Matcha Outlet

Thank you Sil for this sample. As wonderfully labelled this sample is distinctive in flavour. White chocolate is my favourite chocolate so I’m looking forward to this.

Brewing this as my lunch time cold soy milk late. It smells sort of chocolatey but there is also strong elements of green tea in there too, a nice combo. Unusual but very nice non the less.

Flavour is nice and light with creamy cocoa elements and a slightly astringent green tea after taste. It’s not as strong as I was expecting for a distinct blend but still a nice drink. Wouldn’t have necessarily said white chocolate either, more standard cocoa like.

This is my first experience drinking matcha. After seeing so many positive reviews of Red Leaf matcha’s, I was finally able to get some in a swap (thank yooooou SO much RogersCK !)

Oh. My goodness. This matcha is nothing short of mind blowing. It tastes so buttery and velvety, an leaves an intoxicatingly creamy feel on the tongue afterwards. I didn’t add milk or sugar, and it tasted like it had cream in it on its own. While this definitely has a richness to it, I love the fact I don’t have an overwhelmingly sickened stomach by the end, like I do with certain heavy black teas. I actually feel quite energized. GAH! I am ordering more of this pronto. New favorite beverage? Oh yeah. If all matcha teas aren’t as good as this, then I am most definitely ruined. Good thing that Red Leaf Tea has so many flavors!

I’m having this again for breakfast, thanks to VariaTEA and I am trying to be productive at work but I have so much I want to do that’s not work-related. /0\

I need to set up Calibre so that it’ll strip DRM off my books again because they are my books dammit and if I paid for them I want them to work on any reader I have.

I want to reformat some of my fanfic so that complete series are bundled together instead of as multipart books that are on my kindle and then I can never remember what order to read them in… They need covers too.

I need to get Sil a list of teas if I want her to pick me up anything in Florida…

I want to find some good music on Soundcloud. I’ve been doing 8tracks for awhile, but I heard this “This is a Trent Reznor Song” https://soundcloud.com/fredscott-1/this-is-a-trent-reznor-song and I LOVE IT. So now I want to see what else I can find…

Oh and I’m at work and I need to find strange things that I can’t talk about because of SPOILERS for Hannibal and I should get on that because… because… I’m getting paid? Right…

Oh and when I get home I need to figure out how to organize all my new samples/teas because they barely fit on my shelf and it looks awful and part of the solution is to start bundling up teas for MissB and Shmiracles!

So. TL:DR Matcha is GREAT and as a follow up to my coffee I am buzzing with energy and I have no idea how to focus on just one thing so I am now listening to NIN really loud until everyone else shows up to the shop.

And another matcha gone! (74) This time I had it with hot water, as usually intended. It’s more bitter than I’m used to when I drink it in milk, and the chocolate isn’t quite as stand-out-ish, but it’s still a little creamy and sweet.

I would definitely restock this.

Noooooo! I’ve got one little scoop of this left after this cup. I will surely miss it once it’s gone. I think it’s my favourite out of all the matcha’s I’ve tried so far…

Oh, I love this! I don’t want to rate it yet until I’ve had it with hot water too, but I can tell you this makes a great cold latte. Just added powder to hot water, whisked it, then added 5 oz of milk and used my milk frother to make it foamy and delicious.

I think I need to drink at least one cup of matcha per day seeing as I have so much, but I probably should try drinking it with water more instead of using milk. (hint: milk makes you fat. :P) I’m loving that I get to try all this out.

Thank you Courtney for sending a bit of this to try! I really appreciate the tea package! I decided to try my first hot matcha (the last time it was gingerbread matcha in a bottle of shaken water). So I boiled some water, waited for it to cool a while (the temp is supposed to be low, around 180 degrees — this is green tea after all). I added a small spoonful of this beautiful green matcha to the bottom of a mug and poured the cooled water into the mug. Then I mixed it around with the spoon. No, I don’t have traditional matcha tools yet, but I try! I’m sure I will love matcha enough one day to buy some simple matcha tools. This resulted in a gorgeous green clear mug. I actually really like matcha. Not only does it seem like I’m drinking something healthy (really matcha seems to have every health benefit imaginable), but it’s tasty too. The flavor here is more like pumpkin pie spices than pumpkin, but it’s delicious none the less. I may have added a bit too much matcha, but I like it anyway. Next I’d really like to try some matcha with some milk. I hope I remember next time to dissolve the matcha with about two ounces of hot water first and then add the milk (Red Leaf’s instructions). Red Leaf has so many flavors of matcha, I can’t wait to try more of them!
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/

