Matcha Outlet

I was so SO excited to finally try a Red Leaf matcha, it was probably the main reason I leapt at a swap with VariaTEA because she put one on her list—and then sent me another THREE to try as well! I’ve been so overwhelmed that I haven’t gotten around to them yet.

UNTIL TONIGHT!

I opened some almond milk and made a quick latte and it was a perfect desserty treat, which is exactly what I expected of this. Awesome!

Another one from GCTTB Round 3 VariaTEA

I used more milk than intended because I just wanted to finish up the last bit of it, so the flavor is not as strong as the camamel popcorn one that I tried before. Nevertheless, still very good. Oh no, I might have to buy myself some flavored matcha soon..

From GCTTB Round 3 VariaTEA

This is my first time having flavored matcha, and this is super yummy! Smells like rich, buttery caramel, not exactly sure about the popcorn though. I had half a teaspoon of this in cold milk – soo good! Also feeling a bit of a energy high.. maybe should have had this in the morning instead :P

Sipdown (106)!

Whisked in milk to finish off this sample I got a while back from Courtney.

It was like a cup of maple walnut milk with that sort of dry nut sweetness to it. This definitely hasn’t been my favourite matcha overall but it was still good and I liked having it around, and it will be missed.

So I mixed this one with Coconut matcha in a timolino to take to work, and even though I didn’t use a 50/50 ratio (I actually used a 2:1 ration in favour of the maple matcha) I could still taste the coconut matcha more strongly than the maple!

The whole point of using more maple, other than bringing me closer to a sipdown, was to exaggerate the taste of the maple matcha. Coconut dominates everything. Not that I’m complaining too strongly.

This is how I started off my morning yesterday; with a cool glass of maple matcha milk! My Grandma came in for the day from out of town to visit, and I knew I was going to be heading off the spend time with her very early into the day so I didn’t have much time for anything all too elaborate so this was a quick fix and a good way to make sure I got some sort of breakfast in.

It was very good; I’ve learned from past cups that this can come off a little on the light side for my own personal tastes so I used about a 1/4 of a teaspoon more matcha in the cup and it made enough of a difference that I could taste a much richer maple flavour. That might just be all the tweaking this one needs!

Matcha Milkshake!

2 tsp. of Matcha
1 Cup of Milk
1 1/2 scoops of Vanilla Icecream
1 Slightly Under ripe Banana

First a side bar about my banana; I went grocery shopping for milkshake supplies and I bought three bananas; one for this milkshake and two to freeze and use some other time. On the walk home from the grocery store my grocery bag started to slightly tear. Well, at some point on the walk home one of the bananas separated itself from the bunch_ and fell out of the bag. Silently. I had no clue I was missing a banana until I got home and unpacked my supplies.

I’m just so frustrated and confused though. How does my walking and carrying this bag result in a single banana separating from the other two and falling out of my bag WITHOUT ME NOTICING. And I know I didn’t lose a lot of money but still, I payed for that banana and I am not exactly the most “well off” person. Gah! I want my banana!

But anyway the milkshake; mostly it was just a banana milkshake with a tinge of green under ripe banana flavour to it (and I say that not because the matcha made it look green) but there was some maple sweetness in the aftertaste so this one wasn’t a total loss. Still, it probably wont be repeated. There are better combinations out there.

Tasting note number 1700! Woot!

Anyway, I added a tsp. of this matcha into a pudding cup of caramel pudding; honestly I didn’t expect to be able to taste the matcha but I just wanted that matcha buzz and I thought that out of the matcha I own this one would clash the least with caramel flavour. At I was pretty right; I couldn’t taste this one at all until the after taste and then surprisingly it tasted distinctly like maple.

Big thanks to Courtney for giving this one to me!

For the first try, I whisked it into cold milk. Overall it was good but a little weak; next time I think I’ll up the amount of matcha I use (Courtney, what flavour level is this one?). But, that said, despite being a bit weaker than I was anticipating it was nice and did deliver a nice maple flavour. It reminded me of the maple leaf shaped sugar cookies with the slight walnut nuttiness to them and that yummy maple icing! Mmm!

I look forward to playing around with this one!

Thank you Dinosara for sending this to me. I love nuts, and I especially love hazelnuts. When I smelled this, I knew I was going to like it. It smell sweet and nutty and almost like a dessert. I made it up latte style with milk and a bit of sweetener, and it was delicious. Sweet and nutty and creamy and mouth watering.

The hazelnut is the star of the show here, but that doesn’t mean that the matcha doesn’t make an appearance.

This is a new favorite flavor for matchas, and I can only imagine how decadent this would be blended with a bit of cocoa powder, or even chocolate chip ice cream.

