Matcha Outlet

Thanks VariaTEA for this one. It made a tasty latte – sweet, smooth and very buttery! I really enjoyed it! It’s a fairly mild flavour though, so I’m not sure I would buy this one on it’s own, but maybe if I split it?

So this brings me down one tea, but because VariaTEA was kind enough to drop off samples for me while she picked up her half of the silly horse tea (from A&D), I’m now at 219!

Something in here immediately reminded me of the disaster that was Belgium Chocolate matcha for me. Le sigh.

At least I can be happy about one less matcha to stock!

My friend and I did a 5+2 order and decided to split 3 matchas we both wanted to try, but weren’t sure we wanted 30g of a piece. This one one of them.

I made this one as my usual matcha milk. I threw it in the fridge to ‘steep’ yesterday afternoon and just thought to try it now. I had no idea what to expect here, since I’d never even heard of a butternut pie, much less tasted one. I was pleasantly surprised with the initial sips though. There is a definite buttery-ness, though not quite the same as French Butter Cookie, and a subtle nuttiness too. There is also a sweetness that is akin to squash with just a touch of brown sugar on top.

Definitely a great choice. I could see ordering this one myself in the future.

Hmm did steepster eat my review? I did a blog post about this matcha http://oolongowl.com/coconut-matcha-red-leaf-tea-oolong-owl-tea-review/ and don’t see my post or cupboard action. Maybe I forgot? Anyways, check my blog review for straight up review of this matcha.

Today I did something amazing with this stuff – I did a smoothie with coconut matcha, Taro drink mix and soymilk. SOOO GOOOD! Better than the Taro Coconut bubble teas at the Boba shop. Now, if Taro mix was cheaper I could have this all the time!

To be honest I couldn’t drink this. The aroma was too strong for me, it was a sickly sweet candy smell. It was overpowering soo much so that I couldn’t bring myself to drink it, my mother had a cup & said it wasn’t good at all.

Swap from Cheri

Oh. Em. Gee.

I found it. Liquid paradise.

This is so good. ^^
I made this as a hot milk-latte and it was like… I can’t even say it was like hot chocolate because it was like hot BELGIUM chocolate.

I mean when a drink says it’s flavor is “Belgium chocolate” I don’t believe it. I read that as “chocolate”. Because typically that’s all it is.
But I’ve HAD real Belgium chocolate before and it IS different from normal chocolate.

THIS is BELGIUM CHOCOLATE. And it’s delicious.

I … must… have this tea in my cupboard.

I will. I will own this tea.

Oh my goddess it was so good. I mean… just… perfect.

Thanks for sending it Cheri! I really love this one. ^^

In other news, my order from Misty Peak teas came in! It’s sample sized bits of the Autumn and Spring Yiwu Pu Erh. :D
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a Pu Erh in cake form. I can’t wait to try it!
It smells so fresh and the leaves are beautiful.

I can’t wait to try more Pu erhs in general.
The last week has been really busy for me but I want to drink more tea! MORE TEA!
I seriously need to invest in a good electric kettle so making tea would be quicker.

Btw, why can’t we input .5 tsp? Silly. I put 1 tsp/16 oz because I can’t put .5tsp/8oz. I really did the latter. :)

Oh, my goodness, I may have a new favorite matcha tea! Red Leaf Tea’s Almond Matcha Tea is amazing from the moment that you open the pouch. The sweet smell of almond wafts from the pouch to enlighten your senses. It smells like sweet almond extract vice the almond nuts. When brewed in tea, the tea still smells sweetly like almond extract, but does not taste that way. The taste is a more subtle nutty flavor – a complete change from the smell, but quite pleasing. It does leave a heavier aftertaste in my mouth compared to their other matcha teas – sort of like coffee might. Typically the taste of tea does not linger in my mouth too long after drinking it, so that was different about this tea compared to others I have drank. I make my tea each morning by mixing the matcha with boiling water from my teapot in a thermos I bring to work and enjoy throughout the morning. Perhaps it is a limitation of how I make the tea, but by the end of the thermos, the last cup from the bottom is very dense with tea despite mixing between refills. I often mix this with some additional water to make the right consistency for my last cup. (I can’t wait to order more from their website http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/almond-matcha.html ! )

