Matcha Outlet

Backlog from yesterdays sick, muddled haze.

I burnt through a lot of this! Turns out it may be just as good of a “sick” tea as my Meyer Lemon! What I did was mix it up with cold water and the resulting drink was so strongly mint flavoured/had enough peppermint extract in it that it made it easy for me to breathe again!

I think this has, rightfully, earned itself a permanent spot in my cupboard! I can always use more sick teas – plus it’s just enjoyable in general!

Morning… Tea? Can I even call it that? Heh, I’ll explain…

I still haven’t had this in milk yet – but I have developed this weird habit where I take a pinch of the matcha straight and just eat it like that. Yup; straight, plain matcha for a morning, uh, breath freshner? I don’t know; this one is really good just straight: it’s SO flavourful and I adore mint…

Hard to resist. Maybe I’ll actually have it in milk tomorrow before I eat all of it.

Despite an awful work day, I had a pretty good tea/mail day today! When I left to catch the bus my small swap with akgrowngirl was waiting for me in the mailbox so I scooped it up and brought it to work with me where I then whisked a pinch of this up into some cold water to get an idea of what it tastes like.

(I also sent out packages to VariaTEA and 221Tea! Hopefully they have a speedy delivery!)

Mmm! It’s good: basically a straight up no frills peppermint taste which was very refreshing and helped with the fluctuating stress headache I’ve had as of late. I can’t wait to try it in some cold milk: I feel like it has so much potential to make this creamy "Candy Cane’ type drink, especially mixed with a little bit of White Chocolate Matcha.

Sipdown (119)!

Finished this off tonight in ice cream! A lot of my matcha is really close to being sipped down so I’m trying to finish the really old stuff before my most recent order gets here!

My family is a bunch of asses, though. I bought a whole bunch of vanilla ice cream (the really expensive, good stuff) so I could makes flavored matcha ice cream. Cracked open the container today, which I thought was brand new. Turns out my family has been snacking on it all week and all that was left was enough for BARELY one serving of matcha ice cream. I feel so cheated!

But that said the ice cream tasted DELICIOUS. It was easily in my top five all around favourite strawberry ice cream and when it boils down to it there wasn’t even any strawberry in it! Just damn good flavouring and yummy tea.

So, tried something slightly different!

I whisked my normal amount of this in a mix of 50/50 Bailey’s Irish Cream and milk. It was interesting ‘cause there was that alcoholic taste to it (not a “burning” but just that strong flavour) that was distracting, but at the same time the Irish Cream flavour really complimented the creamy strawberry. I don’t know if I’d recreate this combo, but it was nice enough.

Gotta remember not to eat matcha cupcakes at night. While I’m sure they’re not entirely responsible for all the insomnia I’ve been having as of late, they certainly can’t be helping.

…I did use a lot of matcha in them. Like 3 tbsp!?

CAFFEINATED CUPCAKE POWERS ACTIVATE!

Also, I fed one of these two my Dad while he was visiting. He was hesitant to try it ‘cause he’s pretty much cut out all sugar from his diet, but I guilted him into trying one. There’s a lot of good stuff in ‘em too – like vegetables and all that jazz. He didn’t like it; but he’s old and crazy, so…

So a couple nights ago I made a fun, experimental batch of cupcakes. Basically, I didn’t have super high expectations for them but I thought it’d be cool to mess around and use up some of the ingredients sitting in my kitchen just in case.

What I ended up with was Zucchini Vanilla Cherry cupcakes iced with a Strawberries and Cream Matcha frosting! I don’t know if that sounds good to anyone else – but it sounds mouthwatering to me!

Tre was my Guinea Pig; he got to eat a cupcake before icing and one afterwards. He definitely prefers the one without matcha icing – he says it’s moist with a rich cherry flavour. Somewhat surprisingly, the reason he doesn’t like the icing isn’t because of the vegetal matcha but because he thinks that the strawberry blends into the cherry too much, and it just because an overwhelming flavour. I can respect that, I guess.

Personally; I love the icing! I did use a lot of matcha, so the flavouring certainly isn’t subtle – but I find it distinctly separate from the cherry flavour in the cake itself. The matcha didn’t do anything weird to the consistency of the icing either; I’ve made a few kinds of icing with stuff “infused” into them and weird texture can definitely be a problem when doing that.

So; these cupcakes are a total win! And I’ve been munching on them pretty much non stop. Definitely wont be doing a tasting note for each one though – that’d be like 24 tasting notes for this tea alone, and definitely a pain to write out along with being a disproportionate number for my “most logged” teas. I may do one or two more tasting notes for them though, if anything interesting crops up.

Ugh; I woke up today with quite a nasty headache. Not a pleasant way to start off the day.

I have date number two with Face Eater Guy later on this afternoon so I’m not going to get to write as much from my queue as I had hoped to; but I can still do some notes this morning!

I mixed about a tsp. of this one and of Pineapple matcha together into a smoothie about a week ago; following a file maintenance shift (which is basically just sticking price tags/sale tags up for eight straight hours) I had found quite a few grocery items on steep discount so I took advantage of that to get some new things that I was curious about but wouldn’t have tried normally/if they were at full price.

