Mighty Leaf
Organic Matcha Green Tea
Mighty Leaf Matcha Review
reviewed April 2021
About Mighty Leaf: In 1996, Mighty Leaf was founded by a husband and wife team Gary Shinner and Jill Portman. The tea company was based in Emeryville, California. In 2014 Mighty Leaf was acquired by Pete’s Coffee and Tea.
Pete’s Coffee was founded by Alfred Peet in 1966 in Berkley, CA. Mr. Peet was born in Holland and as a young man traveled the world in pursuit to learn more about coffee. He was particularly fond of the rich and dark roast coffee in Indonesia, which became Peet’s Coffee trademark.
Mighty Leaf offers a large variety of teas, many of which are certified organic and/or fair trade. They are well known for their award winning Breakfast blend. At the time of this review, Mighty Leaf offered 5 matcha blends, one of which was in whole leaf form. I would argue that the latter is not actually matcha, but a sencha tea.
About Blend: Mighty Leaf’s matcha is from Kagoshima and Shizuoka in Japan. The two are different prefectures fairly far apart from one another. Prefectures are somewhat similar to states in the USA. There are 47prefectures in Japan, each with cities and towns. However, prefectures are not formally specified, nor do they have elected officials separate from the federal government. When it comes to matcha, the specific prefectures can be of great importance because geography and cultivation methods are often varied from prefecture to prefecture. It’s hard to say what this means for the matcha blend reviewed here because it is a blend of matcha from multiple locations.
Price: $15.95 per 42 grams
Tasting and Scoring Mighty Leaf
Scent: Mostly grassy with hints of raspberry and bamboo.
Color: The powder is less vibrant and more of a muted army green. The liquor also portrays the army green color. These shades are considered less standard and can indicate longer sun exposure or a less fresh product. Points 2.75
Foam + Texture: Mighty Leaf Matcha certainly earns points for its frothability. The crema builds quickly with a perfect micro-foam. The lovely foam creates a creamy quality to the matcha. However, points were lost for a chalky texture and short finish. Points 3.5
Taste: As usucha, this blend is very astringent, bitter, and grassy. The grassy notes are closer to straw, and the bitter notes are of citrus pith.
As an oat-milk latte, the blend is very pleasant. It has gentle, yet vibrant mossy notes and a mild nori flavor. For this reason, I believe this blend would earn a higher score if it was labeled as a latte blend. Although this matcha isn’t labeled as ceremonial matcha either, we are instructed to prepare a traditional usucha.
Points 2
Final Score: 2.75 points out of 5
Thoughts: I recommend this blend for latte lovers, particularly those who drink multiple cups of matcha a day. The blend is fairly low priced and comes in larger volume than most. Brownie points are given for the blends packaging. Usually when offering more than 30g, matcha companies use paper packaging which gets messy and doesn’t offer as good of an air seal as tin containers do. Mighty Leaf Organic Matcha comes in a large metal tin, which keeps the powder fairly consistent from start to finish.