I’ve had a busy day at work and am thankfully now resting at home. My husband had the day off to visit the hospital for his cancer check up (which are every 2 months now) and he is all clear still :) A reason to celebrate with this Raspberry Truffle Matcha.

The matcha smells almost like raspberry jam it’s so strong. The cocoa is more subtle but you still notice it in the background. The flavour is somewhat matching to the scent, it’s strongly raspberry but with only a hint of chocolate. Very truffle like :)

My husband said to him the chocolate is stronger than the raspberry, that was blind tasting too so he had no idea what it actually was.

I really like this one, I wonder if it differs much if brewed hot? Will have to try that another time.

Thank you Sil.

Figured I’d best give the other matcha that Lala sent me a fair try before I rule it out as a tea type that I don’t like, and since I spent a fairly busy day grocery shopping with Tre and am WAY too sore (recently started an “at home” exercise routine type thing – basically 10 minutes when I wake up, consistently whenever my electric kettle is boiling something, which is often, and 10 minutes before I go to bed; I am SO out of shape it’s not even funny) to actually cook or to go through a more elaborate process of making tea tonight this seemed like a good idea.

I’ve read on a few reviews that I good, and easy, way to make matcha cold is to put some into a water bottle with a smaller amount of water, shake the ever living crap out of it, and then fill the rest of the bottle and shake that all up – so that’s the method I tried. The water bottle I have isn’t really specifically for tea, and I’m not totally sure how many ounces is holds. I want to guess somewhere between 10 and 14 ounces? I used about half the sample that Lala sent me to mix up.

Taste wise, this is A LOT better than the MATCHAccino. I’m able to drink this without gagging or feeling like I’m going to throw up – which I think is a plus for any tea drinker (or at least I’m hoping that’s something many of you consider a plus). I believe that what Lala sent me was “Robust” flavouring (I quickly browsed the RLT’s website to see how matcha is sold and the naming/grading/whatever word I’m looking for system they used, and then checked the ratings for this one here on Steepster – I think I recall Lala saying it was robust).

Honestly? I don’t taste any green tea which is a HUGE plus. In fact, if the drink wasn’t green itself I don’t think I’d have remembered it was green tea. Taste wise, it’s reminding me of Nibs with sort of a cough syrupy aftertaste. That might just be the portions I used, though. It’s not the tastiest thing I’ve ever drank – and even though Tre LOVED the MATCHAccino he wont even try this one because he hates cherries. However, even though I don’t LOVE this it’s palatable for sure, and it gives me enough hope to try a few different kinds of matcha from RLT in flavours I like a bit more. I here the Caramel matcha is really good and since caramel is one of my favourite flavours I might give that a go.

Hope is not lost! And I definitely will be finishing off this sample.

Thanks Lala!

sipdown! (160) I’m excited since i found a tea listed in my cupboard that I drank a while back and forgot to remove. Thereby allowing me to make it to 160 today! and it’s barely 1pm! woohoo! Maybe i can make it to 155 lol Probably not but it’s fun to dream..

Most of this has left the building as a result of sharing matcha with steepserites. I have a metric ton of the stuff in my house so i’m trying to share lol I’m not a huge fan of this one, while it’s better than the raspberry truffle to me, the only way that i enjoy drinking this is in latte form with a little sugar. I don’t like adding sweetener to my matcha so this makes it less enjoyable that other flavours. I’m wondering if it’s just the raspberry flavour that i just don’t like. As well, in any case it’s still drinkable, just not the sort of flavour i most prefer :)

