3 Leaf Tea

Matcha Latte Sipdown (266)

This smelled so strongly of banana. It tasted like matcha. I was sad. Still fun to try though so thank you Roswell Strange for sharing!

So normally I just dump a bunch of davidstea matcha into my morning smoothie and today I reached for this instead. However, I forgot this isn’t quite as sugared as davidstea so when I dumped the usual amount it ended up being a shitton of matcha and a whole lot of actual matcha flavor. As such, I had a fairly grassy smoothie, which is not what I hoped for but oh well. Thanks Roswell Strange for sharing this one. I will use a lot more care next time I make it.

This was picked by the random selector and I cold brewed it but this did not go well since it mostly tastes like grass. Thanks for sharing Roswell Strange but cold brewing was not the way to go with this one.

Last week my brother-in-law and I decided to try the Dalgona coffee recipe or I insisted he try it since I don’t drink coffee. We had one failed attempt due to using coffee grinds that claimed to be instant but weren’t and then we bought actual instant coffee and had a lot of success with it. So much that it’s been his go to coffee drink in afternoons and we have blasted through 1/2 of the instant coffee.

I tried to use the same dalgona coffee recipe to make dalgona matcha and it was a disaster. Here is my tasting note for the failed attempt: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/401164 and also, my photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-PwSjCgGV5/

Today, I found a new recipe that used an egg white and a sugar/water syrup. Lookswise, it is definitely improved. You can see that picture here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-cmqxCAf8Q/

Tastewise, it is crazy sweet which is to be expected in light of the 1/4 cup of white sugar that went into it via a simple syrup. If you can get over the sweetness though, it is creamy af. It’s basically like drinking a cardamom milkshake with the slightest hint of matcha. It’s interesting, to say the least. I think the Banana Matcha or a more fruity flavor would have worked better though since a cardamom milkshake is more odd than a strawberry or banana one. Nevertheless, it was a fun experiment and one made possible by Roswell Strange who share this with me. Thank you!!

I may try this again with a fruitier matcha. As for the cardamom matcha, it definitely has potential and would maybe work better in a white chocolate latte or made hot. I will play around with it since the cardamom flavor is definitely there.

I’ve had this one as an oat milk latte quite a few times this week. I sweeten it with a bit of honey and it’s wonderful. 3 Leaf does flavored matches really well.

Made an oat milk latte (3 parts banana, 1 part birthday cake), sweetened with rock sugar. So tasty!

Whisked up hot and straight Monday morning for #matchamonday…

I’ve bee drinking a lot of DT’s Yuzu Matcha this summer, which has a lot more bite and acidity to it – which, I mean, makes sense because that blend has citric acid. There’s a time and place for that level of intensity, but I think what I really appreciated Monday morning about this tea was that it didn’t have that level of punch to it. The flavour was still fresh and citrusy with a brightness to it, but it was calmer and smoother with more of the grassy flavours of the matcha itself coming through. Yuzu Matcha might be a “slap you awake” kind of citrus flavour, but this is more a “soothe you into your day” approach.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBLOtqkATKT/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiRnHRw_i6U

Y’all ever sometimes have the idea to make a tea a specific way and in the back of your mind you’re like “I’m almost certainly not going to like this…” but you still do it anyway!? Yeah, that was me this afternoon when I decided that I wanted to make this tea as a latte…

Honestly; it wasn’t as strange as it sounds – like a “Lemonade Matcha Latte” sounds gross, but it actually tasted more like lemon meringue pie!? Slightly creamy, thick and a bit sweet. Could have used a touch more sweetness or creaminess to smooth out some of the rougher edges though in my opinion. It was also really grassy alongside that lemon meringue type of profile, and I didn’t love that either.

But honestly, I still have to give this a 10/10 in terms of beating my expectations for how it’d turn out…

Last weekend I went to Montreal Pride, which was amazing! I was a little bit surprised to find out that the parade is held in August instead of June or July but in a pleasant way because it meant that I didn’t miss out on it!

The parade was so much longer than any of the ones I’ve experienced back home in Regina, but it was amazing! The floats were so well done and it was just very empowering! The best part, though, was that one of the floats near the end of the parade was a celebration of asexuality/asexual awareness – which just hit me so hard. I almost broke down and cried…

But it was a hot fucking day, so I made sure to pack lots of tea with me for the parade to keep hydrated and refreshing – primarily a water bottle of cold shaken lemonade matcha. This was my first time trying this tea and I may have been a little hyped up by the excitement of the parade – but I enjoyed it a lot. It really did taste like I’d mixed together matcha and lemonade; very bright and citrusy with a pleasant pucked and mouthwatering quality! I’m excited to play around with this one some more; I see some great potential!

