LARGE 100g Japanese Ceremony MATCHA GREEN TEA POWDER 

Welcome to another Yoshitaka Trading Company auction.

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Item:

Marukyu-Koyamaen "Green Wind Storm" Matcha Green Tea Powder

Fresh shipment received on January 19, 2012!

100 grams/3.52 ounces of matcha per foil bag. Bags are sold individually.  

 Currently being held in cold storage to maintain freshness.

Guarantee:

We offer this product (Aoarashi "Green Wind Storm" Matcha) at the lowest price available from online retailers outside of Japan, and back it with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Please scroll down for additional details.

News:

(TORONTO STAR, July 4, 2007): Matcha is the flavour of summer: This Japanese green tea powder is becoming a favourite with smoothie- and latte-drinkers. Click to view article.

(For comparison purposes, our matcha comes in 40g/1.41 ounce canisters, and 100g/3.52oz bags and is NOT bulk packaged (the canisters and bags are airtight and light-resistant, and you will be receiving FRESH stock, not bulk stock that has been lying around a warehouse for ages). This matcha is also SIGNIFICANTLY greener in color than the one pictured in this article :)

Note: Our company was one of the FIRST to offer FRESH matcha to consumers outside Japan, IN 2002 (over 9 years ago). Mainstream media news outlets are just beginning to realize its amazing qualities, and other sellers (as you may see on eBay), are trying to make a quick buck by jumping on the bandwagon with second-rate products. We FULLY stand behind the matcha we sell, backing it with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with the matcha you have received, just tell us why, and the first 40g can (from our other auction) you purchase will be on us. Don't even send it back-- it's yours to keep. Try finding a guarantee like that offered by any other seller.

A recently completed, 11-year long, Japanese government-funded study based in Sendai, Japan has found that green tea is shown to prolong life if consumed on a daily basis. Click to view article.

Detailed Description

(our apologies for the long description, but this matcha truly deserves one!):

Get the most out of green tea's health-benefiting properties by drinking Matcha, where one consumes not only water from steeped tea leaves, but the entire tea leaves themselves!

From a 300+ year old, respected tea maker!
Don't Settle for imitations!  

OBTAINED DIRECT FROM 

 MARUKYU KOYAMAEN  (Uji City, Kyoto)

*Produced from Tencha, the ONLY tea that genuine matcha can be made from!*

(Matcha derived from 'Gyokuro' is processed in a different way, and therefore does not qualify as genuine Matcha!)

"After harvesting, if the leaves are rolled out before drying as usual, the result will be gyokuro (jewel dew) tea. However, if the leaves are laid out flat to dry, they will crumble somewhat and become known as tencha (??). Tencha can then be stone ground to the fine, bright green, talc-like powder known as matcha.

Note that only powdered tencha qualifies as matcha, and other powdered teas are known as kocha (??, lit. "powdered tea")."

Pictured directly above: An acutal bowl of rich, green matcha tea made with approximately 0.5g of this powder.

Each bid is for One (1) sealed bag of FRESH, HEALTHY, Japanese Agricultural Minister's AWARD-WINNING Marukyu Koyamaen, superior quality, GUARANTEED GENUINE, Japanese Uji Matcha Green Tea Powder. Each bag contains 100 grams of green tea powder (There is no set powder to water ratio, but we estimate one canister to yield approximately 400 cups, if about 1/4 of a gram is used for each cup of tea. You are always free to adjust the amounts to taste).

In the Genroku period (1688-1704), a man by the name of Kyujiro Koyama began the cultivation and production of tea in Ogura, Uji. His work was the beginning of what was to become Marukyu Koyamaen.

The company's history dates hundreds of years back, which means they are experts when it comes to delicate, high-quality tea, and are very highly respected within the tea ceremony institutes in Japan. This Matcha green tea was organically grown and produced in the famous and historic Uji, Kyoto, Japan without any preservatives, colorings, pesticides, or artifical ingredients of any sort, making it 100% natural green tea. Matcha green tea is excellent for drinking everyday to stay healthy, as it has been scientifically proven to prevent several diseases, so many that I could not list them all right here. Our Matcha is kept in cold storage before being shipped, and we recommend that you refrigerate the tea when recieving it to prevent discoloration of the tea over the months. Green tea has been proven to help prevent a number of sicknesses, and has proven to be an anti-oxidant against cancer. Japanese people regularly drink green tea, and that is most likely the reason why they are among the healthiest people in the world. Matcha green tea is the absolute purest variety of green tea in the world, because the entire leaf is consumed. It is extremely potent, and less than 1/4 of a gram is required for a cup of premium green tea. Matcha is a rarity anywhere in the world, and it is highly unlikely for you to find it in North American stores, especially at this low price.

