When we first started developing the Kiwami Matcha Affogato, the idea seemed simple: pair rich matcha with vanilla ice cream, red bean, egg pudding, and mini boba.

But as we tested the dessert, one thing became very clear:

The matcha had to be right.

Because the matcha is poured directly over the dessert, there is nowhere for its flavor to hide. If it was too bitter, too grassy, or lacked depth, you could immediately taste it.

Our previous matcha was sh... I mean not good.

That realization turned the development of one dessert into a much bigger search for the matcha we wanted to use at Tea Again.

We ordered samples from multiple matcha vendors in both Japan and China and spent quite a bit just getting different matchas in front of us to taste.

And tasting them side by side made the differences surprisingly obvious.

Some were very grassy. Some were overly bitter. Others looked beautifully green but didn't have the depth of flavor we wanted.

We kept tasting, comparing, and testing them over course of months, while we dealt with unexpected uncertainty and confusion of tariffs.

Eventually, we kept coming back to matcha from one place:

Uji, Japan.

For our taste, Uji matcha had the balance we were looking for—a rich tea flavor, pleasant umami, gentle bitterness, and a smooth finish.

Simply put, it tasted the best to us.

Once we found the right matcha, the rest of the dessert came together.

What started as an idea for a new dessert ended up changing the way we thought about one of our most important ingredients.