Opinions about matcha bitterness?

[GuiHua]

Hi,

Many times I see matcha teas with bitter taste described as ”utterly-high quality” when being sold, even when it's sold by experienced tea vendors with good reputation. I also heard a friend saying that ”matcha should have a little bit of bitterness to it”.
Do you people on this forum have any thoughts on the matter? Do you agree that bitter matcha can be good matcha?

Personally I don’t drink matcha that even has a hint of bitterness. I know that there exist high grade, delicious matcha that only taste smooth and savory, and that’s what I prefer. If there is bitterness in it I find that it tends to conceal and take the focus away from all those subtle and good flavors (plus the bitterness itself is really unpleasant). So I’ve sort of come to think of all bitter matchas as garbage tea, but maybe that’s just me...

[Teasenz]

I do not have enough experience with Matcha to give you a definite answer, but the times that I had high quality ceremonial matcha (i know because I tried them at a fair, from suppliers I know offer high quality authentic matcha), they were always really good and not bitter.

It's just that outside of Japan, low quality matcha becomes medium quality, and medium quality get's marketed as ceremonial, because there are just soo many matcha sellers nowadays.