This Matcha is backed by one of the most reputable and respected tea makers in Japan, and we have literally shipped THOUSANDS of packages to satisfied customers. Thank you for all your past support!

This Matcha is:

• Carefully grown under a reed screen and hay to shut-out sunlight, to produce thin and wide young tea leaves, bringing out the full-bodied texture and flavor of the tea
• Hand-picked at just the right time, which requires a lot of experience as this is what determines the quality of the tea
• Steamed under strict quality control standards to stop fermentation of the leaves, thus preserving the quality
• Dried by removing moisture, then stored in sealed wooden boxes in cold storage
• Free of unwanted parts of the leaves (stems, branches, etc.)
• Has passed examination and grading by the director of the Marukyu-Koyamaen company
  
• 

 (Motoharu Koyama - Current tea inspector. Received full marks in a highly recognized tea grading competition)

• Ground into powder by a stone mortar, bringing out and preserving the full flavor of the tea, under the careful watch of a tea expert
• Was used as a healthy medicine in ancient times
  
• The FRESHEST lot available, with small quantities obtained according to current demand (do you really want to know how long other suppliers have had theirs lying around?)
  
• 100% genuine and organically grown Japanese Uji Matcha green tea, not just Chinese or Taiwanese tea claiming to be from Japan (backed by Agricultural Minister's award-winning tea farm with centuries of experience)
  
• Sold with an informational certificate (in Japanese) stating the company's history and other information about the tea

A Common Question: Why buy this tea ceremony Matcha instead of regular bagged teas or powdered teas?

We are asked this question often, so it will be explained right here:

Our tea ceremony Usucha Matcha was grown and produced for just that-- traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. Highly respected tea ceremony schools and institutions rely on Marukyu Koyamaen to supply them with top-quality Matcha.

These bags of Matcha were meant for sale in Japan only. However, through a special agreement with the supplier, we are able to negotiate terms on which we can import these fine teas and sell them at highly competitive prices. If you have ever lived in Japan, you will know that Japanese people have extremely high expectations for the quality of products (that is also why many everyday Japanese food products contain no preservatives). We know that YOU, the smart shopper, also have high expectations for quality. That is why we only sell the best tea we possibly can.

Genuine Matcha is very potent. If you were to mix just a trace of powder in a cup of water, it would probably turn light green. Because of its potency, only 1/4 of a GRAM should be needed to make a 200ml or so cup of tea. Other "Green Tea Powder" products (such as those sold in bags, mass-produced with fancy, colorful packaging in foreign countries) will almost certainly require substantially more powder (possibly 1-2 teaspoons), to make a tea with the same potency (but possibly a weaker taste and lower quality).

400 cups/100g is a general estimate which we devised according to the strength of our tea powder (after testing it ourselves). This means that 1/4 of a gram should yield a normal-strength cup of tea (approx. 200ml). This measurement does not necessarily apply to every type of tea powder out there!

If a tea powder requires you to use two or more teaspoons for one cup, that is approximately EIGHT TIMES the amount required when using our Matcha. Does that mean you paid eight times more for that tea than you should have?

That's for you to decide.

A note to buyers...

"Matcha" is not to be confused with "Powdered Sencha!" Powdered Sencha/Houjicha can look like Matcha, but is inferior in quality and taste. Once you have tried genuine Matcha, you will notice the difference in quality immediately. Genuine Matcha is made from Tencha, a rare and expensive type of tea carefully picked and processed mainly for ceremonial use. Other types of Japanese teas are best consumed in leaf (or in the case of Konacha, partially pulverized) form. 

"Matcha" should never be used to describe other pulverized/powdered teas, and the special designations "Usucha" and "Koicha" can never be used to describe these inferior powdered teas. You will not be able to make even half-decent servings of Usucha or Koicha unless you purchase genuine Matcha.

You may also find other "Matcha" for sale, but lacking background information on the product. Be careful when making assumptions based on the price or place of origin of a possible "Matcha" product. Please see our guarantee below for more details. .

