My girlfriend and I have fallen in love with this stuff. It's a powder you mix with hot water to make quick matcha green tea. It's made by Maxim. The package says "Maxim Cafe Menu". We got two packets as a gift from an exchange student friend we knew for some time.

Anybody know where you can get this stuff in the states? I've tried looking at a bunch of "asian food grocer" type places, but haven't had any luck.

If you're in Japan and you've yet to try it, do yourself the favor. It'll make you redefine 美味しい

Well, I think your best bet would be to either drop by a specialty Japanese food store in your neighbourhood, or to order directly off of an online retail such as amazon.com.

Tbh, though- and I don't know whether the brand you're referring to is the same- I've been looking into maccha recently, but good drinking maccha is ridiculously expensive, and although extremely awesome, wouldn't be a good idea to consume it more than occasionally unless you defecate money. Think two dollars a mug expensive. The baking quality maccha is inexpensive in comparison, though it's certainly not something you'd want to be drinking for enjoyment. Personally, I wouldn't consume it more than once or twice a week.

Other than that, I'm pretty clueless about the stuff. I was pretty sure that it could only been prepared using a whisk, preferably bamboo- but I guess the kind you're referring to has undergone some sort of treatment to make it instant? I know there are a few green teas out there that market under "Maccha Green Tea," and aren't really maccha.

EDIT: Err, is Matcha some sort of mistranslation or something?

Some romanizations put a t before a geminated cha...

So not a mistranslation, just an older romanization system. It is the standard spelling in English though.

This brings back memories of Kaiten Zushi and their instant Matcha. The whole atmosphere of the place appeals to me. I must have eaten in 20-30 different places around Tokyo. Ueno has like 6 places by the station. Anyways, I'm getting off topic

Gotta go find some, I'll try online of somin

Every kaitenzushi I've been to just used greentea bags for their tea. Then again I always went to the maizara 110en kinda places

I found this product that sethg mentioned on Rakuten here:
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/wellness-web/10046001/

I had heard that Rakuten has a half-baked English version for international orders, so just for the hell of it I found the same product here:
http://en.item.rakuten.com/bicymt/100268...5%E3%83%BC

The page spits out a hilarious Google auto-translation, and when you do "Shipping Estimation" and enter United States, 15kg... it gives an estimate of 19500 yen.

Epic FAIL. But good for laughs.

You read it wrong. 15kg is a very heavy package. Keep in mind that the average JP adult woman weighs ~52kg or less.

The tea packs are 15 GRAMS. You were off by a factor of 1000. There are 6 pouches per box and 4 boxes. That equals 360 grams. The estimator says 1200Y for Canada - perfectly reasonable.

I am teh FAIL!

Thanks for pointing out my mistake Jarvik7. Does indeed sound reasonable now.

DavidZ Wrote:15kg... it gives an estimate of 19500 yen.

That's a lot of tea, like 37 pounds, lol.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Every kaitenzushi I've been to just used greentea bags for their tea. Then again I always went to the maizara 110en kinda places

That's surprising. I think I've been to 2-3 that used tea bags, the rest had powdered tea-container-cups with tiny spoons.

Weeks ago I was also looking for matcha green tea, it's a little pricey but I got mine here: http://www.minami-nutrition.co.uk/
or more direct: http://www.minami-nutrition.co.uk/omega-3/matcha.php
(I use the Belgian website, duh )
I couldn't find that tea here in a regular shop, even in the health stores nearby.

[offtopic]They also have high quality omega3 capsules, but there's a price you pay... too bad, because I do like those omega3 pills

I guess not many people are such green tea drinkers, or am i wrong?