The term "ceremonial grade" was created in the West, and thus (unfortunately) there is no industry standard for quality. As our own standard, Yunomi follows this rule: The matcha must be fine-grained so as not to leave a rough texture in your mouth, and the umami flavor must be at least equal to the bitterness when the matcha is made at 90C/195F degrees (50 ml per gram of matcha). This would satisfy our criteria for Basic Ceremonial Grade.

Lower grades of matcha fall under the Culinary Grade category, and non-shaded green teas that have been powdered fall under the Green Tea Powder category.

All Matcha & Tea Powders Culinary Grade Matcha Green Tea Powders

We are using the below grades. The producers themselves do not grade their matcha products, but so all labels have been assigned by Yunomi.

• Basic - Even ratio of umami / bitterness.
• Standard - More umami flavor than bitterness.
• Premium - Deep green color, sweet aroma (at least up till first 3 months post grinding), and low bitterness.
• Master-Class / Imperial - Virtually no bitterness; strong, rich, creamy umami flavor; sweet aroma
• Modern Heritage - Must use only traditional cultivation and production methods, but shading material may be non-traditional (i.e. plastic)
• Heritage - Must use only traditional cultivation and production methods

Other things to note:

• While stone mill grinding is often associated with better quality matcha, you can use a stone mill with low quality leaves and grind roughly for a low quality matcha, so using a stone mill itself doesn't ensure high quality.
• Ceremonial grade matcha products are by default spring-harvested as spring leaves are necessary to create the level of quality needed to meet the umami/bitterness requirement. However, we haven't made it a requirement as we welcome the day a lower cost (summer harvest leaf) might qualify for Basic level.