One of the things I got was frozen fruit and then a couple different kinds of “Happy Planet” smoothies; the Pineapple Coconut one and the Extreme Energy one (http://happyplanet.com/products/smoothies). I figured I’d try to work in a daily smoothie by blending the frozen fruit, Happy Planet, either frozen Greek yogurt or the coconut yogurt I buy, with the possibility of adding matcha! That would definitely make for a couple extra servings of fruits into my diet; if I’m being honest I’m not the healthiest of eaters – though since starting at Sobeys that’s changed quite a bit; I’ve worked LOADS more fresh fruits and vegetables into my diet.

So for this particular smoothie, aside from the matcha which I did 1 tsp. for each kind, this was my “recipe”:

- 1 Cup Pineapple/Coconut Happy Planet Mix
- 1 Cup of LOOSELY packed Paradise Trio Fruit Mix (Peach/Strawberry/Mango)
- One small scoop of Vanilla Greek FroYo

I obviously didn’t expect the matcha to be a dominant flavour among all the other things in the blend, but I can say that it did drastically affect the colour of the smoothie! And taste wise the most dominating flavours were pineapple, strawberry, and peach so maybe the matcha was contributing a little more than expected. I also tasted the coconut and mango though. It was very tropical overall and just delicious – and since first having this one I’ve been experimenting with this combination of ingredients; trying out different ratios of stuff to see what flavours I can bring out.

Mmm!

Matcha Milkshake to start off the morning of the 28th. I had the day off from both jobs, and though I had important plans for the afternoon and evening I managed to make some time before I had to get ready and hop on the bus to have some tea; something with some buzz to it, to start the day off in a positive way.

My milkshake recipe:

- 1 1/2 scoops of frozen vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1 Ripe Banana
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 2 tsp of Strawberry & Cream Matcha

The result was a thicker, frosty milkshake with almost even parts strawberry and banana flavouring with a slight grassiness to it from the matcha. Very pleasant!

I put three little bags of matcha in my work backpack, this one, Cheesecake and Pineapple. I am officially now out of this one (just at work though; not completely). I mixed it up, and grossed out some coworkers who said it looked really nasty (it did; puke green water). It just dawned on me though that I should have tried Strawberry Cheesecake! Oh well, next time…

Just in water, so while it was tasty it really wasn’t anything special.

And I swear to God if the mall plays “Frosty The Snowman” I’m gonna scream. I’ve only been here for three hours, but I’ve heard four incarnations of it already!!!

Matcha Milkshake! Here’s my recipe tea frens’(!):

- A Frozen Banana
- Two Scoops Vanilla Ice Cream
- 2 tsp. of this matcha (Base Grade; distinctive flavouring)
- 1 cup of milk

So pretty much this was a Strawberry/Banana milkshake! And, I loved it – I thought it was insanely rich and flavourful and just very very fun. Tre however, did not like it; and somewhat surprisingly his complaint was that it was too sweet which I think is shocking for a person who typically adds like 4 tsp. of sugar to his tea. But maybe it’s worth mentioning because, yeah, this was pretty sweet. I thought it was just right, though.

Smeh.

I bought a pretty new mug from one of the stores in my mall on Sunday; I’ve been eyeing it up for ages and I finally went “fuck it” and bought it. It’s pretty simple; just your basic 12 oz. mug but it’s in the most beautiful Robin’s Egg Blue/Peacock Blue colour and has a semi matte finish on it. It’s sleek and wonderful and now all mine.

I decided it’d be a perfect matcha mug; so I also bought an adorable teeny tiny green whisk from the store, and now the two are being used as a set for yummy yummy matcha milk!

This is the first thing I had in the new mug; I actually was going to just buy strawberry milk stuff from the store but then I remembered I have this at home and I decided this would be just as good. In reality, it’s kinda better. Yummy, Strawberry Milkshake! Heavenly, really.

So happy with my new mug! It just makes having matcha even better because it looks so, so pretty in the mug! The colours just compliment each other and it looks serene and just… Ooooh Aaaah.

Whisked into cold milk with maraschino cherry syrup (and cherries) added. Pretty good; definitely sweet. I could have blended better; there were lumps at the bottom of the cup. Oh well.

I’ve gotten the “art” of tying a cherry stem with my tongue down to about 20 seconds or less now though; hoping I have the opportunity to show off to Tyrell soon…

Regardless, at least I know a really cool party trick now, though!

Got home from work tonight and made tea! It felt better than usual just because I haven’t had “after work” tea in a few days now, and I missed the routine/ritual of it.

The original plan was to have this in cold milk but apparently I am out of milk (mental note to pick some up tomorrow) so I went for a matcha soda instead! I mean strawberry seems like a decent enough soda flavour right? And I’d had success with Pear and Bananas & Cream so why not this one?

