Matcha Outlet

I mixed the rest of this into some vanilla ice cream and let my roommate try some; we both could taste the mandarin orange (the finishing flavour). Pretty tasty, and no fluoride reminder.

I wish I’d tried the rest of Sil’s flavoured matcha in an ice cream batch, as it seems to reduce the variable of bad mixing on my part.

Sil matcha: one serving in a big glass of cold almond milk. It’s a bit like an orange creamsicle with a bit of matcha, which is unfortunately the same flavour as my childhood fluoride treatment (minus the matcha). I’d love to know how people who don’t associate this with an artificial chemical cleaner feel about it because I’m 100% biased.

This might be something that mandarin and orange creamsicle lovers want to check out.. It might be good with some ice cream too.

Continuing on with the matcha adventures, thanks to the wonderful Sil. As soon as I opened the massive box of matcha, I was hit with a cloud of nuts, above everything else in there. I thought, “Wait, is there macadamia in here?” I have that one in the highest flavouring level and it’s damn potent, so I was amazed to discover that a) it’s hazelnut and b) she ordered it in “only” (big quotation marks there) distinctive. It was even wrapped in an additional layer of aluminum!

But that said, it smells almost the same as the macadamia. I wonder what RLT is using as the flavourings for these then, a generic nut flavouring? Or they’re two different flavourings which so happen to have a generic nut scent in the background? Or I’m just losing my mind, as per usual?

Hot latte, here I come. I combined around half a measuring tsp of matcha with almost a cup of water, half a regular tsp of brown sugar, and a tablespoon or so of half and half.

Yep, tastes like a slightly calmed down version of my “There’s Matcha in There?!” macadamia. I honestly don’t get a distinct hazelnut flavour from this.

Another sip. And another. Nope. Nada. Maybe some weird genetics are at play here and these simulated nut flavourings are far too chemical for me because I seem to be one of the odd ones out.

I’ll try it as a cold latte next, and will probably stick to that. I think it would go better/well with banana and honey. I’m sure it would be great with hazelnut butter, which I’ve yet to try but heard it’s a billion times better/more flavourful than Nutella because you don’t get all that sugar and chemicals in it.

Thanks for the opportunity, Sil! :)

1 1/2 scoops of this distinctive flavoured matcha, almond milk, half a banana, and chia seeds. I know there’s some maple syrup just below the surface of perception. Sometimes it even emerges from those murky depths, but like an iceberg I know I’m not experiencing the majestic fullness of maple syrup.

I think this is one of the very few matcha flavourings I’d contemplate going with Robust. I’m not keen when Maple dominates thin wispy things like rooibos blends but this is a smoothie! All the other flavours are confident enough in themselves to handle maple. It should let itself go more instead of settling for the vague aftertaste I’m getting. Be bold maple, or hand me the cookies.

In contrast, I actually taste green matcha in my flavoured smoothie, which is an amazingly rare occurrence.

Thanks, Sil! I enjoyed this one.

I didn’t even realize I was at sipdown levels of this one. So I managed one sipdown today, yay! I made it for through all my samples, plus some of my cupboard teas this week and I feel great about that.

Now I’m packing (trying to is a better way of saying it) and it’s a miracle I make it through winter at all. I did some calculations, because I like quantifying everything, and literally 89% of my closet is summer clothing. That settles it then, I’m moving to California. Or Australia.

I thought I had mixed Cheesecake with milk and popped it in the fridge, but it turned out it was Coconut. That was a lovely surprise. I actually added just a wee touch of sugar because I find it helps the coconut in cold milk.

Hopefully this will give me the kick I need to finish off the reading part of my studying for my exam on Monday. Tomorrow’s studying will be all writing and rewriting. The cat has been sleeping on the couch for about four hours and I just want to nap too.

Ahh coconut. Some scents are so summery. And those scents make me feel immediately better. Lighter, really.

This is my morning shaken matcha milk in a mason jar. And it’s delicious.

I enjoyed some nice Cheesecake matcha this morning. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have it today since it has gotten cold again, but I really wanted a special treat. I had two nice hot cups of Tardis blend and then set out to make my cold matcha latte. I used cold low-fat vanilla soy milk and a couple ice cubes. I put it in my Magic Bullet type blender and Voila! A perfect frothy cold latte. So I am sitting here bundled up in a blanket looking out at another cold cloudy morning enjoying my drink. It’s funny how even when you are staying indoors and the house temp is the same as always you feel cold if it looks cold and windy. The weather here has been going up and down like crazy… High of 25 degrees, next day high of 50, next day 42, next 18, next 4 inches of snow, next 38 and rain, it just keeps on going with no real spring in sight. I can hear the song birds singing outside, so spring must be getting close. The birds are probably all saying, Whose bright idea was it to start migrating now?

