We review matcha sold in India and increasingly beyond it. Being listed here cannot be bought. It can, however, be earned, and the criteria are published below in full so that any brand can see exactly what it is being measured against.
The one-line version. Tell us what is in the tin, prefecture, harvest, cultivar, mill, pack date, price per gram, and we will list you and say so. Refuse to, and we will list you and say that instead. Payment changes neither outcome.
The Verified Disclosure badge
Most matcha sold outside Japan tells the buyer almost nothing checkable. “Ceremonial grade”, “AAA” and “premium” are unregulated words. So rather than rank brands on adjectives, we score them on what they are willing to put in writing.
A brand that discloses all six of the following, publicly and on the product page, carries the Verified Disclosure mark on its entry. It is not a quality award and we are explicit about that. It is a transparency award, and it is the one thing on this site a brand can achieve purely by choosing to.
| # | Criterion | What satisfies it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Origin | Named prefecture, not “Japan”. Uji, Nishio, Shizuoka, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Aichi. |
| 2 | Harvest | Which flush, and ideally the month. First harvest (ichibancha) stated as such. |
| 3 | Cultivar | Named, Okumidori, Saemidori, Yabukita, Samidori, or an honest “proprietary blend”. |
| 4 | Milling | Stone-milled or machine-ground, stated plainly. |
| 5 | Freshness | A pack or mill date on the tin, not only a best-before date. |
| 6 | Price per gram | Pack weight stated clearly enough that a buyer can compute it without guessing. |
As of August 2026, very few brands available in India clear all six. That is precisely why the mark is worth having.
What we will not do
Stated in advance so nobody has to ask awkwardly:
- We do not sell rank. No payment, sample, gift, discount or advertising spend moves a brand up a list. This is not only an ethical position, paid rank order would breach Google’s link-spam and site-reputation policies and would put the site’s search visibility at risk. The commercial incentive and the editorial one point the same way.
- We do not remove criticism. If we record that a brand does not disclose its harvest, that stays until the brand discloses it. Factual errors are a different matter and are fixed quickly, see our corrections policy.
- We do not publish brand-supplied copy as editorial. Ever. Press releases and brand write-ups are useful as source material and are never run as our own words.
- We do not offer pre-publication approval. Brands are shown factual claims about their product for accuracy checking, not the verdict for sign-off.
What we do offer
| Track | What happens | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Brand review | Your matcha is added to the India ranking with price per gram computed, disclosure scored against the six criteria, and a Verified Disclosure mark if it qualifies. | Free |
| Café listing | Added to the relevant city guide with the powder you serve, whether you whisk to order, price, and neighbourhood. | Free |
| Correction or update | Prices, reformulations, new SKUs, closures. Turned around fast. | Free |
| Sponsored placement | Clearly labelled, visually separated, outside every ranked list, and never presented as editorial. Links carry rel="sponsored". | Enquire |
Why free. The value of this site to a brand is that readers believe it. Charging for review would destroy the thing being sold. Sponsorship is kept structurally separate for the same reason, see our editorial policy.
How to submit
Send the following. Submissions with all six disclosure fields are assessed first, simply because they take less work to verify.
- Brand name and website
- The SKUs you want considered, with pack weight in grams and current price
- Prefecture, harvest, cultivar, milling method, pack date for each
- Any certification, JAS organic, USDA, radiation testing, heavy-metal panels. Lab results are the single most useful thing you can send us, and almost nobody does.
- Where a buyer in India can actually purchase it
- Whether you are offering samples, declared publicly on the entry if we accept them
Where to send it
Or DM shivangi@knowyourmatcha.com on Instagram, which is read daily and is usually the faster route. Cafés can use the same address — put the city in the subject line.
Cafés: send the city, neighbourhood, address, which matcha brand and grade you pour, whether it is whisked to order, your matcha prices, and one photograph you own the rights to.
What happens after you submit
- Acknowledgement, within a week.
- Verification, we check disclosure claims against your public product pages. Anything you tell us privately but do not publish does not count towards the badge; the point is that buyers can see it.
- Listing, you appear with price per gram, disclosure score, and Not yet tested until tasted.
- Tasting, blind, against the published protocol. Samples, if sent, are disclosed on the entry.
If you are already listed
Every brand on the India ranking is there because it is sold in India, not because it asked to be. If your entry is wrong, out of date, or missing a disclosure you have since published, tell us and it will be corrected. That route is open whether or not you ever talk to us about anything else.