Prepared the usual way:

1 tsp. of matcha dissolved into about 2 oz. hot water
1 Can of Club Soda
A pinch of sugar

Basically; not bad but not really anything amazing either. I’d much prefer to continue drinking this in cold milk and leave the club soda for other flavours like Pear or Pineapple. This one was just kinda mediocre. But glad I tried it, though!

Midday Matcha? Hell yes!

I think mixing and matching matcha is maybe my new favourite thing! I’m really happy that in my most recent matcha order I picked things that will go well together, like Coconut and Pineapple. I know they have a Pina Colada flavour as well but I wanted the two separate ones because coconut is tasty in milk on its own and Pineapple is really good in club soda…

Today I paired Strawberry & Cream with Banana & Cream because that sounded like a divine mix of flavours. I used about 1/4 tsp. of each matcha for a cup worth of cold milk. It was really, really good! I’m pretty sure this is something I’m going to want to drink again and again in addition to both matchas straight. So happy I picked both of them up in my recent order!

This was really rich in flavour, and neither the strawberry or banana stood out more than the other; they just really meshed and balanced each other out. It actually felt like I was drinking a nice thick smoothie or milkshake – and now I really want to go pick up some vanilla ice cream and bananas so I could make an actual smoothie/milkshake with this.

Some other time, I guess. Definitely adding those two things to the shopping list, though…

This generous matcha sample comes from the wonderful VariaTEA who not only sent me this one but a top up of Bananas and Cream as well. From the moment I pulled it out of the box I was dying to try it, though I was patient enough to wait until this morning to have it in some cold with with breakfast (don’t judge – but “breakfast” was a massive bowl of buttered popcorn).

VariaTEA compares this to a strawberry milkshake, and just let me say that she’s 100% accurate in that description. Seriously I can’t think of a closer comparison to anything else. I’m instantly in love with this one, and I will be stocking up.

Actually funny thing; payday is tomorrow and the plan is to place a Red Leaf order as well as a Red Bubble (T-Shirts) order – so when I say I’ll be stocking up we’re talking, like, tomorrow…

But seriously: mmmm!

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cheesecake-matcha.html

mmm…almost as good as their eggnog matcha…
next order I will try the cheesecake matcha in distinctive
this is a matcha in a class all its own…
Talk about delicious….mmmmm
Creamy and buttery and a mouthful just like real cheesecake…
who knew something so divine could actually be good for you?
Enjoy matcha classically prepared or as a hot or cold latte…many health advantages

I personally LOVE this as a cold latte in whole milk….mmmmm

Creamy & buttery in whole milk with a spot of stevia
100% Yum
I need to do an order quick
Also dying to try white chocolate ;-)

My first order from redleaftea.com and absolutely love this. Nice raspberry flavor that isn’t overwhelming or too strong. I bought the imperial grade organic matcha. It makes a great iced matcha latte and of course, a wonderful hot tea. It’s one of the best quality matchas I’ve had this side of a Japanese tea ceremony. It’s a wonderful blend of the matcha and raspberry with a very distinct taste and flavor. I’ve had others elsewhere that just didn’t match the quality and flavor that redleaftea’s do. They’re just perfect. What I really love about their matcha teas are they’re all natural without any artificial coloring or sweeteners which is perfect for someone like me who watches their blood sugars. I can’t wait to order more matcha from redleaftea.com. I’m absolutely hooked! So do yourself a favor order some of this delicious raspberry matcha tea, you won’t regret it one bit.

It can be found here….
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/raspberry-matcha.html

I saw something very similar to this at Trader Joe’s. I considered buying some to compare with this mix, but then I read the nutrition label and totally changed my mind. It had 10+ ingredients, loads of chemicals, and a whole lot of fat. So yeah, that didn’t happen. But of course I ended up thinking about this mix all the way home.

I decided to try it with cold rice milk this time. It turned out ok, but too sweet. This is much better hot. For dessert or a leisurely weekend breakfast. Somehow I can’t see this or any matcha as a regular breakfast drink. It’s just too thick and sweet for that.

I have to thank Red Leaf Tea for sending this to me. Thanks!

I made this as a latte with heated rice milk and my milk frother. It’s pretty tasty! Caramel creamy goodness. A bit too sweet. This would be good for dessert in the afternoon… except I can’t have caffeine that late in the day. Dilemmas, dilemmas. This will probably be relegated to weekend afternoons. Ooh, and sharing with my brother. He’s got a serious sweet tooth.

After a bad experience with the Eggnog matchachinno, I was happy to find that the caramel flavor is the completely opposite.

Although a bit on the sweet side, this mix is smooth, rich, and extremely flavorful. Made as an iced latte with light cream (no added sweetness!) this was a great after-dinner dessert. I’ve also used this blend to make flavored mochi and they came out great!

My one criticism is that it IS very sweet, so if anybody is sensitive to a lot of sweetness, be wary! It still tastes pretty good on its own without anything added but it really shines as a frothed, milky treat.

http://www.infusedmusings.com/2014/04/01/red-leaf-tea-matcha-review-eggnog-caramel/