Okay. I so I have had this bag of delicious matcha in my cupboard for a while now. I kept wanting to open it up and make myself a delicious sweet drink, but I have refrained. Why? Well, I wanted to finish my starter matcha before opening another one. My mom has always told me to finish one box of cereal before starting another one. Even if they are different flavors. And I know how quickly matcha can deteriorate. :( But I can’t stand it any longer. Aisling’s mouth watering review pushed me over the edge. (Thank you, by the way. :))
I normally don’t have time to get a drink of tea in before leaving for work, but I start a little later today but my body made me wake up at the same time. In any case, this is a delicious way to start the day. The moment I ripped open that foil packet, my heart was lost. How could I have waited so long? The smell is intoxicating. It’s like those caramel hard candies wrapped in that neon yellow wrapping paper. I think I might even spy tiny bits of caramel in the tea. Yummy. I quickly whip up a cup with just hot water. Smells so amazing!
First, the color of the powder is a bit of a brownish green. This is likely due to whatever is used to flavor the tea. I did get a stronger flavor than the default. I love me some caramel. The powder blended into the water nicely with barely any clumps. The froth in minimal, but I only have a spoon and a mug so I’m probably at fault here rather than the matcha.
And best of all, the flavor! The flavor is true to the smell. It’s really more of a hard candy caramel than a soft gooey caramel. I’m not too picky about my caramels in general though, so I pretty much love this. From the smell, you’d expect a sugary sweetness, but it’s just the usual natural sweetness of the matcha. It’s manages to be both green and refreshing and sweet and desserty. I definitely approve of this compromise.
As for the matcha itself, I used the cheapest option, Starter Matcha, since I figured I would let the flavor shine and drink high quality matcha unadulterated. Not that the Starter Matcha isn’t a good matcha. I think it’s a very good matcha for the price, though it definitely not the best matcha ever.
As usual, my sensitivity to caffeine makes me a good judge of how caffeinated a tea is. This one is moderately caffeinated, by my judgement. It certainly left me feeling energetic this morning! And my spring allergies were a bit less irritating, but I don’t know if I can attribute this to the matcha. Perhaps I should just drink matcha every morning and see how it goes! Certainly better than popping Claritin everyday.
The flavor of this matcha also begs to be played around with. Perhaps I could dust some over vanilla pudding/ice cream? Of course it would be good as a latte. As an add in to homemade caramel green tea truffles? I think I’m drooling…
In closing, if you love caramel and enjoy matcha, you’ll love this tea!
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-matcha.html