I have not been drinking this, but I’ve been adding it to my yogurt – thanks to Variatea’s brilliant idea. So far, I’ve added just a bit to a variety of flavors and it comes out great each time (though I do need to premix and then add back in so it isn’t lumpy and bitter. I’ve tried it in Yoplait Light Boston Cream Pie, Light Banana Cream Pie (which is surprisingly delicious), Light Strawberry, Light Greek Strawberry… anyway, it works in all of them, just adds a bit of an extra oomph in the creamy taste department, which is something these low fat yogurts tend to lack. I’m not sure I’d purchase for the sole use of yogurt adjuster, but it’s been a nice addition!

PS Work has been sucking my soul. If I work one more 50+ hour week, I may very well keel over and no amount of tea will resuscitate me.

Although I really can’t say I got chocolate out of this, I always enjoy matcha and this makes me happy. Thank you so much mj!

Sipdown (137)!

#FMRuinsMySleepSchedule

Yesterday was file maintenance; I got home at about 2:30PM after starting work at 5:00AM (you all know the deal; I don’t sleep the night before FM because it’s too hard to go from a Midnight bed time to an 8PM one) – fell asleep sometime around five last night; and woke up today at 9AM – so that’s 16 hours of uninterpreted sleep? Ick.

I just finished drinking a chawan of this – yes my shiny new chawan! It was so awesome making my matcha in an actual chawan; and my roommate definitely made fun of me gingerly holding it – because it’s shiny and new and EXPENSIVE – but also trying to have a VERY firm grasp on it, because it’s shiny and new and EXPENSIVE.

I picked this as my first thing to use in my shiny new chawan because I knew it’d be a ‘sipdown’ – sipdown in quotations because the actual last two cups/bowls worth are going to a Dietitian who works at Sobeys with me. She found out how into tea I am from Chef Darcy, and we had a really long conversation about tea yesterday after my File Maintenance shift; she’s pretty big into green tea (I don’t want to get stereotypical here – but she’s a Dietician, and I’m about 80% sure she got into green tea ‘cause of the ’health benefits’) and really doesn’t like herbals/flavoured tea. I offered to bring her a sampler of some of my favourite straight/scented teas for her to try loose leaf, ‘cause she’s never had it before other than “To Go” DAVIDsTEA.

But then something really weird/unexpected happened – they (the dietitians and our “event room” coordinator – the guy who plans out when Chef Darcy is gonna come in and teach cooking classes, among other things) asked me if I’d be interested in teaching a tea class! I, of course, said that I’d be honored to do so, but that I wasn’t entirely sure if I was qualified to do so. But they said it’d be great and it could just be like a “Tea 101” thing or even, if I wanted to do one this summer, how to “Cold Brew” or make Iced Tea sort of thing. Man, I don’t even know how I’d go about doing that… Talking/teaching people that is; I definitely know my way around how to do a good cold brew.

If I do end up doing this class (either as a one time thing or possibly one class a month or something like that) I’d definitely need help prepping for it; it just seems like a monumental thing. I’m talking to some people in Steepster chat right now and it’s making me feel a little more confidant about doing it though; right now the most ‘together’ plan seems to be doing a “Cold Teas” sort of thing in the summer with recipes/steps on how to do cold brewed teas, iced teas, and tea sodas. It’s definitely an area I know well; and I know that whatever I do (if this ends up happening) I’m going to be encouraged to use as much stuff that we sell and if this was the class I ended up doing I know I’d be able to use almost entirely stuff we sell: club soda, sugar/stevia, and some of the fruity teas we carry. While most of what we carry is bagged tea, we have a decent selection of loose Twinings and Tea Squared products, and I actually really like the Tea Squared tisanes.

So we’ll see how this all turns out. I’ll keep everyone updated because, if I do end up doing something then I’m sure as hell gonna want some input from the community here.

