Matcha Outlet

This is best enjoyed in a smoothie with peanut butter and banana. So good!

I thought belgium chocolate matcha would go great with coconut almond milk. Apparently, I was wrong. There is just something…not right in this mix :(. I guess I will stick to having this with peanut butter and banana in a smoothie.

So I had a stroke of genius while making my regular smoothie today and tossed in a tbsp of peanut butter. SOOOO GOOD!!! Plus, the peanut butter had the added bonus of covering up the chemical taste that the matcha can sometimes contribute. Yay!

After Roswell Strange’s unfortunate experience with mixing this matcha and bananas & cream matcha, I realized just how delicious the combination of this and banana sounded. However, I was not about to make the same mistake and mix the matchas. Instead, I made a smoothie using frozen bananas and this matcha and it came out great as the chocolate from this shined while I still got natural banana flavor from the fruit. Every now and again I got a little hint of chemical but not enough to detract from the beverage as a whole.

I mixed this into vanilla almond milk and since I am getting both the vanilla and the chocolate, this is working out to be a very interesting cup. Like the chocolate-vanilla swirled frozen yogurt I used to get as a kid, only liquid :P. As I mixed this up, I couldn’t help but wonder how tasty this would be if I mixed it with coconut almond milk. Guess I will have to pick some up and test it out in the future sometime.

I was really looking forward to this cup of matcha but something is really off. Either my inaccurate measuring ruined the cup or my milk is starting to sour (fun fact: I can’t smell sour milk), but whatever it is, I took one sip and dumped the rest.

I got lazy and I think that resulted in more matcha and less milk than usual. The result? A very chocolatey cup. I feared it might be vegetal but instead I get the low calorie version of chocolate milk. Yay! Thank you MissB!!

It is about 10:30 pm where I am and I was thinking I would switch to caffeine free options but then I realized that I only ate lunch about an hour ago so maybe it is not too late to enjoy my tasty, tasty caffeinated teas. So, rather than going for yogurt, I am having my first of possible two matchas. I think the more I drink this one, the more I enjoy it and pick up on its chocolatey goodness. That is probably a good thing because I have A LOT of it thanks to the wonderful MissB and her awesome stash sale.

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Another matcha gone. Sadly, I am quickly running out of my matcha. I plan on restocking but I am waiting to see if my review qualifies for a reviewers discount. Does anyone know how long it usually takes for Red Leaf to get back to you?

Anyways, having this in a cold glass of milk. It is a sweet, tasty, matcha version of chocolate milk. Though it may not be as richly chocolate as chocolate milk, it also doesn’t have the calories so that is nice. For all intents and purposes, it does the trick of satisfying my cravings. Belgium chocolate matcha, you will be missed! Thank you Cavocorax for so generously sharing with me :)

After tasting the Cookies & Cream matcha, one of my friends was very interested in trying other flavors. I showed her all the ones I had and she selected this out of the bunch. So I got to work on making her a cup. As I made it, my other friends became more and more curious about it. I guess my one friends love for it made them realize I was not drinking weird diet powder. They all started asking me questions about what matcha was and what I was mixing it in and it was really fun to introduce them to something I love so much.

Anyways, this cup ended up being passed around the table because everyone wanted a taste. One friend, who dislikes chocolate, thought this was quite pleasant. Another told me it tasted like whiskey with plants and mint. The friend who this cup was made for loved it and as for me, I am still in awe how simply changing the method can bring out flavors I never found when I made this in hot water. Something about mixing it in a cold cup of milk makes this creamy and deliciously chocolate tasting. A wonderful cup to share with my friends.

Something tells me there will be a lot more tea shared this weekend and I can’t wait. I love introducing my friends to so many new teas. Especially when so many of them only ever drink Orange Pekoe and are hesitant to drink my “weird, fancy” teas but always end up falling in love. Until then I get to tuck in to my mom’s king size bed (my mom is in Florida and a friend, who needs to wake up early, is sleeping over in my bed so I took the opportunity to roll around in the giant comfy bed) cuddled up with my little puppy. Sometimes it is just good to be home!

