Where does HULU BLAVK source its matcha?

Four grades — Rikyu, Wakaba, Hikari, and Muyu — are sourced and stone-ground in Uji, Kyoto, and sealed at origin, so the tin opened at our counter is the tin that left Japan. Ritual 003 breaks that pattern on purpose: it's single-origin leaf from one named farm in Shizuoka, Yamama Masudaen, sealed whole and stone-milled in-bar the day you drink it. Ritual 003 Champion's sourcing is being reconfirmed and will be updated here once finalised.

Why does most of HULU BLAVK's matcha come from Uji, and one grade from Shizuoka?

Uji has the longest unbroken stone-mill tradition in the world, dating to the 13th century, and the ceremonial-grade tencha cultivars cluster more tightly in Uji than in any other Japanese tea region — which is why the four grades you take home, sealed for months on a shelf, are blended Uji leaf built for consistency. Ritual 003 doesn't have to survive a shelf; it's drunk within hours of being milled. That freed us to choose on distinction rather than consistency, and Yamama Masudaen's Shizuoka leaf — Emperor's Cup-winning tencha — earned the exception.

Is HULU BLAVK matcha blended?

Yes — and that is the Uji tradition, not a shortcut. A ceremonial grade is a recipe built by a tea master from several cultivars, and in some grades several harvests, so the character stays consistent from one season to the next. Yabukita carries structure, Okumidori carries colour and sweetness, Sayamakaori adds aroma. Single-field matcha swings with the weather; blending is how a serious tea house absorbs that volatility instead of passing it to your bowl. Order Hikari in March and again in November and you should get Hikari.

What cultivars does HULU BLAVK use?

The four sealed Uji grades are blends of Yabukita, Okumidori, and Sayamakaori in proportions that differ by grade — Muyu is Yabukita-dominant with regional Uji varietals, Hikari and Wakaba are higher-tier Yabukita and Okumidori selections. Ritual 003 is the exception: a single-origin ceremonial selection from one Shizuoka farm, not a blend. The cultivar, harvest, mill, and micronage for each grade are printed on that grade's page.

How can I verify the quality of a HULU BLAVK matcha?

Read the five specs printed on every grade page: origin, cultivar, harvest, mill method, and micronage. Micronage is the one most shops omit — ceremonial matcha is ground to roughly 5 to 20 microns, fine enough to suspend in water rather than sink. HULU BLAVK grades run 5 to 20 microns depending on grade, and the range for each is published. Anyone can print the words ceremonial grade; a micron figure and a named mill method are checkable.

Why does HULU BLAVK use Uji for most grades and Shizuoka for Ritual 003?

Uji is the historical and technical centre of ceremonial-grade matcha — stone-mill craft, tencha cultivar selection, and shade-grown agronomy converge there in a way they don't converge elsewhere, which is why the four grades that have to hold their character on a shelf for months are Uji blends. Ritual 003 has no shelf to survive; it's milled and drunk the same day, so a single distinctive lot can be the point rather than a risk. Shizuoka grows excellent tencha too, and Yamama Masudaen — an Emperor's Cup-winning farm — is the specific reason that exception exists.

Sourcing · 6 min read · 2026-04-20 · Updated 2026-08-18

How we chose Uji.

Uji is to ceremonial matcha what Champagne is to sparkling wine — a region-specific tradition that carries craft in the same breath as terroir. The shaded tencha plots in the hills around Kyoto have been growing leaves for thick-bowl koicha and thin-whisk usucha since the 13th century. When the question was which Japanese region would supply HULU BLAVK, the answer was structural before it was sensory: Uji has the longest unbroken stone-mill tradition in the world, and ceremonial-grade tencha needs both the plant genetics and the milling discipline to land in the bowl correctly.

Here is the part most matcha menus leave out. A ceremonial grade is not one leaf from one field — it is a blend, built on purpose by a tea master. Yabukita carries the structure and the backbone. Okumidori brings the colour and the sweetness that survives milk. Sayamakaori adds aroma at the top. A grade is a recipe: the same character, held steady, season after season. That is harder than pouring whatever a single hillside produced this year, not easier — and it is why Uji has done it this way for centuries.

The alternative sounds romantic and drinks badly. Weather moves. A field that was extraordinary one May is ordinary the next. A house that refuses to blend either sells you the ordinary year quietly, or disappears the grade off the menu. Blending is how a serious tea house takes that volatility onto itself instead of putting it in your bowl. When you order Hikari in March and again in November, you should get Hikari.

So we do not ask you to trust a story. We publish the spec. Every grade page on this site prints the same five things: origin, cultivar, harvest, mill, and micronage — the particle size the leaf was ground to, in microns. Ceremonial matcha lives between roughly five and twenty microns; below that band it is not ceremonial, above it, it sinks in the bowl and turns gritty on the tongue. Ours run 5–20 across the six grades and each number is on its own page. Anyone can print the words ceremonial grade. A micron range is checkable.

“A ceremonial grade is a recipe, not an accident. Blending is how Uji holds a flavour steady through a decade of weather.”

The mill is the line we will not cross. Four of our grades — Rikyu, Wakaba, Hikari, Muyu — are stone-ground in Uji and sealed at origin, so the tin you open at our counter is the tin that left Japan. The two Ritual 003 grades are different: the leaf arrives whole and is stone-milled in-bar, on the day, in front of you. Granite turns at about thirty revolutions per minute because anything faster makes heat, and heat burns the umami out of the leaf. Ball-milling gets to a similar particle size in five minutes and costs the tea its character. We do not stock it. Not for the bar, not for the shelf.