As for this morning’s matcha milk; the coffee was definitely the dominant flavour, with some softer mousse-y chocolate notes and cream notes. It was good; though ultimately this is one of my least favourites matchas from the last Red Leaf order I got (the only one I disliked more was Cheesecake, at the end). Not gonna be something I reorder, but this one was fun to have around, and I really hope Brooke (the dietitian) likes it!

One little blurb-y tasting note before I retire to the couch for bed!

- In cold milk
- Made with my new bamboo whisk!
- Super, super frothy and that definitely made the experience better
- Creamy with coffee and cocoa notes

But yeah guys! I’ve officially evolved from mini kitchen whisk to bamboo whisk. And a lot of you know that I’ve been looking pretty seriously at purchasing a chawan as of late. Well, today I gave my Mom links to my two favourites I’ve seen and she all but promised I’ll be getting one of them for my birthday! Hooray!

These are the two:

http://www.rikyucha.com/item/list2.php?number=139791&spid=&ft=

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kutani-porcelain-tea-bowl-Nanten-bird-chawan-Matcha-Green-Tea-Japanese-/171625047978?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27f5a667aa

I like the Persimmons one better, but she seemed very uncomfortable about ordering something from Asia, so I have a hunch I’ll be getting the birds one. Either way, they’re gorgeous and I’m a happy, excited (but sleepy) slug! Woot!

So yay impending chawan!

Wow, shocker. Tre just introduced me to a new song, and I actually like it. That pretty well never happens. Ever.

But yeah; I made a large mug of this mixed 50/50 with Cheesecake Matcha. I like both of them straight, but some part of me has felt like that each one on its own is a little bit lacking so maybe together they’ll bring out the best in one another?

I’m doing the majority of the writing in this note because of the two matcha flavours this was by far the dominant one; the coffee and cake-yness of it was undeniable and then enhanced with a 50/50 split of cheesecake creaminess and chocolate.

I drank this nice mix up while eating a huge stack of fluffy pancakes covered in Saskatoon Berry syrup. Tasty as fuck! Perfect midnight supper. Tre was very jealous, which means I did something right.

Another round of tea for another episode of BBAUS; that’ll make three episodes in total, meaning I will be officially caught up! I’m learning so much from Australian Big Brother – one of the coolest things so far being that the contestants are pretty expressly forbidden to talk about nominations/campaign for votes and, based on what I’ve seen so far, there’s no POV. That’s crazy.

I mean, in Canadian and American Big Brother campaigning for votes and talking about nominations and stuff like that is such an integral part of game play. That’s basically how you play the game other than competitions. Some of the best players (thinking Dr. Will as an example) basically got by on just social gameplay and manipulation. Wow. Such a different perspective on things…

Anyway; in addition to a few cups of tea for the episode (they’re long episodes!) I whisked some of this matcha into a vanilla pudding cup. I was thinking I’d totally be cool with this but on my first bite my gag reflex went into over drive and I almost immediately threw up my first bite. It’s not even that it tastes bad – because it doesn’t, but it’s the texture/consistency combined with the fact it’s vomit green. Shudder.

Mind over matter; this tastes good so I should be able to eat it! Coffee, cream, vanilla…

Come on body; these are good things!

Finished off the last of my milk for now with a large mug of this one in my new matcha mug; I’ve had it once previously but that was in the vanilla milk I like to keep around which sometimes does really weird things to matcha.

This time around it was just regular old 2% – and this was so much better than the last way! It was like this light, fluffy chocolate/coffee and cream cup of delicious! But, like, heavy focus on the creaminess and lightness of the whole thing. It was so smooth, and rich without being… Weighty. Does that make sense? I’m going to pretend it makes sense.

And yeah, it wasn’t totally accurate to the flavour of Tiramisu, but it was pretty damn close and it was certainly enjoyable. Like an espresso cloud…

Best part? I got to enjoy sipping on this while Tre made me supper! He has all this week off from work so he’s had a whole lot of extra energy. I didn’t even have to ask plead with him to cook for me; he just offered! So I got this very grand supper of Vegetarian Hamburger Helped with extra creamy sauce and added in pineapple!

Sometimes he is kinda the best roomie ever, though you’ll never catch me owning up to that.

