The producer's name Marukyu-Koyamaen (or Seh San Won in Korean) means 'Small Mountain Hill”. The company's website details the long history of this well known tea produced from the hills it got its name from in Uji, Japan.
If one hopes to fully appreciate the top grade matcha from a producer one should first appreciate the lowest grade.
If one can drink the lowest grade matcha and still enjoy it for what it is, then surely one can fully enjoy the highest grade.
The layer of froth resting atop watery green sludge is thin, the density of bubbles low. As the tea makes way into one's mouth, green with a smokey, roasted, bitter-sweet taste sticks to the roof of one's mouth and the front of one's tongue. The mouthfeel is thin and drys out these targeted areas in the mouth.
The chaqi of Aoarashi is different than most. Its energy is soft and subtle, at first it is barely detectable then, as minutes and hours tick by, it slowly and softly builds up, like climbing one's way up a mountain top to experience the rising sun. This tea softly radiates “Blue Mountain's Energy”.