Kettl

Wow this is some phenomenal matcha from Kettl! They seem to be one of the few companies that still have a decent variety of high quality ceremonial matcha available.

Very creamy, very smooth. No bitterness or astringency. I have only tried usucha thus far, but I think it would be great as koicha too and plan to try it as such :).

This Gyokuro is simply phenomenal! I’m at a loss for words. Definitely more seaweed/umami in this one, but still very unique for a gyokuro.

This is a den/hon gyokuro shaded for 20 days. No sweetness, bitterness, or astringency. Fairly potent for 4-5 infusions.

Harvest: Spring, 2025
Location: Hoshinomura, Yame, Fukuoka

From a new Kettl order. This shincha is very unique! One of the strangest tasting senchas I’ve had. I like the complexity and novelty.

No sweetness, bitterness, or astringency. Basically no seaweed/umami that I usually get from Japanese greens. But it is still very savory, just in an herbal way. In fact, their tasting notes are pretty spot on.

Harvest: Spring 2025
Cultivar: Yabukita
Location: Minami-Yamashiro (150 m)

My first matcha from Kettl and it’s really nice! I have gotten my mom hooked on matcha, which I count as a wonderful success :). She has now fully switched from being a daily coffee drinker to a daily matcha drinker. She likes the flavor and says it doesn’t leave her as wired as coffee or hurt her stomach as much. Anyways, she asked me to get her a matcha and knowing the quality of Kettl’s sencha, I figured I’d send her some of this and she loves it! Had to get some for myself at that point of course.

This one is very toasty and nutty. Super smooth texture and very long aftertaste (minutes). Very mild bitterness.

This was the first matcha with which I used my new natsume, which I feel helps elevate the experience a lot. It is a beautiful piece of art and I will treasure and use it for many years to come :).

Dry powder: Toasty, vegetal
Flavors: Toasty, walnut, nutty, vegetal, umami, bitter, smooth

Velvety smooth and sweet. In 2021, I tried a handful of matcha powders from a few sellers and this one stood out far above the rest. It has absolutely no grittiness and is perfect for both hot or iced drinks. It has those earthy, grassy, and umami flavors that linger after each sip, but there is plenty of sweetness that hits when it first touches your tongue.

Second of two senchas from Kettl. This one is less than 1/3 the price of the Saikou, and is certainly not as good. But for $0.18/g, this one is really good! I really am liking Kettl’s teas, but I wish they would sell sample sizes. If they did, they’d be the perfect Western-facing (cheaper shipping) Japanese green tea seller. I like their subscription service as well, but feel like I should try some of their other teas before deciding on one if that’s the route I choose.

This one has a very unique aroma for a sencha that I can’t quite pin down. The mouthfeel is much thinner than the Saikou, but that’s expected given the website’s description of this tea as “light and elegant.” It is certainly that. Also the sweetest sencha I’ve tried I think. No bitterness or astringency. Lasts 4 infusions.

Harvest: Spring, 2023
Location: Uji

Dry leaf: Vegetal, umami.
Wet leaf: Same.
Flavors: Vegetal, umami, light, mineral, sweet

Decided to order from Kettl as I’ve heard so many good things from so many people about their senchas. I must say, I am quite impressed from this first sample! This stuff is the sencha most like gyokuro I’ve had, and the richest I’ve had as well. Also somewhat similar to Chinese greens in a strange way. Basically no grassy flavor like lots of Japanese greens.

It has this prominent savory vegetal note that I can’t quite place. But it’s really amazing. So smooth, with a thick mouthfeel like gyokuro. Lasts 6 infusions. No bitterness or astringency. Incredibly clean. I would guess this is a medium-steamed tea.

Year: 2023
Origin: Yame, Fukuoka
Cultivars: Blend

Dry leaf: Savory, vegetal
Wet leaf: Same
Flavor: Savory, vegetal, broth, artichoke, roasty, thick, butter

I’ve got Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal running through my head right now. This matcha is so smooth it just mixes well with this song. It whisked quite nicely, despite my lack of skill with a whisk. When I opened the tin I was hit with chocolate notes and the depth of the jade green matcha is quite beautiful. So far very little to no silt and the silt I do feel is incredibly small. Barely perceptible. It is a bit vegetal with grassiness. So creamy.

Cupped the loose version of this tea at work two days ago – Japanese black tea are interesting, and I’ve yet to have one that I was REALLY into, but this was the first where I thought that it was definitely nice enough that someone could be really into it.

Just, not me.

The main reason it wasn’t for me was because I found it steeped up rather savory, with a lot of natural black pepper notes and that’s a flavour that I tend to really dislike in my black teas. In addition to a lot of black pepper notes, I found it had a strong citrus peel pithyness – so the two combined reminded me a lot of rather pithy/peppery yuzu. Really interesting, and complex – but not a profile I resonated with.

This is my mood booster of choice. The moment I open the bag, my mouth waters in anticipation. At this point, it really is Pavlovian. The first steep is my favorite, which isn’t always the case with other gyokuro. The green of the liquor is soft and elegant. Tastes of pine and fresh greens (you know, the artisanal stuff Keller prolly has grown at The French Laundry) with a floral finish that lingers. The theanine-caffeine combo is almost instantaneous in effect. I am invariably blissed out after. The spent leaves make an excellent tea leaf salad.