I was gonna do Pineapple matcha in vanilla milk this morning but last minute I decided to crack open my Tiramisu matcha instead and mix that in with the vanilla milk. It was a very spontaneous decision.

This is my first time trying the Tiramisu matcha so I don’t have any point of reference so I wont rate it because I know from experience that this vanilla milk can make things really sweet on a cloying level and it’s not how I usually choose to prepare my matcha.

So that said; this was really sweet and sugary in a borderline off putting way, but it did have distinct flavours to it: cream, chocolate, espresso. And obviously vanilla; I’ll have to try this in straight milk to see if the vanilla was solely because I prepared this one in vanilla milk. There were also more subtle flavours of liqueur and sorta cheesecake? But they were definitely gentle in contrast to everything else.

Overall, I did get a Tiramisu vibe from this. I just need to prepare it my usual way so I know how to fairly rate it!

[1/2 tsp matcha + 8 oz (ish) of cold whole milk + 2 tsp raw sugar + handful of ice cubes]

I really, really want to like this matcha, but there’s something about how the chocolate comes across that’s just a little unpleasant. When compared to the caramel or french vanilla I’m afraid this one just falls a bit flat.

So it’s tasty, but not a favourite.

Got this in a swap from Ost
Decided to follow Red Leaf’s cold latte directions for this. I added some sweetener, and I’m definitely digging this method of prep. The latte gets a delicious foamy head and everything. As far as the matcha itself, the base is got that typical yummy taste that I can only describe as matcha. I can drink a sweetened unflavored matcha latte and be perfectly pleased. As far the English Toffee, I’m not getting too much of that. I’m getting a kind of sweet butteriness, sort of caramelly, but less caramel than the Caramel Matcha. I see that some people had to add a little more to coax out the toffee flavors, so I’ll try that next time. Still delicious though! (:

OOOoooOooh this is GOOD! Yummy caramel and cream, what a great way to start my day. Thank you so much mj!

This was the free sample at Red Leaf this month. I’ve never had matcha before, so I figured I’d order it and give it a try! Dry, the almond scent is extremely strong, which got me a little excited.

I don’t have any experience with matcha. I wanted to try it cold with milk so I looked around to see what other people had done. I ended up mixing about a half teaspoon of powder with an ounce or two of hot water, stirring to dissolve. Then I added 8 ounces of vanilla soymilk and mixed it all up. Overall, I thought it came out pretty tasty. I could definitely taste the almond, but it was overpowering, and I could just taste a hint of the matcha. Not going to rate it because I have no idea what I’m talking about! :D

good news!

the rashes are going away slowly but surely!

anyhow, i still love this tea! ill try making a smoothie with it on Wednesday

so i have a rash on both my underarms…

and i don’t know if its from this tea, bedbugs, or this dirty chair i was sitting in.

they look like bedbug bites but they wouldn’t all pop up at once and be all together…

plus i dont see any bedbugs on my bed or around it..

do you guys think it could be the almond matcha? i mean I’ve been drinking matcha most of the time for a few days streight… but then again why wouldent the rash appear before when i had flavored matcha? even matcha pancakes?

what do you guys think? Chair? Bedbugs? matcha? or something else?

on a positive note, the other guys at the lodging home where i live love this tea!

and this is still a great tea!

i know why this tea tasted tangy!

i added too much matcha : /

1/4-1/2 tsp in 250ml water works best :D

an awesome tea

when I smell the tea dry, it smells nice and green and nutty.

when I smell the tea wet, the smell is intensified.

when I smell the brewed tea, I smell greeness and nuts.

when I taste the brewed tea, I taste green, almonds, sweetness and tangy

here is a photo:

https://instagram.com/p/5U75nTJ41V/

now for an awesome cold latte.

when I smell the latte, it smells green nutty and milky.

when I taste the latte, I taste almonds, milk, green sweet and tangy.

here is a photo:

https://instagram.com/p/5U8JBNJ42s/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

I rate both these a 100 because this is the best match i’ve ever had.

this was Junes free sample of the month matcha tea :D it is AWESOME! tastes like almond extract that grandma makes her punch with :)