My matcha was composed of the following:
Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Distinctive
This was one of the flavours I picked up as part of a buy 3, get one free pack. I’ve tried the raspberry truffle from red leaf before but i really didn’t like it. I had hoped it was the chocolate flavouring in that one that set me off, so i decided to give this one a shot since i do love raspberries!
I have to say, when opening this up, it smelled so much like that weird artificial smelling raspberry flavour. I sighed a little and hoped for the best. Since this was raspberry & cream, i figured that i’d start this off as a hot latte.
First sip? It’s a little bitter and not quite as raspberry like as I want it to be. So for the first time ever, i added a tiny bit of sugar to my matcha latte. WOAH! did that pop everything into place! It brought out the raspberry taste and seemed to let it blend in better with the milk. I’ll have to remember that for some of my other lattes as i make them this fall. Lots of flavours to try from redleaf! Given my experiences with raspberry trufle – i highly recommend trying this one first, and then if you really need that chocolate taste, add some chocolate matcha or something to this on it’s own…or maybe a chocolate milk latte….hmmm now there’s a thought!
Buy it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/raspberry-and-cream-matcha.html

For once in my chronology I actually remembered to have one of the teas that live at home while I was home on the weekend. More than one, even (more tasting notes to come).

I made myself a nice milk-ice-matchaccino blend today to have with lunch, and it was delicious. Why don’t I drink this more often? I really should be making it on my super early mornings that always make me drag all day. It’s really not that much effort to blend it with some milk in my single-serving blender. Caramelly, sweet but not too sweet, generally delicious! I have two gigantic bags of it so even if I drank it every morning it would probably take me forever to get through it. Must drink more matcha!

Remember how yesterday I was complaining about getting up early to teach? Well I got up an hour earlier than that today to go birding, haha.

Since it was stupid early in the morning, I made some of this cold shaken with milk in the hopes it would give me a boost. I guess it did, but I would have hated to have seen myself without it!

Sipdown, 142. Samples are gone, gotta get me some more of this! This morning I didn’t use ice, just cold milk and a blender, and it was great. I realized one thing I love about it is that I always get an awesome froth on the top, which I always struggle to get with regular matcha.

I recently ordered a sample of this blend from Red Leaf because I had been hearing so much about it. I didn’t realize that I could get a next-to-free sample of it, so I jumped on it when I had the chance. I was pleased that the sample actually came with two single-serving pouches.

I was surprised at how much was used for a single cup, but I dumped the whole pouch into my blender with milk and some ice cubes. I will say that this is dangerous because it is dead easy and super delicious! Mmmm, caramelly, sweet but not too sweet, with a thick richness that was amazing from just milk and a few small ice cubes (that didn’t add much, honestly). The flavor of the matcha definitely shines through, but it’s just well balanced overall. I want to go out and buy a huge amount immediately, but I really should get through all the matcha that is still in my freezer before I do. There is no doubt that the convenience factor and deliciousness factor for this is huge.

Find it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matchaccino/caramel-matchaccino.html

Holy tea! The lovely and incredibly generous Lala sent me a package of teas to try out (mostly straight green and whites, among a few others) and now I just have so much to try out! I wasn’t really sure where exactly to start, so I let my roommate make the first pick…

So, starting out with some unflavoured MATCHAccino. I had to look up how I’m supposed to make this – so fingers crossed I’m doing this the correct way. I guess I have enough that I can try another cup in different proportions if I need to.

I’m making some in “iced cap” format for Tre and I.

On it’s own, the dry MATCHAccino mix doesn’t smell so bad – very sweet, but definitely green tea. I want to like green tea, though! So of course I’m excited to try this.

All mixed/blended up now. It looks… Well, lets just say that typically I’d be pretty cautious about drinking something so green. Unless we’re talking vegetables, there’s some sort of instinct that I feel most people posses that talks them out of eating suspicious green foods.

It smells really, really sweet. Fingers crossed?

First few sips… ICK. YUCK. NOPE. It tastes like horribly sweet grass. NO. NO. NO. I do not want to drink more of this. Seriously, I LOVE the smell of actual sweet grass – you know, the type used in First Nations ceremonies. It smells so good, and that’s why the dry powder form of this smells like. But, ewwww. It’s too sweet and too grassy. I’m sure it’s not the tea or sample’s fault – but I just DON’T like it.

