Explaining how I rate Matcha
Welcome back! This time, to a more informative post again, instead of a review.
At the end of my reviews, you can read things like "๐ต๐ต๐ต๐ต๐ต 5 out of 5 matcha bowls". What does that mean exactly, aside from being the usual 5-star metric?
Matcha that actually taste very different from each other can have the same rating. This has multiple reasons:
- The scale of 1 to 5 doesn't leave that much room for nuance.
- I don't only rate the quality and taste - I also rate how well it works for its intended audience.
- I don't really want to update my ratings all the time; if I measured which one is truly the best I've had so strongly, I would have to adjust every other matcha's rating in relation to it every couple weeks. That's not fun.
- This blog is mostly for fun, so I am trying not to overthink it and go with my gut as well :)
It's acknowledging that not every matcha from every company is intended for the same thing and group of people! It would be unfair to give the local supermarket matcha intended for a quick mixed drink a very low score just because the best and most high quality ceremonial matcha has a 5-star (bowl?) rating and they're nothing alike. If I only rated on taste, I would have to have very little amount of 5-bowl reviews and a ton of 1-2 bowl reviews. That would make most matcha seem bad, which they aren't. What would initially sound more accurate, would be making everything very inaccurate.
I also always try to find good things in it in connection to its pricing, ease of mixing, whether it is an allrounder or better for baking, iced, etc. :)
So even if you search for a good matcha and see the 5-bowl or 4-bowl ratings, you'll have to go into the review to find out more. Maybe that one is genuinely the best one I've had, or it is the best one for 'beginners' who want a little better than supermarket or Starbucks matcha and is otherwise a solid choice, too.