Matcha Outlet

GCTTB

So apparently I have had this one before though after reading my note it seems that I made it as a smoothie and the flavor of the sample Roswell Strange sent was completely drowned out by everything else.

Well, not this time. I made it as a matcha milk and I am tasting…bubblegum? Yep. Bubblegum. Like the sweet, pink chewing gum. That was unexpected. And yet it is also reminiscent of champagne. Not quite sure how that works and I am thinking maybe the power of suggestion is at play here but champagne is also present here (or more like sparkling white wine which tends to be sweeter than actual champagne).

Thank you Roswell Strange for adding this to the box. It was nice to actually get to taste this tea.

Roswell Strange sent me this many months ago and I have been at a loss for what to do with it. Usually I drink my matcha with milk but Champagne milk just seemed like an odd choice. However, for some reason, a champagne vanilla smoothie seemed like it would work better. In hindsight I’m not sure why but that’s how I made this and unfortunately all the champagne flavor is drowned out by the vanilla smoothie mix. Seriously, I am getting no flavor at all and seeing as it’s distinctive flavoring, I should be able to taste something but alas I got nothing at all. Still, thank you Roswell Strange for the share!

Good quality looking matcha. I’m always a little weary when they are that nasty green instead of being closer to the bright lovely green. I have no idea as to what spurred me into buying this one other then the fact that I like honey. It’s quite sweet. Leaves a pleasant after taste.

So smooth. Much better than expected. I got the basic grade which was a not as nice of green color like usual for the basic grade. Anyway, great taste. Mixed it with almond milk. Nom

Matcha TTB

This is just so good! Rich, creamy, caramel matcha goodness with a very slight hint of saltiness. I have tried Red Leaf’s matcha before but for some reason I haven’t tried this one. So impressed. Threw some in cold almond milk. Yum!

Makes me very tempted to make an order. . .

I was so excited to try this flavor this morning! Thanks for the sample Red Leaf!

I made myself a cold matcha latte out of this. I love pistachios, and while this is a very tasty matcha flavor, I wouldn’t say the taste reminded me of pistachios really. It definitely has a nutty vibe. Maybe like a pistachio candy of some kind? Or nougat. It is somewhat nougat-ish.

Anyway, very nice flavor! I’ll happily finish my sample but this one won’t be a re-order for me.

This one was one I couldn’t pass up. I love Creme Brulee. Surprisingly it’s good cold too. Anyway onto the matcha. Nice rich green color. Great flavor. I started out with a little over a 1/2 tsp of matcha and mixed in hot water (about 3 tbsp of water) with my electric whisker. I need to get a bamboo one…. I then microwaved some almond milk and whisked it into the matcha. The water was hotter then I thought so I think I may have burnt the matcha a lil but once it cooled down…. nomnomnom

No one has been brave and tried this flavor yet??

Perhaps no one is familiar with panettone cake? I will briefly describe it for those of you who may not be familiar. It is a light, airy cake the texture of a yeast roll, very lightly sweetened and studded with candied citrus peel and raisins. Since it is so light and not overly sweet it makes AMAZING French Toast!

So I got this matcha organic, lowest possible flavor level, and with the slightly upgraded “royal” matcha.

I made a cold latte this morning with 1/2tsp match, 1 cup milk, and 1 tsp powdered sugar (sometimes sugar helps the flavor pop)

It was VERY good! It has a nice candied citrus taste, and is not at all artificial or funky. Highly recommended if you like the idea of candied citrus matcha :D

Thanks to Anlina for the sample! :) I tried this a few different ways. A while ago, I mixed it up with 80 degree water (using a milk frother) and tasted it that way. It was ok, tasted like matcha plus a nutty flavour that wasn’t unlike macadamia nuts, but there was definitely some bitterness that I wasn’t a huge fan of. Then I heated/frothed some milk and made it into a latte, which definitely helped, though there was still a bit of a funny aftertaste to it. Today I finished off my sample by dumping the rest (about 1tsp) into the blender with 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp of hemp protein powder, a bit of sweetener, and 2 c. of skim milk. Very tasty! It added a bit of nuttiness and a caffeine boost to my blender drink, but there were enough other flavours in there to prevent any bitterness or weird tastes from emerging. So… recommended as a smoothie add-in but not as a straight matcha drink. :)

I’ve never tasted another matcha quite like this one. Its distinct floral flavor easily gave it away as one of our first place winners from the last round of the Matcha Blind Taste Test, but it didn’t fair as well in round 2. It’s yellow-green coloring wasn’t nearly as brilliant as some of our other samples and it lacked the depth of flavor that our winner had. 