This is the first time I’ve had matcha since I was always a little afraid to try something that looked so weird and had such non-tea type flavors. But I’ve read so many reviews that made it sound good so I look the plunge into the world of matcha. I got the sample from Red Leaf Tea. OMG this stuff is good! Mixed it with vanilla soy milk and a couple ice
cubes in blender. Makes a lovely bright green liquor. Smells so much like cheesecake that I can’t believe it. I’m going to have to be careful of this stuff because I could easily drink way too much of this. The vanilla soy milk is low fat but it still has calories. I am really trying to not start any bad habits with foods. It’s so easy to do! (I lost another pound this week!) I think I saw some descriptions where it was just mixed with water. I’ll have to cheek those out.

Well, remember what I said about easily getting addicted to this… well, it’s about ten minutes later and I’m having another glass. This time I made it with half soy milk and half water and less ice cubes. Still very good! OK, now I really can’t have more or the caffeine will take over and I’ll have the whole house cleaned, basement organized, laundry done and dinner cooked! Heavens, we wouldn’t want that to happen! My husband will think I should that everyday! ;-D

What an interesting flavour. The scent and flavour profile is simultaneously intriguing me and making me feel ill. I have a weird relationship with berries. I love them individually, but any sort of berry mixture never goes over well. The cinnamon here seems to create the pie effect, at least in my cold shaken milk, and I think that’s what is allowing this flavour to work for me. I’ve also never had a berry pie, so perhaps this is what it’s supposed to taste like? Perhaps a warm latte would work better?

I’m trying this one hot today. I whisked 1 tsp. of matcha into the tiniest bit of cooled boiled water, then poured heated milk into my mug. It’s creamy, and the chocolate is more apparent. There is a slight, very subtle underlying chemical taste that was also there when I had this as a cold latte that I’m not a fan of.

Perhaps I’ll try it next just in hot water. Too much milk also throws me off my game. Not that that will take away the underlying chemical, but it may just make it more enjoyable overall.

Red Leaf arrived! YES. I absolutely love the resealable bags.

After a 12 hour day at school, I finally made it home, ready to fall asleep standing up, and this was waiting for me. I pulled myself together enough to choose this one to put in a mason jar and shake up with milk.

I haven’t had super fresh matcha in a long time, and the green colour was so vibrant. This one has the scent of chocolate that I know from somewhere, but I can’t pinpoint it. It’s pretty tasty in cold shaken milk, but it may be better hot. Or in a smoothie. So many choices. The memory of that chocolate taste is right at the edge of my mind. Gah. My brain is exhausted, but hopefully it will come to me.

http://s770.photobucket.com/user/courtneyns/media/Steepster/38022F06-A11B-4EAA-8FC0-4018232A162E_zpsgykeoe1k.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Sipdown (156/161)!

Mixed this with some Caramel MATCHAccino to make a matcha milkshake. Unfortunately for me I thought this was very masked by the caramel, even though I think there was more of this than caramel? But Tre said he tasted the white chocolate more than the caramel.

You can read more on that here: http://steepster.com/roswellstrange/posts/250012#likes

Don’t think I’ll be restocking this one. It really wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t find a way to make the flavour pop or stand out, and “subtly creamier” is not what I’m looking for in my matcha.

So I bought vanilla frozen Greek yogurt, frozen raspberries, and bananas last night after work so that I can make some matcha smoothies, but my bananas aren’t ripe yet so that’ll have to wait a little longer. I still had matcha this morning though after my “hibernation”. Two cups actually, because I got some from VariaTEA this morning in the mail.

I thought this was the best cup of straight White Chocolate matcha (by which I mean not mixed with other matcha, because this was in cold milk) that I’ve had to date. It actually tasted like slightly more than just really creamy milk: it tasted like white chocolate!

So now to decide what to do with it next. One more cup of this and it’ll be a sipdown. Not sure whether I want to have it straight or crack open my coconut matcha and mix it with that because that combination was good. Or do I want to try using it in a matcha smoothie? I can imagine it being good with the frozen raspberries. Maybe I want a white chocolate/coconut matcha and raspberry smoothie/milkshake?

Finished off the jug of milk by whisking in some of this matcha and some of the coconut matcha I have! It created this delightfully smooth, and creamy drink where you could taste the coconut but the white chocolate was also, surprisingly, really present and added a defined richness!

So, I think that’s probably how I’m going to choose to use up the rest of my white chocolate matcha: it’s really not that spectacular one it’s own but it adds a special sort of creaminess to other things! That’s probably how I’ll use up Bavarian Cream, too…

I woke up today with a pounding headache that just wont quit; thank God I don’t have work today. The upstairs tenants (my landlord, his daughter, and his girlfriend) are in the house for the day working on their renovations (they’re not living here atm – but come in every few afternoons to work on things), and for a while they were vacuuming which was killing my head, and now his daughter is playing really, really loud rock music. I can’t actually hear the words, but I can “hear/feel” the bass line and it’s like a drill to my temple.

