Matcha Outlet

Sipdown (175/177)!

I let Tre choose my matcha tonight because I was struggling with picking something, and this is what he selected. It just so happened it was also an unexpected sipdown!

Obviously it was whisked up in cold milk; that’s typically how I do my matcha unless it’s in club soda; and this one didn’t scream “tea soda” to me tonight. It was really good, though! I definitely got that extra creaminess/borderline caramel flavour from it. However, it wasn’t good enough to make me rethink the decision to not restock this one.

A very nice way to go out, though.

Backlog from yesterday.

VariaTEA sent me this sample – and I was really excited about it because I recently discovered/learned that I really enjoy Creme Brulee and Creme Brulee flavoured things. I whisked some of this up in cold milk (using up the last of our milk), and got ready for a yummy treat.

I was a little disappointed though – it was basically just sweetened/slightly creamier milk. Nothing abundantly “Creme Brulee”. Once I’ve bought more milk, I’ll have to try it again – just to see if I can make it more flavourful by using more matcha.

I’ve been eating lots of popcorn recently; and I’m wondering if matcha would make an interesting popcorn seasoning. Has anyone tried that? I imagine Caramel matcha (or Caramel Popcorn Matcha) would work well enough…

Thanks VariaTEA!

This one is distinctive flavour.

The smell of the dry tea is citrus. Very similar to a vitamin c chewable tablet. I was a little worried due to the disaster of when I tried the orange matcha and it was so chemical flavoured. But I ordered this one at distinctive flavour for the purpose to tone down any chemical flavour there might be.

I made this cold shaken. 1tsp for 8oz water and about a 1/4 tsp white sugar.

It turned out ok. A little lacking on the citrus flavour but it is there. I can tell it is citrus but that is about it. It is not really distinctively orange, or lemon, or lime, etc. I am getting quite a dryness in the aftertaste. I would say it is similar to what you get after you suck on a lemon slice. I think this one would have been better at a robust level but I am still so scared if that chemical taste. Sigh. Ha ha.

I will play around with parameters a little and see if I can coax out some more flavour.

Thanks for sending this to me Courtney!

So, this is really tasty matcha, but it doesn’t exactly evoke peanut butter flavor. It is creamy and vaguely nutty though, and really good! I made a warm milk latte with 3/4tsp of matcha and about a tsp of honey this morning, and it was so good I had to immediately make another!

In other news, we had an ice storm this morning, so I’m trapped inside all day, and baking my first souffle (a sweet meyer lemon one.)

I’m exited :)

I made some up in a blender with chocolate almond milk and chia seeds, which was decent. Then I decided warm some of it up and use an electric frother. Even better.

It was still a bit watery, and I added a bit too much cold milk after which didn’t help, but the creamy sweet chocolate mocha vibe is good enough even when not perfectly prepared.

Thanks Sil!

While slightly chemically (mostly when its a bit cooled down honestly, this is what happens when you drink hot things at work) this is exactly what it says on the label. Cookies and cream and matcha blended. In my head the idea had more…cream to it then this did, but it was in no way bad. I don’t think I’d order a full order of this, but I’m super glad to have tried it.

Another sip down since I sent off the last bit of it to VariaTEA, as well. I oh so appreciated that I was able to try this, thanks to the lovely Sil. :)

Thanks to Sil for all the matcha, including this one! This one’s level of flavouring is distinctive. The matcha itself smells generically sweet but it’s not a distinctive maple syrup.

I made a cold latte with Silk organic soy milk. I can barely taste the maple? I’m wondering if it has to do with the milk, because I find that this one in particular has a stronger flavour. Nice and sweet, but it seems to make most matchas taste the same. All I got was a generic sweetness and that’s it.

I’m going to have to try it hot, and maybe cold with a different type of milk until I make a final decision about this one.

OOOOH YEAH! I got it, I got it, I got it! THIS IS IT!

Here’s what I did: I used 1 tsp of sifted matcha, whisked it in a bowl with 1/2 cup of 185 F water. On the side I heated up 1 and 1/2 c of almond milk to approx 170 F and then added it to the matcha mixture. I ended up with 16 oz. of delicious, creamy matcha latte GOODNESS.

I found a way to enjoy matcha and on my second try, too. Not bad. I detect French Vanilla so much more this way as well (even though it is the weakest flavoring grade).

SOOOO GOOD!

(See my previous note to find out about my confusion when I had it with just water).

EDIT: Unfortunately 16 oz. turned out to be way too much and I couldn’t finish it. The specific bitterness of matcha is really, really tasty at first, but then it gets just yucky when you have too big of a serving. At least it turned out to be so in my case. Oh matcha, matcha, we seem to have an interesting relationship.

I’m finally trying matcha!

This is the free sample from Red Leaf Tea that I got a few weeks ago and have been afraid to try. But here it is.

