865 Tasting Notes
a 3rd infusion w/ probably the most amazing panini ever. Chicken patty, breaded eggplant, tomato slice, 1 leaf of basil, Drunken Goat cheese (both sides of the bread), fat free miracle whip on one side of the bread, and Ken’s Northern Italian Salad Dressing on the other bread (French bread). YUM!
Preparation
Um… yeah… let’s just say that there are certain times that my mineral levels get lower due to me being a woman lol. So… I needed my mineral fix. I threw a tsp of this in 8oz of OJ (served James Bond style) expecting to be mad at myself for wasting such delicious matcha since I assumed the orange would completely mask the strawberry. BOY WAS I WRONG! Granted I may have been imagining a lil extra strawberry flavor since I knew it was in there, but the strawberry almost kept up with the orange! This leads me to believe Lupicia’s Strawberry Matcha au Lait mix would be delicious in OJ. Now if I could only find decaf matcha since my body really doesn’t need caffeine today.
Preparation
2TB/16oz water. Cold w/ lunch.
Preparation
2nd infusion. Due to the short steeping time, the leaves look like Ramen noodles after the 1st decantation! Between my new found love of OJ matcha and not having A/C I’ve been ignoring my chawan so I decided to make a Jasmine matcha w/ the 2nd infusion. Halved the water, steeped it for 45 sec, added 2 scoops of matcha and whisked. It definitely doesn’t have the authentic matcha taste or feel to it. It’s more of a jasmine tea w/ more green taste and a thicker mouth feel- but is still really good! This would be a good starting point for a jasmine lover wanting to get into matcha.
Another attempt at salvaging my SoBe water. SoBe matcha lemonade!
6oz SoBe Lifewater (yumberry pomegranate flavor)
2TB lemon juice
1tsp matcha
Served James Bond Style.
The flavor of the water pretty much gets lost, but the overpowering sweetness is perfect for a lemonade.
Preparation
2.5tsp matcha/20oz bottle Yumberry Pomegranate SoBe Life Water. James Bond style. Wow! This is pretty good. I’m glad I’m finding more and more ways to flavor matcha so I like it cold. Although… the reason I’m drinking this is to attempt to salvage this water. Why the heck is this so sweet when there are no sweeteners listed in the ingredients? It’s still sweet even this way.
BUT BE WARNED! The combo of the water & matcha look NASTY! lol
Preparation
Ok. I admit it. I blindly put this on my shopping list as soon as I saw “bamboo”. It wasn’t til after it arrived I even noticed it has gen mai in it. AH CRAP! But even that aside, this is a weird combo: chai like spices and fruit?
Prepared as suggested.
Hmm… The light greenish yellow liquor definitely smells very faintly of the gen mai that gives it it’s cloudyness and a hint of spice. But it’s mostly a fruity green tea aroma.
Ok, this is the ONLY gen mai cha that I will ever like. I’m not actually gagging- yay! The gen mai is the lightest of the flavors followed by the spices (unfortately mostly peppercorn), and most strongly the fruit and green tea. I have no clue what bamboo would taste like in a tea so I can’t tell you if it’s here or not. Don’t get me wrong, this is actually a pretty impressive and shockinly amazing tea (an 85ish on my personal preference scale), but there’s just too much other schtuff here for it to be called a bamboo shoots tea.
Preparation
The steeping suggestions are hotter, shorter, and less leaf than I’d choose- but here it goes.
The liquor is a light golden color almost like a white wine (which I love) and the aroma is light and sweet.
The flavor is exactly what I’d expect from the aroma with almost honey and fruit like notes. The mouth feel is a bit thicker than plain water, but not something I’d label as thick. A wonderful, light, smooth cuppa!
Preparation
On to something unflavored. The liquor is a light but vibrant green and the aroma is very vegetal with hints of butteryness and sweetness. Yummm… the mouth feel is on the thicker side and the taste matches the aroma. Almost broth/soup like.
Preparation
Ok… this tisane looks like fecal matter droppings. ’Nuff said.
This isn’t exactly a fruit or an herbal, but that’s the closest listed on the chart so that’s what I’ll go w/ even though 1/2TB doesn’t look like much since the chocolate pieces are so big.
Suprisingly this brews up quite dark- dark brown liquor w/ reddish tones. And it definitely smells like the ingredients. I can detect the red pepper, but it doesn’t burn my nose, it’s mostly chocolate and ginger.
I was expecting this to be flat w/o any tea in it, but it’s actually quite smooth. I think that’s cuz of the ginger and the red pepper. It’s almost coffee-ish in some ways, but still different enough to not be called coffee flavored. Would most likely be good with milk.
Preparation
Ok, I admit it. I bought this just for the name. I’m anticipating not liking it. Why? Because black/green blends just don’t work parameter wise. Each tea demands vastly different steeping conditions. I hate “winging” tea, but I have no clue what to do w/ this so I gotta. I’m gonna go w/ “typical” green parameters.
1tsp/6oz
The liquor is a beautiful autumnal amber and the aroma is surprisingly sweet. I’m getting fruity and sugary notes instead of floral. Interesting.
Whoa! Color me surprised. It tastes nothing like the watery black tea I feared. The green tea and flowers took over giving me a smooth slightly sweet (but still not floral) tea that has quite a bit of body (I’m assuming from the black tea). It’s actually very good and I’d give it even more points if I got the floral notes.
