Nanaya, a Japanese ice cream shop which has branches in Shizuoka and Tokyo, claims to be the home of the richest matcha gelato in the world. It’s a favourite of both locals and tourists looking for a potent green tea experience.

The name ‘Nanaya’ is a reference to the seven green tea ice creams that they peddle ('nana' meaning seven), with numbers 1 to 7 being an ascending scale of flavour intensity. Gelato number 1 is the mildest and the infamous number 7 is the boldest and bitterest flavour, suitable for matcha heavyweights only.

Nanaya’s sliding scale of green tea potency has been translated into another foodstuff, bringing the store’s high quality matcha and expertise to the chocolate world.

The 'Matcha 7' was first revealed last year just before Japan’s most important chocolate-gifting celebration, Valentine’s Day.

Like the ice cream, chocolates 1 to 7 increase in intensity as you go along, and this flavour is reflected in the gradually deepening green colour of the bars, forming the pretty gradient you can see in the photos.

Well this year it’s back again with an updated taste.

Although many of us were hoping this meant an even richer matcha flavour, according to Nanaya, the concentration of 29.1% found in last year’s chocs was literally the zenith, the pinnacle of green tea goodness that can be found in a chocolate. Anymore than that and chocolate can’t actually be formed anymore.

So rather than adjust the amount of matcha powder in the formulation, instead Nanaya worked on finding the best balance of cocoa butter and other ingredients, in order to best accentuate the rich taste even further. To reflect this, the renewed Matcha 7 collection is called ‘Premium Matcha 7’.

The same as the previous incarnation, two of each number have been included, plus two hojicha flavoured chocolate bars. Hojicha is a type of roasted green tea with a reddish brown colour and a kind of toasty flavour when infused.

With this new recipe, Nanaya claim they have reached new heights of green tea greatness. So if you want to pick up a never-tasted before chocolate experience for your beau this Valentine’s Day, the Premium Matcha 7 is currently available in certain branches of Nanaya and in their online store.