Backlog:

I wasn’t really sure what a sea buckthorn was until I did a little search on wiki about it. It’s a berry with lots of health benefits. But really, I didn’t order this Sea Buckthorn Matcha because of health benefits, I ordered it mostly out of curiosity. I didn’t think I’d ever encounter a sea buckthorn in the produce section of my local market, so I figured, hey … this is a chance to try something I probably won’t have the opportunity to try otherwise. Right?

It’s tart with notes of citrus-like flavor toward the finish. I described it in my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/04/27/sea-buckthorn-flavored-matcha-red-leaf-tea/ as a lemon, a lime, and a berry had a love child.

It’s a bright and flavorful Matcha, and I enjoyed it. My specs for this Matcha were the classic grade with distinctive level of flavoring. If I were to order this in the future, I’d probably go with the delicate flavoring because I think I’d want more Matcha taste in it.

I had this one as a matcha milk last night. It was surprisingly tasty considering almonds are not my favourite thing as a general rule.

It had a natural sweetness to it that hinted at almond abstract, but not nearly as strong. It came across almost like a sweetened almond milk with a hint of matcha.

I don’t need it in my cupboard, but I wouldn’t turn down a cup.

I thought the idea sounded great I love oreos but not this. As wonderful as chocolate tea sounds it is not for me, taste chemically fake. I forget I’m a little picky with real chocolate also.

tried this with sugar…… still not too good :( i tried stirring well and using less matcha etc.

will not do a full review and i am bumping down the points 50 —> 40

Not too good of a tea, :( it is kind of bitter. could use some sugar :)

I had no idea what to expect with this one. Part of my cringed at adding it to milk, but I wasn’t sure why.

I just cracked open my matcha milk in it’s mason jar and bizarrely enough it tastes just like something at Lush smells. It may be my “Honey I Washed The Kids” soap bar. Fascinating.

Not bad, but not something I need to stock.

this is an OK tea, though the mushroom taste could be a tad bit stronger for the basic quality :(

This is delicious! And very interesting. Some sips are caramel first, popcorn after, some sips are popcorn first, caramel after, and some sips are one or the other with matcha after. Regardless it’s very clearly what it’s supposed to be and absolutely delicious. Despite its sweet name it manages not to taste too sugary. In fact, because of the popcorn flavor it toes the line between sweet and savory and manages to do so beautifully.

As usual I’m having this with milk, which I’ve found I prefer for most Red Leaf matchas. It’s just so good! I’m sad I didn’t try this just a little sooner because I could have snapped a larger size up while it was on sale, but..! Oh well, next time.

I bought this a while back when it was on sale (options: classic, regular, distinctive), and have only just now gotten around to really trying it. I wanted to have a few cups of it before I wrote a review, but I think I can honestly say this is my favorite passion fruit flavored…anything that I’ve ever had (outside of a real passion fruit, that is!). From what I’ve seen it’s one of the hardest fruit flavors to imitate, and this matcha does it very well.

When mixed up with milk, this is smooth and creamy. The fruit flavor is tastes real and balances beautifully with the matcha, and the matcha sweetens the fruit and keeps it from being too tart—the only problem I sometimes have with passion fruit flavored things. I have not yet tried this mixed up with water, but I like the consistency of it with milk so much that I might not try it with water at all. It’s a little bit like deconstructed ice cream, and it’s a little bit addictive.

If you want to try this one for yourself, it’s here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/passion-fruit-matcha.html#.U8E36Kgt0us

As a side note, I have found a solution to clumpy matcha drinks: a cheap hand-pump milk frother. It’s much easier to deal with than the blender for making matcha every day, and I’ve found it wakes me up much better than black tea.

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #3
I don’t even think this one is on Steepster yet. I had to look at what ‘kennin’ meant, it actually means it’s a Japanese matcha made with Japanese green tea. It kind of makes me wonder what the usual matcha is made out of. I made this matcha in my “no tools, no fancy” process: a mug and a spoon. I added matcha to the mug & slowly pour water that has cooled about thirty minutes after boiling while mixing it with the spoon. I could be imagining things, but it does seem like this matcha is different than usual: looks different, smells different, tastes different. The green color of the matcha seems like it is more of a sea foam green, but maybe that is my imagination since it actually smells more marine like that a usual matcha and also tastes more marine. But not in a bad way.. it’s a different flavor that I’m not describing very well. Seaweed, yum! That’s better, right? It just reminds me of seaweed. But I need a vacation. Well, it’s ground up Japanese green tea and it’s delicious… nutty, grassy, vegetal, very sweet. Very tasty and very healthy and I definitely think it’s slightly different than the usual matcha from Red Leaf. If it wasn’t for Red Leaf tea, I would have no idea where to get matcha. thanks!
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/kennin-matcha.html#.U8BlRMjD_VI