Just Bento

There are a couple of good online tea stores, Hibiki-An and O-Cha.com. Both are in Japan, and ship from there directly all over the world. They are not cheap but they both carry good to excellent tea. Both have matcha - I think O-Cha.com is the one that has matcha and regular leaf green tea ice tea bags, which makes wonderful iced tea.

Otherwise, if you have a good tea shop in your town, try there. Some Japanese confectionery stores carry it too. Japanese grocery stores usually do not stock the good stuff. Matcha is quite expensive by the way, and there's a huge difference between the good and bad stuff.

You can use matcha powder as a flavoring in various foods, though the purest way to have it is as tea, made properly. Making it properly is considered to be somewhat of an art form...it needs to be frothy, not too hot. Well, the whole cult of the tea ceremony surrounds the appreciation of matcha ... imagine an almost religious cult growing up around any other food or drink! Well maybe bacon, but... :P

I myself, being a philistine, like matcha in a slightly sweetened ice milk tea the best. Or matcha ice cream! The best way to use matcha in a drink is to mix it in a bit of warm to hot water first, using a little whisk. (You don't necessarily need the traditional tea whisk, though it helps.)

thanks much. I'll check it out. I saw matcha on amazon - but I was skeptical of it. I'll check those two stores out. ;)

Here in Canada you can also find matcha powder in a lot of health food stores - good thing as I`m practically addicted to it.

I made matcha ice cream over the weekend, using a recipe from Harumi's cookbook. It turned out really well! I decided to make it myself because the kinds sold in store are too light (too much cream and not enough tea). This way I could put all the tea that I want...it came out a lovely dark emerald green. Can't wait to go home and eat some more!

I just bought some matcha milk powder from our local asian grocer. It's a brand called Greenmax, and made in Taiwan. I must be a philistine as well (my tea ceremony teacher would be horrified), because it's delicious.

you can find it at teavana in malls or at teavana.com in the usa.