Ceremonial grade has no official meaning. No body in Japan or abroad sets a standard for it, and Japanese tea people do not use it.
In Japan matcha is described by how it is meant to be drunk, as usucha (thin tea), koicha (thick tea) or keiko (practice tea), and its quality comes from the harvest, the picking, the shading, the cultivar, the milling and how fresh it is.
Ceremonial grade is the phrase most people search for when they look for good matcha, and it is the least informative thing on a tin. Tezumi, a New York importer that writes some of the most careful English on matcha, puts it plainly in its piece on why ceremonial grade is meaningless. It says no central organisation, in Japan or abroad, sets standards for the term. Japanese labelling is not strict on matcha grades at all. The Japan Tea Central Association's standard defines what matcha and tencha are, and it says nothing about ceremonial.
Sellers know this. Eric Gower of Breakaway Matcha asks on his own product page, "Is 'ceremonial' matcha somehow better? Is it even real?" Tezumi's guess at where the word came from is reasonable. As matcha spread, a lot of poor, bitter powder reached the market, and sellers wanted a word to mark the tea meant to be drunk on its own.
How matcha is described in Japan
Japanese tea houses describe a matcha by how it should be drunk. Ippodo in Kyoto, open since 1717, marks every matcha in its range as suited to koicha and usucha, to usucha only, or to usucha and lattes. Marukyu Koyamaen in Uji notes on its Tenju page that it is recommended for thick tea. Practitioners also talk about keiko, practice tea, the everyday matcha used for lessons.
| Trait | Koicha | Usucha and keiko |
|---|---|---|
| Picking | Typically hand-picked tencha only | Often machine-picked, or a mix |
| Cultivar | Higher-grade cultivars | More basic ones such as Yabukita and Okumidori |
| Bushes and shade | Often natural, untrimmed bushes under shelf shade | More often trimmed rows under shelf or direct shade |
| Milling | Stone-ground, first flush tencha | Stone-ground, first flush tencha |
| Taste | Little to no bitterness, so it holds up thick | More bitterness is fine when whisked thin |
The useful question is not which grade, but whether a matcha can be drunk thick. Koicha uses roughly twice the powder in half the water, so any bitterness is doubled. Only the sweetest, softest leaf survives it. A tea house that rates a matcha for koicha is making a claim you can test.
What culinary grade means
Culinary grade is the other half of the same marketing pair. It usually means leaf from later harvests or machine picking, which has more catechins and more bitterness. That is not a fault in a latte or a cake, where milk, sugar and fat soften it. It is a fault in a bowl of plain matcha. Like ceremonial, the word is set by the seller, so one brand's culinary can be better than another's ceremonial.
What to read on a tin instead
- Harvest. First flush (ichibancha) leaf is the sweetest of the year.
- Picking. Hand-picked is rare and costly. Tezumi says only about 5% of tencha is hand-picked.
- Region or farm. Uji, Nishio, Kagoshima, Yame and Shizuoka all grow good tencha. A farmer's name is even better.
- Cultivar. Samidori, Asahi, Okumidori and Saemidori are tencha favourites.
- Milling and date. Stone-ground, recently milled, kept cold until shipping.
- Colour. Vivid jade when fresh. Olive means old leaf or faded powder.
Some names carry history too. Tezumi's guide to matcha names explains why so many Kyoto matchas end in -mukashi or -shiro. Many modern producers use -shiro for usucha and -mukashi for koicha, though Tezumi calls that a fairly recent convention with plenty of exceptions.
Questions
Is ceremonial grade matcha better than culinary?
Usually it is meant to be, but the label does not prove it. Two tins both called ceremonial can differ hugely. Read the harvest, region, cultivar and milling instead, and taste it plain.
Is ceremonial grade used in Japan?
No. It grew up in Western marketing. Japanese tea houses mark matcha as suited to koicha, usucha or both, and practitioners also talk about keiko, practice tea.
What is culinary grade matcha?
Matcha meant for cooking and lattes, usually from later harvests or machine-picked leaf. It is more bitter, which stands up to milk and sugar. Like ceremonial, it is a seller's label.
What should I look for instead?
First flush leaf, a named region or farm, a cultivar if given, stone milling, a recent milling or packing date, and a vivid green when you open it.
