In short. Yamari has the best unsweetened matcha drink as matcha and water. Others, it’s find best tasting sweetened matcha latte for all places including Yamari.
This is the Koka Uji tea from Stereoscope Coffee. Just matcha and water. Unsweetened. You’ll get the matcha flavor with less bitter notes per the chart on their menu.
Comparing to other places I’ve reviewed. I did not taste umami flavor. It does have the characteristics of being closer to a tea drink than a concentrated matcha drink like I can get at Yamari.
With this review. I close my search to find a place serving matcha with the strongest profile for umami. This began with a search for matcha shops around Los Angeles and Orange County. I have a hunch majority of matcha places are using high grade culinary matcha under “ceremonial” labeling. And most places use sugar to make their drinks taste good because lower grade matcha has bitter notes. Given the current Matcha shortage and prices reaching $2.16/gram as the highest I’ve seen. I do not see majority of shops charging higher prices for unsweetened tea and water drink when most sell at ~$5. I was planning to go to ROK coffee and tea, but reasoned the matcha latte will be similar to other places serving a sweetened matcha latte.
by kinkycarbon
Dining and Cooking