Thank you Cavocorax for sharing this with me!

I found the chocolate!! Thanks to Cavocorax’s wonderful suggestion of making this in cold milk, I was able to start my morning with a delicious chocolate-y snack. Though it was not quite chocolate milk level of chocolate flavor, there was enough flavor to still be noticeable and delightful. Thank you Cavocorax for both sending me the sample and for the cold milk suggestion (I feel like I am the only one who did not know this was a good way to have matcha haha).Something tells me I will be going through the matcha faster now that I don’t need to wait for boiling water to cool in order to make it.

Another from Cavocorax and I am definitely glad I started with the Cookies and Cream because this was a bit of a let down. I had been thinking about it since I made my last cup of matcha – I figured since all the other flavors have been spot on, this would be a cup of creamy chocolate deliciousness.

Alas, I could not find any chocolate at all. This was a sweet and tasty matcha but I would never in a million years have guessed it was chocolate. I am still enjoying the cup but it was not what I was expecting. Thank you Cavocorax!

Used this in a smoothie and I am getting no cookies and no cream from it. The only thing I am getting from this is a chemical aftertaste at the end of the sip. So, in future, I will stick to having this in just plain milk because all the other components just drown the flavors out.

I made a cup of this for my friend but I stole a sip. It is creamy but this package seems to be less like cookies & cream than I recall my last sample was which is sad. It was not bad but it wasn’t the first matcha experience I was hoping to give her. Nonetheless, she still enjoyed it and I was happy with my sip.

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Well Cookies & Cream, your presence in my cupboard shall be greatly missed until we are reunited :(

Goodbye dear friend.

Thank you Cavorcorax for sharing this with me!! It was much appreciated :)

I picked some of this up when it was 1/2 price on Red Tea Leaf’s website. The specifics of what I purchased are:

Flavor Level: Delicate
Size: Small (30g)
Grade: Classic (Basic Grade)
Type: Regular
Buy it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cookies-and-cream-matcha.html

I first tried this matcha when Cavocorax generously sent me a sample. From my very first sip, I knew that I wanted more of this flavor. Of course when I saw the matcha on sale for 50% off, I could not pass up the opportunity to buy some more. I also lucked out and was able to pick up some Bavarian Cream, a flavor I have wanted to try since discovering flavored matcha, at the same discount.

Anyways, when I opened the package, I was immediately in love with the smell. It has a very creamy scent with just a hint of the fudge-y chocolate cookie lingering in the mix. I was so excited to have a cup so I grabbed out my measuring spoon, my milk frother, and a glass. Of course I also needed my milk to make my drink complete.

I excitedly measured out 1/2 tsp of matcha and used my milk frother to combine it with 8 oz of cold milk, with just a hint of froth. I watched as the milk quickly took on a pale green color and released the decadent smell of cookies and cream.

Finally getting to drink my milky snack and I am definitely happy to announce that this is an oreo in a cup. It is amazingly creamy and that hint of chocolate cookie adds another level to the cup. Not to mention, it is matcha so it is definitely a guilt free treat. Yum!!

So I am now back in Markham until the end of the weekend and it is definitely nice to be home. I love Montreal but sometimes it is nice to return to the suburbs and be in a busy household with dogs running under foot and siblings yelling at each other. I actually came back as a surprise for my brother as his Hannukah gift. As an added bonus, I actually ended up getting to surprise a few friends too who were at my house visiting my sister. So it was nice to be back with people I love, sitting around and playing games. And of course, I immediately broke out my tea stash to share with everyone.

The first thing I grabbed was the pack of this matcha and when I offered it to others no one seemed interested so I made myself a cup in cold milk. One of the friends visiting actually asks me about my teas each day so anytime I make a cup she is always excited to try it. She ended up loving it and told me she would definitely buy more, even after I told her how pricy it could be she was still interested. Everyone else called it my weird green milk and told me they avoid healthy drinks. Oh well, more for me!