You can read the full results of the blind taste test on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/7/13/tuesday-tea-blind-taste-test-6-matcha-teas-compared-sponsored

This week I took part in a blind taste test of 12 different types of matcha which was sponsored by Red Leaf Tea. Each tea was rated based on color, flavor, and sweetness. Deluxe matcha was one of the teas that scored the highest. It had a sweet and heavily floral flavor that is unlike any other matcha I’ve tried. The texture was great, it didn’t have the bitterness or grainy texture you find in lower grade matcha. Best of all, it was one of the least expensive, costing only $1.56 per ounce

You can read the results from the full taste test on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/4/26/tuesday-tea-blind-taste-test-12-matcha-teas-compared-sponsored

Matcha TTB

Thank you Red Leaf Tea for giving us samples to add to the Matcha TTB.

I’ve been drinking a lot of matcha lately. I’ve been using cashew milk a lot which has worked very well. This is a nice creamy drink but it doesn’t seem as chocolatey as I expected. Usually I’m wow’d by the flavors from Red Leaf. I still enjoyed my drink but this wouldn’t be the one I would order in a larger size (although I certainly would drink up any samples sizes).

Matcha TTB

As usual, a nice creamy matcha from Red Leaf Tea. I make mine with cashew milk lately but have used soy and almond with my Red Leaf matcha and have always been pleased. I don’t taste a guava flavor, just a general fruity flavor. Nothing wrong with it but not outstanding.

Sipdown (119)!

This is a queued tasting note.

Happy belated May the 4th guys!

Finished this up by cold shaking this one into a timolino of milk; I had a really awful sleep the night before so the instant caffeine boost from this was a slight life saver at work the next day. Just to get that extra caffeine jolt I added more matcha than I normally would have; and the last teeny bit I gave to one of the dietitians at work since she couldn’t stop going on about how great the Tiramisu matcha I gave her was.

Apparently she went to DT to see if any of their matcha was comparable, and all DT’s flavoured matcha just tasted so flat to her. Personally, I haven’t tried any of the flavoured stuff from DT yet but I can totally see it! They’re relying on coconut sugar as a sweetener and, in my personal opinion, as a filler too…

Unfortunately for me while more leaf meant more caffeine the flavor suffered a little bit; the raspberry was amped up to the point where it started to take on a rather artificial floral/perfumey quality that while tolerable was a little unpleasant too. The chocolate/truffle notes, interestingly, seemed to stay the same. Either way it was still pretty tasty and a life saver during the day. It’s not something that I’ll order though; while I’ve been mentally putting together a Red Leaf order for a while now this doesn’t compare as well with the blends I want to order that I’ve already tried, and it doesn’t trump the blends I want to order and haven’t tried.

In other news, Tre got his Star Wars tattoo! I think it’s so cool he got it done on May the 4th. For those who missed it, this is his very first tattoo and he got the Empire Emblem, with a red tint, on the back of his right shoulder blade. It definitely looks well done, though it’s just starting to enter its “ugly stage” of healing now.

He spent the ENTIRE night bitching/complaining about how much it hurt though and how in pain he was. Seriously!? He always boasts about being tough/having a high pain tolerance (even though neither of those is particularly true) but just went on and fucking on. I wanted to give him a good bitch slap by the end of the night and tell him to fucking grow a pair.

I’ve got a tattoo on my inner elbow (a place generally agreed to be more sensitive than where he got his) and while it definitely wasn’t comfortable, it certainly wasn’t overly painful and I did not complain about it at all.

So far he’s doing an ok job with the aftercare; I had to convince him not to take his bandages off after having them on for just an hour (instead of the artist’s recommended eight hours) though. He thought he was “bleeding” (he wasn’t) and wanted to clean everything up. No! No! No! And, he’s still not using lotion on it at all so it’s super dry and flaky looking right now.