Please also note that the Matcha we are selling is PURE, with NO additives (such as sugar, preservatives). This is not to be confused with green tea mixes, etc. which could have been processed, mixed with sugar, and/or mixed with preservatives.

Before you make a decision to purchase green tea powder in a store or online, I urge you to consider the following:

Beware of:

• Expiration/Best Before dates that are TOO LONG:
• If a green tea product is dated two years from now, it is common sense that the manufacturer has no regards to quality, as NO green tea can stay fresh for several years (this tea has a date of 6 months from the date of production, but as the can is highly sophisticated, your tea will still be potent and vivid green for up to 1 year if refrigerated)
• Powder is a dingy pale green or ash color, and/or has bits of visible leaves in the package
• I have concluded that most tea powders originating from countries other than Japan that I have encountered have this characteristic. This is a sure sign that the tea has been sitting around in warehouses for ages, that a lower quality tea leaf was used in production, or that the powder is just plain old. Bits of remaining unpowdered leaves could indicate poor quality control standards. This Marukyu-Koyamaen will always be bright, emerald green in color and with a very fine texture. If I think that a shipment does not meet these guidelines, I won't even try selling it to anyone.
• Sellers saying that their powdered teas from other countries "are the exact same as Japanese Matcha" or "are cheaper because (they) import in large quantities"
• This cannot be stressed enough. Not all green tea powders are created equal. Once you compare genuine Japanese Matcha with a lower priced "green tea powder" from elsewhere, anyone can immediately tell the difference just by looking at it and tasting it. Ask yourself: Does it really make sense to import a product such as high-quality green tea, where time between production and delivery to the buyer is of the essence, in large quantities? In our opinion, absolutely not. Our small-quantity imports are based on current demand, NOT on the price of the goods (although the tea manufacturer still does give us a discount which we can pass on to the buyer). Can large-quantity importers of green tea powder REALLY sell all their stock within a few weeks at most, without having it sit in warehouses or stores for months at at time? From what I've personally seen, not likely.

About the packaging:

This Koyamaen Matcha is packaged in an airtight, light-resistant foil bag, perfect for refilling empty cans of Koyamaen matcha which you have purchased from us in the past. By purchasing these larger, 100g bags, you are getting the same premium matcha, but for less money per gram!
 

Sellers claiming to be offering "Matcha" from anywhere other than Japan may be advertising to trick the buyer! Matcha is a Japanese-made, STONE-GROUND, premium tea powder for CEREMONIAL USE. Their teas could be no more than cheaply grown (possibly with pesticides) tea leaves ground up and packaged under very unsanitary conditions. 

We urge you to verify authenticity before purchasing anything claiming to be from Japan, if you are looking for genuine Japanese products.

THERE ARE COUNTERFEIT MATCHA PRODUCTS IN THE MARKET! Buyer Beware!

Our Guarantee:

Yoshitaka Trading has been supplying North America and the rest of the world with premium Matcha green tea since 2001. We are committed to giving customers the best value for their money.

If you find 100 grams of lower-priced Marukyu-Koyamaen Matcha, available for purchase from a non Japanese-based company on the Internet, we will create a separate auction and will allow you to purchase our Matcha at 10% off of the lower price. That's how confident we are that we can offer you the best value for your dollar. Simply contact us if you think you have found a better deal. Buy with confidence!

(please note that we have the final say in making all decisions regarding this policy, but will be glad to honor any legitimate claim.)

Matcha is primarily grown and produced in the Uji/Kyoto region. 

Our Matcha was destined for the Japanese market (who have high expectations for quality), but we have been granted permission to offer this for sale to North Americans, at quite possibly the best price on the internet!

• Matcha on Toast (Matcha mixed with sugar and butter)
• Sweet red beans (azuki) in Matcha
• Matcha ice cream sundae 
• Iced Matcha Tea
• Matcha Milk Tea (creamy and sweet Matcha milk tea, and great for kids or breakfast!)
• Matcha Tempura (salt mixed with Matcha used as a tempura dip)
• Matcha Ice Cream (mixed or sprinkled on top of vanilla ice cream)
• Mochi (sticky sweet Japanese rice cakes) with Matcha topping

Matcha has many health benefits. The polyphenols in green tea help to protect against cancer and lower the risk of heart disease by helping to lower cholesterol and improve lipid metabolism. Green tea has also been shown to have antibacterial properties.

Bid with confidence! YTC has a strong commitment to customer satisfaction and quality that is shown in our feedback and SquareTrade seal.