My chawan has been sitting in my cupboard looking dreadfully neglected as I haven’t used it to make matcha since last winter, I think. Lately the only time I’ve had matcha is in coffee shop latés and added into fruit smoothies (which is yummy BTW). But since everyone is raving about Red Leaf Tea’s matcha blends I decided that now would be a good occasion to take out my matcha stuff and find out if there’s something to all this fuss. ;)
For the record, this is a basic grade matcha with a ‘delicate’ level of flavour – I figured I’d start off slow. I was glad for the little brochure that came with my order that had basic instruction on how to make matcha as it’s something I rarely do and it’s a pain to have to refer back to the internets.
Just the smell of the matcha powder was delicious – creamy and sweet, it was almost a shock to taste the grassy matcha when I licked a bit of powder from my finger. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I added a bit of agave nectar to sweeten things up a bit. The matcha base tasted much like I’d expect matcha to taste – I don’t drink enough to have much of a discerning palate yet, but it seemed decent to me. The Bavarian cream flavour was a real treat – rich vanilla cream flavours that reminded me of Tim Horton’s Boston Cream (or is it Vancouver Cream, now?) donuts. It’s subtle, so I think the next matcha I try I’ll go with a stronger flavouring option, but it’s still quite clear to my tastebuds what this tea is supposed to taste like. I’d love to see if I can make my own matcha latés with this one as I bet it would be phenomenal mixed with steamed milk.
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/bavarian-cream-matcha.html