I have no matcha equipment whatsoever, so I had to do with some random bowl and a fork. I believe I whisked it just right – and until the foam appeared. I used roughly 1/4 tsp per 6 ounces of 170 F water. And yes, I sifted it. Also, this post was very helpful: http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/how-to-make-a-cup-of-matcha-the-easy-way/

Okay, so this is supposed to be French Vanilla – I could smell it a bit in the dry powder, not so much in the ready brew. I cannot taste it at all. But that is okay since all I care about is pure matcha anyway. It’s my very first experience with it, so perhaps it’s even better that I cannot notice the supposed flavoring.

Well, umm… It’s odd. There’s this bitterness to it, not overpowering, just different from any other bitterness that I know. It settles on the back of my tongue for a bit and then disappears. What a weird taste! I can definitely see how this would be better with milk… I cannot have dairy though (or too much of it) and I am not sure if coconut or almond milk work well heated up. Perhaps in the summer I could make iced lattes…

But anyway, I really quite don’t know what to make out of this experience. I think it is growing on me with every sip. My mouth started to get used to the “unusual bitter” and detects more of a complexity of the flavor of matcha itself. I think I could perhaps learn to love it but it might take a few more lessons. I might also tweak the amount of water used as well as the amount of matcha powder and see how that goes. Maybe add a bit of coconut milk to the brew made with warm water. I know there’s like a million ways of preparing it!

I am really glad that RLT offers these free samples, so that I didn’t have to splash out a whole bunch of money on a pack of matcha and then not know what to think of it. I still have about 4-5 servings of this sample left, and that should be enough to confirm whether I want to start a matcha adventure or not ;D

I also know, though, that good things take time :)

Sipdown (119)!

Finished off the last tbsp of this in a batch of sugar cookies! They were absolutely phenomenal; the flavour was very intense of course the ‘cream’ element perfectly complimented the sweet buttery notes from the cookies themselves. Instead of icing them I sprinkled some brown sugar on top halfway through baking them and that was the perfect balance of extra sweetness to an already sweet treat.

This is still one of my absolute favourite kinds of matcha (more so than it’s strawberry counterpart) so I definitely have intentions to buy more of this at some point down the road. I’ve still got a lot of matcha to go through first though before I’m ready to place another gigantic RLT order, which I seem to do every year.

So, I definitely did try out that Goat’s Milk ice cream with a different matcha mixed in.

The only that I instantly thought would work well was the Bananas & Cream matcha so that’s where I started. Because the ice cream is vanilla flavoured, the cream aspect of the matcha merges very seamlessly. The banana is very sweet and pudding like, and then the finish has that nice ‘goaty’ tang to it. I sort of felt kind of posh eating it?

I’ve got enough left to try one more flavour; leaning towards Rich Berry Pie or Pineapple right now…

This is a queued tasting note.

Had this one cold shaken in milk for lunch last week alongside and unexpected veggie burger. Let me explain…

So at work we have a ‘found money’ policy where, if a staff member finds money in any of the donations, they can turn it in and the company will give them 30% of whatever they found. A few weeks before I started, someone found $2000 in a suit. An amount that large has to be turned over to the police, but thankfully the suit that was donated had a dry cleaning slip in it which helped the police track the owner down and return the money to the owner. How someone forgets $2000 in a suit baffles me, but long story short the company still honored the 30% finders fee for the person who found it and that person, in turn, paid for a staff BBQ!

What’s really cool is that, for the first time out of any place I’ve ever worked, they made sure there were vegetarian options at the BBQ (so I actually got to participate) as well as Halal options since a large portion of our production staff is Muslim. It just really humbled me to see a company be so inclusive with all of their employees. It’s a really refreshing change of pace. Not that Sobeys wasn’t a great place to work; but staff events certainly didn’t have the same amount of inclusiveness.

More chia experimentation.

This time I added a tsp. of matcha straight into the gelled up chia instead of mixing in a concentrated brew of tea; the flavour was really great but without the extra liquid to make the gelled chia less viscous it was really hard to drink this during the afternoon without picturing myself slurping back gross, slimey fish eggs. The colour didn’t help.

I think, bottom line, I like chia in theory but I have to find a way to make it feel less viscous. When it’s more 50/50 chia and water or watered down and paired with a strong flavour it works but otherwise… Gag central.

Spent the afternoon baking!

Vanilla Cupcakes with yellow zucchini shreds and a Rich Berry Pie and Bananas & Cream Matcha infused vanilla frosting! Mmm!

You can read the expanded note here:

http://steepster.com/roswellstrange/posts/311399#likes

Totally just spilled milk down the front of my shirt trying to sip the last bit of milk from the cereal bowl. I’ve been a total klutz today; which is partly why I’m having cereal for supper instead of actually using the oven. At this point, I think I’d burn the house down.

This was cold shaken into a bottle of Milk2Go “Sport” Vanilla at work today – it’s basically the same thing as the regular vanilla Milk2Go I normally use, but with skim milk, 26g of protein (great for vegetarians), and other good ‘healthy’ stuff. The taste didn’t suffer either; super creamy banana pudding! Though the texture was a bit off; I think from the whey powder in the drink more than anything else – I’ve noticed the same sort of “powdery” mouthfeel with other protein drinks that have whey in them.

