Mi-no-mukashi Special New Year's Matcha 20g Can

About our Special New Year's Matcha

This is a specially blended matcha only sold towards the end of the year and early in the new year. Unlike our matcha products sold throughout the year that are blended for consistency of each matcha product, our Special New Year's Matcha blend changes from year to year. It has a taste that is surprisingly different from our matcha products sold throughout the year. And, if you drink our Special New Year's Matcha every year, you will enjoy discovering the new flavour and fragrance each year.

The delightful Year of the Snake name and label are part of the fun of our Special New Year's Matcha. The Mi-no-mukashi label design features a traditional local toy snake as its motif, looking charming and evoking feelings of nostalgia. It conveys Ippodo’s wish that you go forth with new hope and have a fruitful year, like the snake that comes out of hiding in spring as it awakens from its winter sleep.

How does it taste?

This splendid matcha is perfect for celebrating the New Year, possessing rich sweetness and fragrance that bathe the palate. A sweet fragrance wafts into the air the moment you begin whisking it. As you drink it, you appreciate its smooth, refined flavour, and pleasing, light aftertaste. Its vivid green colour brings to mind tea fields in spring awash in sunlight. This is a matcha that brightens you up and enlivens you through all your senses. Its distinctly sweet flavour means that it is easy to drink even when prepared as koicha, making it a good choice for newcomers to koicha.

How/when to enjoy it?

You can change the way you prepare it throughout the day, for example, keeping the matcha light mid-morning, but preparing it stronger in the early afternoon. Adjust the amount of matcha powder you use to suit how you feel or to suit the sweets you’re having. The way it tastes will change significantly when you change the amount of matcha. It also makes a wonderful matcha to serve guests during the year-end and New Year holiday season.

What to enjoy it with?

First, savour it all by itself, noticing how smooth it tastes. When prepared as usucha, the best balance is achieved by accompanying it with something like Japanese kompeito sugar candy to add a little more sweetness. It also goes well with small New Year’s wagashi.

How do Ippodo staff enjoy it?

Our Special New Year's Matcha in 2025 has a particularly smooth, mellow flavour. To fully appreciate its smoothness, use a little more matcha powder than usual. You can savour it all by itself when preparing it for yourself, or, when serving it to friends, you can offer it with wagashi sweets that allow you to really enjoy the sweet bean paste filling.