Another tea from the weekend!

This was nice – I just whisked up a very small amount hot and then added a tiny bit of coconut milk, and it was like having a mug of banana pudding but with that familiar undertone of creamy but grassy matcha. I liked it a lot; and it made me feel a little bit bad from forgetting that this was even in my stash in the first place.

Made a cup of this on Friday, a little watered down just because I know that this is a sweeter banana flavour and I wasn’t in the mood for quite that level of oomph factor. Everyone in the lab was impressed by this one and how smooth and distinct it was, and also sweet and flavourful for a matcha that is actually unsweetened. Someone compared it to banana Runts candies, and at full strength I totally agree with that assessment, but at the level I had made it this time around I don’t think it was actually that strong and banana-candy tasting. Just sort of alluding to the fact it had the potential to be that kind of flavour…

Hot oat milk latte!

I was a bit worried when I cracked open the package because I couldn’t really smell the banana at all from the dry powder, but sure enough the moment the water hit the matcha I was hit with the sweet smell of ripe bananas!

This was pretty good – the oat milk has a strong and distinct taste, and was very much present in the latte so I think I’d prefer this made with either actual milk or a more neutral milk alternative, but regardless the banana flavour was present and distinct. Kind of a mix between ripe bananas and more of a sweet banana “candy” sort of banana. I’ll admit, I adored the Bananas & Cream matcha from Red Leaf Tea so I was personally hoping that this would lean more towards that sweet banana candy/creamy banana side and I wish the latte was a bit more intense and on that level flavour wise, but it’s still really good! I could probably up the amount of matcha used just a little bit as well, and then maybe I’d get a touch closer to the banana profile that I wanted. Overall, I’m happy with this one though!

It is a very cold, grey and rainy day today so I pulled out what I think is arguably the most cozy matcha that I own for Matcha Monday this morning…

It’s hard to describe this as tasting like anything else but Cardamom, because the flavour is just so accurate and so strong. It works with creamy, frothy matcha though and whisked up in a teacup I felt perfect warm (inside and out) while I listened to the rain and cozied up at my desk wrapped in massive blankets.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGh6zAqAGye/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4o_16DpGbY&ab_channel=Thestate51Conspiracy

I said I was going to be having more matcha infused marscapone on my morning bagels and I meant it – though I thought I would experiment a little bit with matcha outside of the DT ones. This actually mixed in a lot better than I anticipated it would (the DT ones dissolve into the marscapone because of the sugar). Though, there were still a few small clumps I couldn’t get totally worked in…

The flavour I think just wasn’t the best one – it has a hint of cardamom but really the elements that were mostly drawn out were the grassy flavour of the matcha itself. I don’t hate the taste of matcha, but I don’t love it either – that’s why I typically opt for drinking the flavoured ones. So, this was edible but not amazing either.

I may try with some of the other 3 Leaf Tea matcha flavours, though!

Hot oat milk latte!

I really, really enjoyed the oat milk lattes I was making a few months ago – however, I also didn’t go through the litre of oat milk I had purchased fast enough and it did this super gross thing where it fermented. So, I stopped buying it – that is, until a few days ago when I was at the grocery store and I saw that they were now carrying oat milk in little 250ml tetra packs – the kind a kid might take to school in a lunchbox. Perfection! I bought one of the smaller sets of three, because I realized that they’re the exact perfect amount for a latte! So, I can cut one open into my Breville and froth it, with zero waste of the milk itself (and then just recycle the tetra pack). What a wonderful solution to the problem I had!

So that’s exactly what this was; small bit of matcha paste whisked up and then mixed with the 250ml pack of frother oat milk. It’s fucking delicious too; cardamom oat milk!? Oh hell yeah, don’t mind if I do! It was creamy, and a little sweet and very warming/comforting. Couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried!

Photo (because the swirl was just so pretty):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzLH0NAAKh6/

Coconut Milk Latte!

I recently ordered three different matchas from 3 Leaf Tea as I was looking to diversify my matcha options a little bit, and I also wanted unsweetened matcha. I chose this one because I had never tried a cardamom matcha before and I was really intrigued by the idea of it – I’m really into cardamom right now and I pictured it being this really lovely flavour profile for lattes!

It does smell and taste very distinctly of cardamom and it’s so warm and cozy feeling! I like the level of cardamom flavour in this a lot as well as the natural sweetness. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of drinking liquified halva! The only complaint I have is that the finish of this was incredibly peppery – like black pepper? I didn’t hate the taste, but it detracted for my cardamom loveliness.