Just cold shaken in a timolino of water; as quick little “pick me up” and energy boost. Gotta love that matcha buzz, right? Right.

Nice reminder to myself that this can still be sweet and flavourful, even if it isn’t in milk.

Starting the day off right with matcha whisked into cold milk.

It’s banana medicine, in the best way. Now, what to do with the day…

Do I watch BBUSA, BBAUS, finish Gossip Girl season 6, watch the new Doctor Who stuff with Capaldi, start GoT season 3 again, or start watching Parks and Rec? So much TV, so little time…

Well I finally got around to making a matcha smoothie! I think the fact that I’m slowly but consistently eating up my frozen Greek yogurt and that my milk is gonna expire soon were both very much deciding factors in making it sooner rather than later.

I ended up splitting it with Tre and he picked out the matcha we used; I’m actually pretty surprised he went with this one: he doesn’t really like Banana all that much!

So here’s the recipe we used:

1 Frozen Banana
1 tbsp. of Bananas & Cream Matcha
1 1/2 cups of Milk
Two Scoops of Frozen Yogurt

I suppose that “Milkshake” is a more accurate moniker than smoothie. It was very good though! Just the right consistency, and super frothy and yummy. We both really enjoyed our cups and I even secretly regretted sharing because I totally could have finished that off by myself!

I have one more banana and a whole bag of frozen raspberries, so the plan is to use up probably the Bavarian Cream Matcha with the last banana – and then I think I’ll use white chocolate with the raspberries? I probably need to get more FroYo though.

Ok tea folk; get ready for a whole shit ton of short little “bullet point” types tasting notes because I have some MAJOR backlog to burn through; sadly a combination of work, being sick, and a date have really held me back from posting a tasting note in days…

And that’s gonna change. Because this list is getting scary long.

So this one. It was a breakfast tea a few days ago; I needed that good ol’ matcha buzz but I also wanted to work towards finishing some of my matcha off so I knew I’d be combining stuff and I wasn’t sure what stuff. Settled on a 50/50 Banana and Belgium Chocolate split. I though that combination would be deadly!

But no tea frens’ it wasn’t the best mix. Essentially, the banana took over the chocolate and it was just like drinking Bananas & Cream matcha. That would have been good, right? But key difference: MAJOR funky chemical aftertaste that I’m certain came from Belgium Chocolate. Boo.

Guess we’re not gonna finish that one off that way…

Mixed 50/50 with Strawberries & Cream matcha to make “Strawberry Banana & Cream Matcha”. You can read the full review here:

http://steepster.com/roswellstrange/posts/242371#likes

So like I mentioned in an earlier toasting note today, yesterday was my roommates 20th birthday – and the celebrate we had a few drinks. Well, I may have gone a wee bit overboard on the alcohol that I picked up from the liquor store.

All in all I walked away with:

- Bottle of Butterscotch Schnapps
- Bottle of Rootbeer Schnapps
- Case of Banana Mudshake Vodka
- Case of Pina Colada Mudshake Vodka
- Case of Caramel Mudshake Vodka

Combine that with what we had at home…

- Triple Distilled Vodka
- Vanilla Vodka
- A bottle of red wine Tre’s dad gave him for his birthday

(We finished off the Wildberry Vodka a few days ago; sadly before I got a chance to make a Blueberry Jam and Wildberry Vodka cold brew)

…And there was lots to drink. But hey; he’s 20 and I’m 19 – now’s the time to get that out of the way, right? Plus – I knew I didn’t have work today and neither does he so that wasn’t a concern either.

Anyway, what I ended up doing was mixing half a bottle of Banana Mudshake Vodka with half a glass of cold milk, and a half tsp. of this matcha. The result: an incredibly smooth and creamy banana pudding type drink with a faint tropical edge from the alcohol. Delicious!. Tea and booze might be my new favourite thing. Incredible, really!

I’ve awoken from my deep slumber and now I want nothing but cup after cup of tea and delicious breakfast food, such as the poptarts I’m currently devouring.

I made this up as a matcha soda since A) we’re out of milk again and B) when I opened my matcha box in the freezer all I could smell was this one, despite it being double bagged. It was delicious enough that I instantly switched my decision of having Watermelon soda to making this one.

Prepared the usual way; except this time I didn’t add sugar because my right leg is all crampy, and I didn’t want to have to strain it getting the sugar out of the top shelf of the cupboard. You know what though? This still tastes AMAZING – it doesn’t need the sugar one bit to have an intense, yummy flavour.

Mmm! Perfect start to my morning/afternoon.

This makes amazing tea soda!

I had three cups of this over the last three days, and I’d have three more in an instant because it’s SO good. Each cup was done the same way too; 1 tsp. of matcha mixed in a can of club soda with a pinch of sugar.

It’s sweet and yummy, and just different enough. It was also a nice switch up from the matcha whisked in milk I’ve been having lately – I hadn’t had a matcha soda in a while because the matcha flavours I’ve got stocked don’t really lend themselves too favorably to carbonation.