I brewed this tea as I normally do with senchas, 160 for 45", 15" in a kyusu. The body was full. The tea tasted sweet and vegetal. There was also something about it that reminded my of sipping on sake. I highly recommend this tea but don’t hold onto it. It degrades fast.

This tea was so mind blowing good when it was fresh. It has gone from being that good to being barely mediocre. Not surprising since I purchased this in Sept 2015. Still leaving my high rating though. I know this tea is outstanding when fresh. I only have a teaspoon left so not a lot of it went to waste. Looking forward to ordering some of this in the spring.

I bought quite a bit of this tea without having tried it before – only going by the reviews here and what I like. I was not disappointed. This tea is amazing!

When I opened the bag it smelled so fresh and of seaweed. It’s a beautiful dark green. Looking like a gyokuro.

I just brewed it in a mug with a stainless steel infuser. I like those stainless steel infusers for tiny leaf leaf. It was a beautiful bright green. Looked almost like a matcha. Taste was sweet, seaweed, grassy & a bit nutty. Loved it!

This tea is from an old Steepster tea box that I’m just getting to since I have 175 degree water and not enough for a pot so I just made this since it’s single serving.

It smells really really green, like really great green tea! Grassy and beany and a little bit of asparagus which I don’t like so much because I actually hate asparagus. There’s a bitter aftertaste that I wasn’t expecting since the smell is so sweet.

Drank it a little cooler than I expected since I remembered after making it that I can’t drink green (or oolong) tea on an empty stomach without getting nauseous and headachey so I quick found some leftover tofu soup in the work fridge that I left on Friday and ate a bunch of tofu cubes. Not my preferred food for 9am but it works.

Anyway, this is a nice green tea but not really to my taste from the asparagus-ness.

Additional notes: I just wanted to say I’ve had this before but just finished a sample from StarFevre (thank you!), and since it was from a generous lovely tea package, needed to write a note! Though ancient and the most delicate of greens, the flavor is still AMAZING. I love the nuclear green on a winter day. Very surprising it’s still great and very enjoyable.
2021 Sipdowns: 12 (This + one sample of David’s Checkmate)

This is from my free Steepster box a while back (a year!) The samples are nicely sealed, so I don’t think this one has aged too badly. I love a nice green tea occasionally. This looks like it had a lot more than a teaspoon of these thin grassy leaves. The flavor is fairly strong (again probably because of the more than a teaspoon)… very nutty, savory, salty, buttery, seaweed, creamed corn. I like how much flavor a green tea can have though. Looking at the mug (both steeps), it looks like it’s full of matcha. I’m not sure if the blend actually is full of matcha or the leaves are so small, but now that I think about it, the tea tastes exactly like matcha anyway. I’m glad I took so long deciding on which tea to have! Any more of a temp or steep time (and leaves… the infuser was almost 1/3 full!) and this one would have been a bit on the bitter side. Since the wait was 40 minutes, it kind of had to be a tea like this one anyway.
Steep #1 // 40 min after boiling // 1 1/2-2 min steep
Steep #2 // 30 min a.b. // 2 min

I wanted to love this tea, but I just can’t get past the fishy taste. I think green teas may be an acquired taste.

Yay grassy!! I love grassy teas and this one is very grassy. Also taste the nori as described but I feel it smells more like nori then it tastes. I’m not getting a hazelnut finish. More like a marine flavor. Overall a good tea.

Backlog from yesterday.

You win, Uji Shincha. From the previous two tasting notes I learned how much you HATE resteeping so I didn’t even try this time. I went straight for a western style brew and you were MUCH happier this way. Still the notes of pine and ocean breeze/salt air, with a bit of astringence that was creeping along the edges of the sip. It was ALMOST, but not quite bitter, and skirted that line well, though next time I might even stop steeping a little earlier.

I will drink you happily because I do love this flavor, but I know there’s got to be a better value for my money out there somewhere…

Okay, so I tried the Obukucha and it was good and then it reminded me about how I have this Uji shincha that’s not getting any younger, just languishing away in my cupboard. And then I remembered the pine-y ocean breeze smell and thought, I bet that would go really well with some leftover chicken pad thai.

And here we are.

Steep 1: Yummm… this is an excellent steep, just like last time- piney salt air, very light green, almost colorless liquor. THIS I like. The hints of brine and umami aren’t as strong as the obukucha but these are still the basic characteristics I love in a green. I drank this quickly and it did pair well with the pad thai. And the leaves in my gaiwan smell just like buttered spinach. Seriously I could put soy sauce on that and eat it.

Steep two: I was extra mindful of not wanting to steep this too long since this is where it all went wrong last time. So, I went 45 seconds again (rather than 1 minute like the second steep last time) – and the SAME THING happened :(. I guess I could go a SHORTER steep for the second go around – maybe 20 seconds to start off with? Because this is undrinkable and bitter as is.

Back to the drawing board, but the first steep is so promising that I can’t count it out just yet…