On the plus side? Tre does. He can drink the rest of my cup for me.

Dala also sent some Black Cherry flavoured Matcha for me to try, and it smells REALLY good too. It was going to be the next one I tried, but now I’m not so sure. I want to like it, but I’m not sure. Maybe it’ll be like other green teas – much more palatable flavoured as opposed to straight.

I’m gonna try and use up the last of Lala’s sample of this one though – in a hot format. Maybe it’ll be better that way? She sent lots of green teas, so I’m really hoping I find at least one type that I like. If nothing else, her generosity will lead into a great learning experience & further proof that green tea just isn’t my thing.

Got a sample of this from Cavocorax because I wanted to dip my toe (so to speak) into the whole Matcha deal, but I didn’t want to buy a large amount of it from somewhere and then end up not liking it.
The smell is very sweet caramel. It reminds me of really good caramel candies actually. Mmmmm. Caramel Candy…too bad it gets stuck in my teeth.
Anyway, so I mixed a tsp into 8oz of milk and stirred/mixed like crazy until I couldn’t see any little spots through the bottom of the measuring cup. I probly got the ratios all wrong for it, or something, but whatever.
After the foam faded off, it was this, errr, kinda grey/greenish color, that made me slightly dubious about it, but then, I was expecting a brighter green. Which makes me suspect that maybe I didn’t use enough? Or else it’s because I just don’t know what color it should have been in the first place. Lol! I didn’t add any ice or anything to this because I wanted to see what it was like straight.

So tentative sip and….oh. Oh Wow! Caramel milk goodness. Seriously. I was expecting a bitter, green-something taste because that’s been my experience with green tea in the past, and this really awful matcha dry fruit mix I got a sample of once. But nope. Total caramel goodness. I ended up drinking the whole cup so fast I don’t really even remember drinking it.
Next time I’ll probly try 1 1/2 tsp, or possibly 2 tsp, next time I make it, just cause it can’t hurt. But I’d definitely order this in the future. And it really makes me want to try other matchas now. Awesome experience is….well, awesome. Lol!

Try some of it here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matchaccino/caramel-matchaccino.html

I AM IN LOVE! Thank you thank you thank you Stephanie for this very generous amount in our swap:) I have FINALLY SUCCESSFULLY made my first matcha latte. I always had a lot of trouble of making matcha, but not this time! :D I used my ninja pulse single serve blender to make a foamy iced latte/Frappe out of this and it was so good. It is crazy how such a tiny serving of this goes a LONG ways. It so intriguing that this is a WHITE Matcha. It has a tad bit more natural sweetness to it than your average green Matcha. Anyways thank you again for this I will be savoring this and eventually hope to invest in some myself. But not being in the position for a while to buy tea:( Until then, my swap quantity will have to do:)

Sipdown! (205) This is another one from the generous VariaTEA! I love Pumpkin Pie!!! And she saw that and gave me a little more. What a sweetheart. :D

Sipdown! (93)
I’m going to miss this, but I have so many flavours left that I don’t feel too bad about it.

I WILL reorder this eventually. In a year?

Oh, this matcha! :O It just makes the best cold lattes! It’d probably be great hot too and some day I’ll try it. Hopefully before I run out of this matcha.

This is the distinctive level.

Oh and I might try Sil’s suggestion and mix this with French Vanilla. That sounds like a great combo!

This is great! The flavouring on this is distinctive and that’s exactly the right choice. I mixed hot water with the matcha to blend it up a bit, then added a ton of milk and frothed it right up.

The result is very pumpkiny and creamy and super satisfying. I can taste the cinnamon/nutmeg/other pumpkin pie spices quite clearly. I’ll have to try it hot too, but I wanted the easy way first. #lazy

Sipdown (183/189)!

I almost placed this in my most recent matcha order but in the end I decided to try something new and I got the pear matcha instead of this one because I think that, like this guy, pear will be good in club soda or in milk – and I just didn’t want to end up with too many club soda options because club soda is a bit costly when you’re drinking it so frequently…

So goodbye tasty matcha! I’ll probably order you again at some point in time – but for now it feels good to get another matcha flavour out of my cupboard what with a large order on its way.