Inside Midorico’s Quality Standard

If you’ve ever browsed for matcha online or in a shop, you’ve seen the phrase "Ceremonial Grade" printed on almost every tin. It sounds prestigious and reassuring, suggesting a tea fit for traditional, sacred Japanese tea ceremonies.

At Midorico, we label our core matcha Ceremonial Grade First Harvest. But here is an insider reality about the modern tea industry: the term "Ceremonial Grade" on its own is entirely unregulated.

There is no official governing body or legal standard in Japan or the West that defines what can be called "Ceremonial." Because of this loophole, mass-market importers routinely slap "Ceremonial Grade" on bitter, dull, summer-harvested tea, mark up the price, and ship it to retail shelves. When you whisk those mass-market teas with water, they taste harsh, flat, and unpleasantly bitter.

At Midorico, we set out to redefine what a "Ceremonial Grade" label should actually mean. We believe true quality isn't built on slick marketing buzzwords—it is rooted in direct farm partnerships, meticulous cultivation, and uncompromising processing standards.

When you see Ceremonial Grade First Harvest on a tin of Midorico matcha, it guarantees that every gram comes exclusively from Spring First Harvest (Ichiban-cha) leaves. During the cold winter months, the tea plants silently store rich nutrients in their roots. When the first spring buds emerge in April and May, they are bursting with L-theanine, the amino acid responsible for matcha’s calm, focused energy and signature savory umami sweetness. While mass brands rely on second or summer harvests (Nibancha) that are high in bitter tannins, Midorico never compromises on first-pluck purity.

Our quality standards begin long before harvest day. Midorico works directly with generational family tea farmers who cover their fields under dense canopy shades for 20+ days (Oothan). Depriving the plant of sunlight forces the leaves to overproduce chlorophyll—giving Midorico matcha its vivid, electric-green hue—while locking in rich amino acids.

Once harvested and steamed, our tea leaves undergo rigorous de-stemming and de-veining to yield pure tencha. Mass wholesale brands often leave tough stems in the batch to boost yield, which dilutes color and creates a gritty, astringent cup. Midorico uses only pristine leaf meat, ensuring a clean, silky texture from the very first sip.

To achieve our signature velvet-smooth mouthfeel, Midorico uses specialized precision jet-milling to produce a micro-fine powder with perfectly uniform particle size. This micro-particulate perfection allows Midorico matcha to dissolve effortlessly into water or milk, creating a rich, pillow-soft microfoam without any grittiness or clumping.

The difference between Midorico and mass-market matcha comes down to our supply chain. Industrial brokers buy anonymous bulk lots at public auctions, blending leaves from hundreds of different fields to lower costs. Midorico bypasses the brokers entirely. By cultivating direct relationships with master tea growers in Japan, we ensure full traceability, peak freshness, and absolute quality control from farm to tin.

"Ceremonial Grade" shouldn't be an empty sales tactic. At Midorico, it is our promise of excellence.

When you whisk a bowl of Midorico Ceremonial Grade First Harvest Matcha, you taste the culmination of generations of Japanese tea mastery. There’s no need for added sugar or syrups to cover up bitterness, just a brilliant green, velvety bowl filled with natural sweetness, rich umami, and serene focus.