Editéur Plus Editéur Plus - The Twelfth Issue | Page 87

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EDITÉUR PLUS
Six weeks before harvest the tea
fields are covered with scaffolding or
black vinyl sheets to slowly and grad-
ually decrease the amount of sun-
light and photosynthesis. Get-Mat-
cha is grown in near darkness once
harvesting time takes place, cover-
ing the tea leaves to ensure that the
plants produce more chlorophyll and
amino acids.
Once the plants are ready for har-
vesting only the smallest, greenest
and most delicate leaves are picked
from the green tea plant. The deli-
cate tea leaves are then steamed to
preserve colour and nutrients, as well
as stop enzymatic action within the
leaves. Once the steaming process is
complete the leaves are relocated to
large cases with heated blowers that
are set at a very low temperature to
ensure that thorough drying occurs.
Once dried they are sorted for grade,
with only the youngest, greenest and
most tender leaves being accepted
for Get-Matcha’s powder. Their tea
plantation then laboriously destems
and deveins the freshly steamed tea
leaves making sure to refrigerate the
leaves before grounding.
EDITÉUR PLUS / THE TWELFTH ISSUE
Once the leaves are all destemmed
and deveined they will be transport-
ed to the grounding wheels, which
are large granite wheels that rotate
at a very slow pace to ensure that no
“scorching” takes place and that the
leaves are grounded in the most deli-
cate and gentlest form possible. It is
this process where the word Matcha
derives from, meaning “Ground-
ed Tea” in Japanese. The delicate
Grounded Matcha tea is then pack-
aged in sealed foil bags to minimise
daylight penetration as well as to
avoid any moisture that can damage
their extremely fine matcha powder.