much better than green teas in bags. It is very easy to prepare: it doesn't dissolve fully, but it make very nice and naturally tasting tea directly in your cup - not everybody can afford teapots at their working place.

That's my impression.

Sure, but they're perfect for making a beverage designed to intimidate someone else.

/Lew

I guess I will order some matcha then, and give it a try......and no crymad, I dont want to "....standing there with a mug of microwave-heated hot water, and stubbornly bobbing on the surface will be a big, dry, green clump, which you'll desperately try to force into solution by stabbing with your spoon, your violence checked only out of fear of spilling even a drop of your rejuvenating caffeine fix." hahah

I will probably order some looseleaf green tea also from one of the two sites I listed above, and steep them the usual way. I dont know what it is exacty in green tea, but Ive been through oolongs, assams, whites.....and now I can definitely tell there is some ingredient or compound in green that I like (or my body/mind likes), and not just caffiene that im used to craving when I wake up. ECGC? ...dunno. I can say that ive tried mixing my mornings up with other types of tea, and coffee....and its definitely green for me now. The matcha sounds very neat, and just for kicks I'll order some. If anyone has any recommendations or pointers toward the path of good looseleaf or bagged green tea out on the internet, I definitely welcome them.

Thanks

I like

and for my greens myself. Others also mention Imperial Tea Court , jing tea shop , and for Japanese I've heard (has anyone yet figured out if they are working or not?) or an affiliated site to them, Grey and Seddon,

I've only ordered from the first two and have been happy with them. But there are a number of good vendors out there. Good luck!

Melinda

If anyone has any