If you’ve somehow managed to evade matcha madness, we hope rent is cheap beneath the rock you reside under. Thanks to its perma-virality on social media, the powdered green tea is on an unstoppable tear, with baristas, bartenders, bakers, and at-home consumers adding the ingredient to anything and everything they see fit.
Matcha’s popularity surge has increased the volume of Japanese exports of powdered tea to the U.S. by over 180 percent, with the market’s value skyrocketing by more than 250 percent. The heavy influx of Western demand has constrained the industry, sparking price hikes, shortages, and increased attention to matcha’s various grades — especially ceremonial grade. But what defines ceremonial grade, and what sets it apart from epithets like premium or daily grade and culinary grade? And do these classifications actually mean anything? As it turns out, not really.
While matcha comes from Japan (at least primarily), the term “ceremonial grade” was coined in the Western world, where it’s theoretically used as a catch-all to refer to the highest-quality matcha on the market. In its home country, matcha is classified instead by region (with Kyoto often regarded as the best), harvest season, and shading technique. The Western locution instead likely comes from how matcha has been traditionally consumed for centuries. In the 1100s, a Zen Buddhist monk brought tencha (green tea leaves that become matcha once ground) seeds to Japan from China and integrated the tea into his devotional practices.
As Japanese growers mastered the technique of shade-growing their tencha and harvesting only the freshest spring leaves, matcha became higher quality. It developed into a mainstay in monks’ ritualistic practices, served as a status symbol of the samurai and other elite, and grew to be a cornerstone of the Japanese tea ceremony. In each of these instances, it was likely Ichibancha, or first flush, teas that were sipped on. These are made from the first, spring-harvested leaves, which are the richest in antioxidants and umami, resulting in the sweetest, freshest expression of matcha.
Given the ritualistic associations of Ichibancha, ceremonial grade has been adopted by Western marketers to label matchas that are allegedly the highest quality. Here’s the thing, though: Each brand has its own qualifications for what makes a matcha “ceremonial grade,” and there is no organization or other entity regulating use of the phrase.
As such, there’s nothing actually stopping a brand from slapping the label on its packaging and claiming it’s the top-quality grade. Some matchas labeled ceremonial grade aren’t even matcha at all; instead, they consist of other ground-up green tea leaves or third-rate products packaged in similar containers to luxury ones.
The same is true for the premium (or daily) grade and culinary grade categories. Premium (or daily) grade matcha is typically used to describe matcha that is still high-quality, though not as prestigious as ceremonial grade. On paper, premium-grade matcha consists of second harvest or second flush leaves, with perhaps a percentage of first flush blended in. But again, according to whom?
The Japanese refer to matcha in this style as Nibancha matcha, which translates to second harvest. Typically picked approximately 40 days after Ichibancha, Nibancha tencha leaves produce a matcha that is slightly more bitter than its first-harvest counterpart, making it suitable for everyday applications like lattes, smoothies, and cocktails.
Culinary grade, on the other hand, is widely dismissed as the lowest-quality matcha, when in reality, it just comes from later harvests. Given the mature harvesting date, the leaves are often much more robust and astringent, meaning the matcha might not be suitable for drinking with water or stirring into lattes, but it’s still a great addition to various recipes, be they sweet or savory. Typically, “culinary matcha” is made from second-harvest Nibancha leaves, but it can be even older and made from Sanbancha (third harvest) leaves, which are picked in late summer, or even Shuutoubancha, the final harvest.
So while the terms “ceremonial grade,” “daily grade,” and “culinary grade,” might be entirely meaningless, the underlying premise guiding each does have meaning. To ensure you’re reaching for the matcha you want, look for language signifying the harvest time, which will give you a better understanding of the tea’s profile. Ichibancha matchas will be of the highest quality and thus the most expensive, while Nibancha will be slightly more affordable, while still delivering a superb taste.