At least he’s not scratching, though!

Thank you VariaTEA – you know I’m always up to try a new flavour of matcha.

You can definitely tell, just from the smell, that this is robust flavouring; if you focus hard enough you can actually pick up on the scent of the raspberry before even opening the resealable bag it comes in. And once it has been opened, you’re going to be flooded with the sweet smell of a confectionery-like raspberry with a dark chocolate backdrop – it’s 100% Raspberry Truffle in scent.

As I was whisking this one, it frothed up a great deal more than the average matcha and that thicker, frothy texture didn’t let up easily; for the first half of the chawan I probably could have consumed it with a spoon. It was that frothy! Considering how strong the smell is before being prepared, the flavour is actually surprisingly light – but there are some things about it that tip me off that it’s robust flavouring. I’ve noticed with other robustly flavoured matcha that some flavours tend to get a sort of chalky note; one that reminds me of children’s chewable vitamins or Tums. It seems particularly bad with flavours with fruit in them. This certainly isn’t the worst offender I’ve encountered (I think Orange probably wins that spot, or Boysenberry) but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed it at all.

Otherwise, the flavour is pretty good. I’m a touch surprised that the raspberry is coming off a lot stronger than the chocolate though; when I think of truffles I absolutely picture the over the top, dark, rich, fudgey chocolate notes with the ‘extra’ flavour kind of infused in as more of an aftertaste or undercurrent. You could say the opposite is true here! The raspberry doesn’t have any tartness or tang to it; more so it’s a bit of a sweet and confectionery type of raspberry; like what you’d have in a raspberry danish for example. The chocolate is obviously creamy from the milk but has a distinct ‘dark chocolate’ taste to it. It’s maybe a touch fudgey. The notes from the matcha itself are still present, though quite lightly. But that’s to be expected given the flavour level.

Overall; I’m quite happy with this one! It’s gonna do wonders for satisfying those late night sugar cravings and I’m already picturing how well this would taste lightly sprinkled over top cereal or popcorn. If I had to really emphasize anything to potential buyers though it’d probably just be to expect that the raspberry is going to taste stronger than the chocolate.

This matcha certainly has a fruity taste to it that borders on berry flavoring but mixed with milk, it is hard to determine that it is boysenberry as opposed to a generic berry flavor. Still it made for a good snack so thank you Roswell Strange for sharing!

Thank you Red Leaf Tea for this lovely sample!

Pistachio ice cream is a favorite of mine, so I had high expectations. Oh, this is wonderful! Creamy, nutty just what I would expect.

I made this with cashew milk so it was extra creamy but only 35 calories per cup. It doesn’t seem to froth as much as sometimes but I think of it might be the cashew milk. I’ll have to try it with soy, almond or coconut.

Got this sample from NayLynn!
This was from our first swap from forever ago. It’s definitely an oldie bc I think I forgot about it since it’s been stuck in a baggie in a baggie in a baggie in a baggie full of all my other matchas, and this was at the very bottom!

Good, but definitely tasted a bit weird haha. I’ll give this an actual rating when I drink a nice, fresh cuppa!

I knew I only wanted this tea because I wanted to use my new milk frother hehe :)

This tea makes the happiest matcha latte ever. Especially if you’re a loser like me and have Pumpkin Spice flavored sweeteners too. I went with the standard level of flavoring, so I was afraid it might need a little coaxing out, but it honestly didn’t need much help.

The sweet, creaminess of the pumpkin flavoring captured the sweet custard pumpkin flavor in the pie and pairs really well with the creaminess of a latte, and the cinnamon and clove notes are given a bit of oomph from a sweetener (especially one with a complimentary flavor profile), but are strong enough to seal the pumpkin pie illusion regardless.

Like usual, the matcha was solid and made a satisfying backdrop.

I don’t know how they keep doing it!

So my birthday was on Sunday and it was a pretty shit day thanks to my family. Luckily though, I always have my friends, both my real life ones and those I have made here on steepster. Seeing as my family neglected to even get me a single birthday card, it was especially nice when a lovely blue and white box arrived Monday evening from my amazing tea twin, Roswell Strange!! She sent me a tea book, lots of tea samples, a giant bag of one of my favorite rooibos blends, and an amazing pickle birthday card that sounded oddly like a cross between your typical old jewish man and my own dad. It really put a smile on my face so thank you so much Roswell!!!