One grade breaks the rule, on purpose. Rikyu, Wakaba, Hikari and Muyu are sealed the day they're milled and drunk months later — blending is what keeps them tasting like themselves across a season neither of us controls. Ritual 003 is drunk the same day it's milled, so that problem doesn't exist. It comes from one named farm in Shizuoka — Yamama Masudaen, an Emperor's Cup-winning tencha producer — sealed as whole leaf and opened at the bar. A single distinctive lot is an asset when nothing has to survive a shelf; it's a liability when it does. That's the whole reason four grades stay in Uji and one doesn't.

And here is what we are not going to tell you. We do not own a hillside in Kyoto, and for the four sealed grades we are not going to invent a farmer for the back of the tin — a blend doesn't have one to name. Where a grade genuinely does have one, we'll name it: Ritual 003 is Yamama Masudaen, no substitute. Otherwise, what we will do is name the region, name the cultivars, print the harvest, print the mill, print the micron, and grind two of the six grades where you can watch. Everything on this site is something you can hold us to. Original state. No shortcuts.

Questions, answered.

Where does HULU BLAVK source its matcha?: Four grades — Rikyu, Wakaba, Hikari, and Muyu — are sourced and stone-ground in Uji, Kyoto, and sealed at origin, so the tin opened at our counter is the tin that left Japan. Ritual 003 breaks that pattern on purpose: it's single-origin leaf from one named farm in Shizuoka, Yamama Masudaen, sealed whole and stone-milled in-bar the day you drink it. Ritual 003 Champion's sourcing is being reconfirmed and will be updated here once finalised.
Why does most of HULU BLAVK's matcha come from Uji, and one grade from Shizuoka?: Uji has the longest unbroken stone-mill tradition in the world, dating to the 13th century, and the ceremonial-grade tencha cultivars cluster more tightly in Uji than in any other Japanese tea region — which is why the four grades you take home, sealed for months on a shelf, are blended Uji leaf built for consistency. Ritual 003 doesn't have to survive a shelf; it's drunk within hours of being milled. That freed us to choose on distinction rather than consistency, and Yamama Masudaen's Shizuoka leaf — Emperor's Cup-winning tencha — earned the exception.
Is HULU BLAVK matcha blended?: Yes — and that is the Uji tradition, not a shortcut. A ceremonial grade is a recipe built by a tea master from several cultivars, and in some grades several harvests, so the character stays consistent from one season to the next. Yabukita carries structure, Okumidori carries colour and sweetness, Sayamakaori adds aroma. Single-field matcha swings with the weather; blending is how a serious tea house absorbs that volatility instead of passing it to your bowl. Order Hikari in March and again in November and you should get Hikari.
What cultivars does HULU BLAVK use?: The four sealed Uji grades are blends of Yabukita, Okumidori, and Sayamakaori in proportions that differ by grade — Muyu is Yabukita-dominant with regional Uji varietals, Hikari and Wakaba are higher-tier Yabukita and Okumidori selections. Ritual 003 is the exception: a single-origin ceremonial selection from one Shizuoka farm, not a blend. The cultivar, harvest, mill, and micronage for each grade are printed on that grade's page.
How can I verify the quality of a HULU BLAVK matcha?: Read the five specs printed on every grade page: origin, cultivar, harvest, mill method, and micronage. Micronage is the one most shops omit — ceremonial matcha is ground to roughly 5 to 20 microns, fine enough to suspend in water rather than sink. HULU BLAVK grades run 5 to 20 microns depending on grade, and the range for each is published. Anyone can print the words ceremonial grade; a micron figure and a named mill method are checkable.
Why does HULU BLAVK use Uji for most grades and Shizuoka for Ritual 003?: Uji is the historical and technical centre of ceremonial-grade matcha — stone-mill craft, tencha cultivar selection, and shade-grown agronomy converge there in a way they don't converge elsewhere, which is why the four grades that have to hold their character on a shelf for months are Uji blends. Ritual 003 has no shelf to survive; it's milled and drunk the same day, so a single distinctive lot can be the point rather than a risk. Shizuoka grows excellent tencha too, and Yamama Masudaen — an Emperor's Cup-winning farm — is the specific reason that exception exists.

Where these numbers come from

Origin, cultivar, harvest, mill and micronage per grade: Supplier spec sheets held by HULU BLAVK, last reconciled 2026-08-18 (Ritual 003's Shizuoka/Yamama Masudaen correction). The same five fields are printed on every grade page on this site.
Cultivar roles (Yabukita · Okumidori · Sayamakaori): Supplier spec sheets, plus standard Japanese tea-cultivar references — Yabukita is the dominant Japanese cultivar by planted area; Okumidori and Sayamakaori are widely documented for colour retention and aroma respectively.
Ceremonial micron band (~5–20 microns): Industry-standard process knowledge for stone-ground ceremonial matcha, corroborated by the per-grade micronage on HULU BLAVK supplier spec sheets (5–20 microns across the six grades).
Stone-mill speed (~30 rpm) and heat trade-off vs ball-milling: Standard granite tea-mill operating practice: low rotation limits frictional heat, which degrades the volatile aromatics and amino acids responsible for umami. HULU BLAVK stocks no ball-milled matcha.
Uji ceremonial tea tradition (~13th century): Documented in standard Japanese tea histories — the Uji municipality and the Uji Tea Cooperative both publish background on the region's ceremonial tradition.

Original state. No shortcuts.