I’ve also reached the daily limit on Tylenol/painkillers – so looks like I’m just going to have to wait it out. Ughh.

Anyway, I’m finally trying this matcha in cold milk – something I’ve wanted to do for a while but haven’t gotten to for various reasons, work being the primary one. I have to say it’s so much better than just shaken into cold water.

I have to say this has an additional thick, creamy richness that mildly reminds me of white chocolate; however it’s a little weak (still better than the cold water). I don’t one hundred percent feel I’d know this was white chocolate flavoured if I was blindly drinking it. Though I think I’d be aware it wasn’t straight milk, too. I also know this is delicate level flavoring though, so perhaps at distinctive this would really shine?

And at least it’s not grassy.

I really want to try this at a hot latte – maybe it’d be sort of like a white hot chocolate? A really, really rich and creamy white hot chocolate.

So yeah – overall thoughts and feelings are that this is good and could possibly be made better if ordered at a stronger flavouring, but probably not something I want to reorder (even at that higher flavour level) because I’m not sure the risk is worth the potential payoff. I have/have tried far better matcha flavours and I want my first official order to both incorperate totally new flavours and familiar favourites.

We’re still out of milk (my fault) so I had this cold shaken in some water. I think I’m really gonna have to try this in milk to get a feel for it, because just in water it was super weird/really nasty green tea tasting.

We’ll see. I’ll hold off my rating for now, though.

And that’s a sip down. Enjoying another matcha latte this morning. Basically just this matcha, some hot water, and 1% milk.

Thanks for the matcha, Sil! This one seemed to grow on me the more I had it. :)

Matcha latte with real milk this morning. I bought 1% for the first time in a while.

The matcha smells like those sugar-coated strawberry marshmallows to me today, which is a good thing. Despite being artificial in flavour, they’re kind of tasty.

1/2 tsp matcha, brown sugar and 1% milk. That dairy note makes a difference. Odd how I notice it more here than when I use half and half? There’s a strawberry cloud floating in the background.

Thanks to the glorious Sil for this matcha! The scent of the matcha is sort of like a strawberry Campino, except with sharper strawberry note.

Hot, with Silk organic soy, this tastes like So Good strawberry soy milk, warmed. Newsflash, right? There’s just something about the particular strawberry flavouring that is dead on like the stuff that So Good uses. It are crazy timez.

Right now, I’m enjoying it as a cold latte with So Good unsweetened soy with REAL strawberries. Kind of unfair to the matcha flavouring but I’m tasting more of the real stuff than the flavouring. Plus this unsweetened soy is on the bitter side. But nonetheless, the Strawberries and Cream matcha prevails. I’m sure it would play the most nicely with cow’s milk.

Afterthought, but so far, I prefer a strawberry matcha smoothie with coconut or almond milk and the French Vanilla matcha, then with them REAL strawberries in there. Yummy.

But thanks again to Sil! I was curious about this one, how Red Leaf in general would pull off the strawberry flavour.

Take some plain almond milk, half a banana, half a spoonful of Nutella, and a 1.5 servings of this matcha, and you have one nutty beverage. Indulgent but not as sweet as I thought, which is nice.

Thanks, Sil, for making my day a little richer!

I’m not usually a huge fan of matcha, but I came across a sample pack of this the other day and I really enjoyed it. It has a nice creamy smooth taste, I also tried it as a latte and it was decadent! I’m a fan, I think I might have to try some different matcha’s now.

Thanks to Sil for this one! I think I may have diluted it a little too much. It’s been so long since I made matcha, I forgot how to do it! :P I guess two scoops in one cup of water isn’t the right ratio.

I’m mostly getting a watery matcha flavor. I can’t say there’s any distinctive crème brulée flavoring going on in this cup (although “distinctive” is the flavoring level). It’s maybe a little sweeter than unflavored matcha. No cream. No custard. No real vanilla or caramelized sugar to speak of either.

Okay, so I just made another batch with more rounded scoops and a little less water. This one is definitely thicker and stouter. However, I’m still getting grassy matcha as the primary flavor. Perhaps custard cream and burnt sugar is a little too hard to pull off in tea form. This is good, but not what I was expecting. As a crème brulée matcha, it leaves something to be desired.

Chocolate almond milk, a bit of mocha greek yogurt, and a generous scoop of this equals a delicious Starbucks drink. Add some softened chia seeds and you have chocolate sprinkles. So good.

I thought Sil was crazy for having three coffee based matcha flavours (Mocha, Coffee, Tiramisu) but they are turning out to be good things. :)