This was so creamy with a hint of the chocolatey goodness associated with an oreo cookie. I always love this tea and tonight was no exception. I can not thank Cavocorax enough for sharing this with me!!

While looking through the box Cavocorax sent me, I zeroed in on the matchas and tried to decide which of the 5 flavors would make a good latte. Problem was they all sounded good but I managed to narrow my choices to Cookies & Cream or Belgium Chocolate. Obviously, I ended up going with Cookies & Cream and it was the right choice.

Dry, this smells just like an oreo cookie. Steeped you can smell a little bit of the matcha but flavor wise it was all oreo cookie. It was actually so good plain that I debated about even putting the milk in. It tasted fudgey like the cookie part but the texture was creamy like the center. However, I could not resist trying this with milk and that ended up making it that much better. Plain this leans toward just the cookie part of an oreo with a hint of the center cream but with milk it tastes just like a liquefied oreo and it is amazing! There is even a bit of matcha at the end of the sip that helps round out this cup. Very, very delicious indeed! Thanks Cavocorax!!

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I have now finished off the generous sample Sil sent to me. It is funny because I was not a huge fan of this one at first but it has grown on me for sure. In fact, today I planned on only having one cup but when that tasted so delicious I decided to have another which polished off the sample.

I don’t know what I did today but this tasted just like a butter cookie. You know the ones – they come in the tin that every grandparent keeps and uses to store random things in and then you see it and get excited for cookies only to find a tin full of sewing stuff. They are buttery and sweet and have the perfect hint of vanilla. That is what this cup tasted like and it was delicious. So thank you Sil for sharing!!

On a completely unrelated note, I just caught the Canada Post lady writing a pick up card for my Herbal Infusions package without having even knocked on my door. I heard her come up the stairs outside and then I heard her walk to my door and I waited for the knock to as not seem eager. No knock so I went and opened the door anyways to find her with my package, looking shocked, and writing the card. She had to remove the sticker that she had already put on the package assuming I was not home. There were lights on and everything! Get yo shit together Canada Post!!! Luckily though I caught her and now I have my Herbal Infusions order. Hooray!!

I chose this for today’s matcha because I realized my roommate had picked up plain almond milk. Last time I had this flavor was in Vanilla almond milk and that tasted like a vanilla milkshake so I was curious to see if the vanilla I was tasting was actually from the matcha or if it was from the almond milk base. What I have learned from this experiment is that the vanilla almond milk did provide additional vanilla flavor, plain almond milk also helps to bring out the vanilla taste. I am not sure why that might be the case but this cup is definitely more vanilla than when I mix this matcha with regular milk.

The only milk we had in our apartment today was Vanilla Almond milk and given the snow storm outside, I did not feel like venturing out to get some regular milk so today I used almond milk to make my matcha. Apparently that was the key to finding the vanilla flavoring (granted I am not sure how strong the vanilla flavor is in the plain milk) because this cup is vanilla overload. It is like drinking a creamy, liquefied vanilla bean and I have not determined if that is a good or bad thing in this case. Nonetheless, thank you Sil for sharing this sample with me! I think in the near future I will be placing a Red Leaf Order and getting some French Vanilla so it will be interesting to finally get to compare the two.

I had this today mixed in a glass of cold milk. Though I think it was better than when I made it hot, it is still not my favorite. The flavor does not really come through that much and I get more of a vegetal taste from the matcha itself. I think in future I will be mixing this with other matchas rather than drinking it by itself. Thank you Sil for this sample. This is definitely one I would have bought and now I know it is just not for me.

This is the last of the four different flavored matchas that Sil sent me to try. I have put off tasting it until I got milk because I thought a vanilla matcha latte sounded amazing. Thank god I waited. Made in just water, I really only tasted the matcha despite the amazing vanilla scent. Luckily with a bit of milk, the vanilla flavor was able to shine through making for a deliciously smooth and silky vanilla matcha latte. Yum! Thank you Sil!