Anyways, after the events of my birthday, my family decided that they just weren’t going to talk to me for a couple of days which meant I tended to stay in my room, cut off from my tea and my kettle :(. Today they started talking to me again and though it isn’t exactly a warm welcome, I can at least feel comfortable enough to make myself some tea so that’s what I did.

I decided to go for a matcha because I haven’t had one in a while and I thought it might be fun to dump it into my milk frother and see what happened. I wanted a warm drink though so I tried to choose a dessert flavor for an after-dinner treat but I also aimed for something that wouldn’t be weird hot. This seemed like it should fit the bill so I pulled it out of my birthday box, courtesy of Roswell Strange, and whipped it up (literally I guess as that’s what the frother does :P).

Unfortunately, this matcha + warm, frothy skim milk has led to a drink that is much, much more pie than berry and not in a good way. It has almost taken on a yeasty/buttery type flavor like undercooked pie crust. I can smell the berries but I’m not getting much of them flavorwise, though every now and then I get a dose of cinnamon which I can’t decide if that’s good or bad. Anyways, as a hot cup, this is not for me but heres hoping that the berry comes out more in a cold brew.

In other news, one good thing that happened Sunday is I just happened to break my kindle while my dad called to wish me a Happy Birthday. Granted, the breaking my kindle part sucked as I have basically been reading a book a day for the past two weeks (though it still functions, just now I have a sad button that makes it a little troublesome to browse/buy books) but since it happened while I was talking to my dad, he offered to buy me a new one for my birthday. So now I am in research mode trying to decide if I want the Kindle Voyage or the Kindle Paperwhite. If anyone has an opinion, I’d love to hear it!

new score 70

i scored this tea too high in the original post, if you have not seen the original post, click here

http://steepster.com/teas/red-leaf-tea/19590-belgium-chocolate-matcha

when i smell the matcha, i smell chocolate and green tea.

when i smell the brewed matcha tea, i smell chocolate and a hint of orange

when i taste the brewed matcha, i taste chocolate and green tea.

So, yesterday I saw something about a company making a sparkling matcha beverage.

I pretty much knew I needed to make some variation of my own.

So, a can of seltzer, some sugar free white chocolate torani and a concentrated matcha mixture later, here we are.

It’s actually pretty good. It’s generally creamy and sweet. The matcha flavoring is definitey coming across as cream and white chocolate, so yum to that! There’s actually a floral component here too that I sometimes miss in lattes. It reminds me of pure cocoa butter. Overall, a very successful venture.

I’m thinking this would be an amazing Italian soda, so I’ll have to guinea pig that on Husband later.

I got this matcha from one of RLT’s ‘oops’ sales. I was initially drawn to it because a) I love popcorn, b) I have enjoyed their caramel matcha previously, and c) IT’S CARAMEL POPOCORN MATCHA ON SALE. Enough said. But, I did not realized until I had checked out that this was the red matcha that he sells. Which is powdered Rooibos.

Oops.

But I did not let that get in my way, since it is already halfway gone :P

I don’t mind the red base. It’s smooth, which I was not expecting, much sweeter than actual matcha, and I can drink it anytime of the day and not be lying awake at night, wired. I do use double the recommended amount for the red (1 tsp – 2 tsp per 6 – 8 oz)because of the delicate nature of the powder. It doesn’t turn chalky like I half expected it to. Even though the flavor profile is ‘robust,’ on the palate, it is fainter than I am used to. In the bag it is quite pungent. The popcorn flavoring is so spot on. This is coming from a popcorn fanatic. (I mean it. I will go to any movie as long as there is popcorn. I always have some form of it close by. I friggin LOVE this stuff!) the buttery popcorn is not overpowered by the caramel, and brings about a sense of hot caramel being drizzled over freshly popped and buttered popcorn.

I have put this on yogurt and ice cream, made it iced with almond milk, and even hot once with my chawan and chasen. I will be sad when it’s gone – which may be very soon – but I took a gamble and it paid off. I won’t be replenishing it exactly as is, but maybe as normal matcha. It’s a good indulgent nightcap!