I wonder at what point 3 Leaf Tea started shipping to Canada? I remember years ago they sent samples out for people to review – I think it was the raspberry I tried and really liked? I’ve tried ordering from them a few times in the past, actually, only to see that they don’t ship to Canada – so it was a very nice and delightful surprise to peep their website when I was trying to determine what new matcha I wanted only to see that ordering was FINALLY an option…

I’m excited to try the other two flavours I picked up.

I got this in a Sipsby box and thought I could sort of recreate a tangerine mojito I had at a restaurant in Toronto. I did this by putting this matcha in tangerine lemonade except I got no mint that way. So, I tried the matcha just in water and basically it tasted like grass. This just wasn’t great.

Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2019/01/29/mint-matcha-from-3-leaf/

Home – 10:00 AM

Matcha milk of the morning! Prepared using 1 teaspoon of matcha to 8 ounces of soy milk, and sweetened with a half teaspoon of maple agave.

Wow, it’s amazing how good this matcha base is after trying some others… I’m even more impressed with it now. So smooth and sweet, and whisks very well.

It’s unfortunate that this maple version doesn’t have much flavoring (in my opinion), but I just remedy that by adding maple agave instead of plain. ;)

Home – 9:30 AM

Matcha time! Prepared as a matcha milk using soy milk.

I will admit, I’m a bit disappointed in this one. I’m finding very little maple flavor. The banana version definitely has much more flavoring than this one.

It’s still nice enough as a plain matcha, but it’s not supposed to be plain. I guess I’ll just add maple agave to this one. ;)

I’m also picking up on some seaweedy notes since there’s less flavoring.

Very smooth, tasty matcha but it’s not flavored in my opinion.

365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 4/365

Matcha day! ❤

This matcha from 3 Leaf is so lovely, especially after drinking so much Bird & Blend matcha last month. Not to complain too much about B&B’s version, they have some nice and interesting flavors but their matcha base is quite weak.

The matcha here is much more flavorful, with nice sweet grass and vegetal notes with a hint of seaweed. It’s very smooth and sweet with no bitterness, yet is strong enough to be prepared as a latte.

With the added soymilk, it has a wonderful banana pudding flavor!

I’ll definitely be ordering more flavored matcha from 3 Leaf once I finish off one of my two current pouches. :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsODW5XlQ1c/

Home – 9:30 AM

I received my small order from 3 Leaf Tea yesterday – it included a 30g packet each of Maple Matcha and Banana Matcha.

So banana matcha milk it is this morning! I used one teaspoon of matcha for 8 ounces of soy milk, and sweetened with a touch of granulated Splenda. This matcha whisked up quite well, with only a few teeny lumps at the bottom of the bowl.

It came out really yummy. The matcha is sweet and grassy with just a touch of bitterness, and the banana flavor seems very authentic to me. It’s like having a ripe banana smoothie with matcha in it. I’m also very happy with the level of flavoring, it’s not overpowering but I don’t have to search to find it either. The texture also seems very smooth and not grainy.

Overall, would definitely recommend! It seems fairly well-priced too, at $12 for 30g.

Can’t wait to try the maple version! :D

May Flowers! Seeing as I’m a huge lavender fan, of course when I found some lavender matcha I had to get some. I like my matcha latte-style, since the vanilla almond milk adds a bit of sweetness and creaminess all at once, so I tend to prepare my matcha very lazily by putting a sifted teaspoon into my milk frother with a cup of milk and letting it mix and heat up at the same time.

The dry matcha had a very strong lavender scent, but my finished latte pretty much just smelled like an average matcha latte, without a lavender aroma… I’m not sure if the milk made that much of a difference, or if the flavoring was more subtle than it seems once out of the bag. Most of the cup I was just getting a very sweet, grassy matcha taste, but toward the end of my cup, I finally started getting a distinct lavender flavor. I stirred up my cup with a spoon even after its frothing, but it seems the flavor still settled toward the bottom of the cup. Once I did reach the lavender flavor, it was quite nice though. The flavor goes nicely with the sweet grassy flavor of the matcha, and I’m looking forward to trying some other things with it, like matcha lemonade.

This one was also from this afternoon. I haven’t had matcha in an eternity, so made this one in to a latte. Overall as a result this one was totally fine. I probably should have had it straight but flavoured matcha for me was always more about lattes and smoothies :) Thanks VariaTEA!

Final Count: 39