New Matcha from Northern Ireland award winner Suki Tea

Suki Tea, Northern Ireland's award winning tea blender, has launched a new Japanese premium Matcha powdered green tea.

Suki Tea, based in Belfast, has added the new Matcha to its extensive portfolio of quality loose-leaf teas, pyramid tea bags and infusions. The company has won a series of Great Taste awards for its teas.

The Northern Ireland company, which exports tea to Japan among other global markets, describes the new Matcha as having a "slightly sweet, fresh and grassy taste".

The new Matcha is shade grown for 21 days and stone ground the traditional Japanese way producing a fine grade Matcha that's ideal for a range of applications in addition to tea. The company says the new tea can also be used in lattes, smoothies and shakes.

Matcha tea is the foundation of the ancient Japanese tea ceremony.

Oscar Woolley, Suki's managing director, says: "Authentic ceremonial grade Matcha, like our select offering, is shade grown for 21 days in April, as soon as the tea bushes begin to wake up after the winter rest.

"This shading cuts out about 90 percent of sunlight, reducing the polyphenols in the young buds and leaves reducing the bitterness. Pure Matcha is renowned for its' seaweedy, vegetal and balance of sweet and bitter, giving it that umami taste.

"The shading of the tea leaf increases the chloryphyll in the leaf - giving it a vibrant jade green depth of colour and packing it full of antioxidants. This shading process also results in more L-Theanine - an amino acid with calming properties that gives an invigorating alertness, clarity of mind and ultimate relaxation after a good cuppa, which works in perfect harmony with Matcha's slow release energy, the natural caffeine kick.

"Once the Matcha tea is ground and reaches the cup we actually consume the tea leaf, instead of simply infusing it and removing the leaves, this mean that Matcha packs a punch like no other, ingesting all the goodness, Matcha green tea actually boasts the highest known value of cell-protecting antioxidants in any natural product!"