When Red Leaf Tea offered this matcha at half off last week, I jumped at the chance to get it. The only problem was what size to get!
This is the second matcha from my first Red Leaf Tea order. A big thanks goes out to Amanda for sending me a sample prior to that! I believe she had the “distinctive” caramel flavoring in her’s, and because I liked it so much I ordered a large amount of the “robust” flavoring.
Let me first tell you that before I was turned on to Read Leaf Tea, I would sometimes put in some good quality caramel sauce into my matcha lattes as a treat – I really do love good caramel flavoring! Thanks to this company, I don’t have to do that anymore – AND I can control the sugar amount!
Upon pouring out the contents of the robustly-flavored Caramel Green Matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-matcha.html ) from the non-resealable, gold foil packaging into the tin, I could smell the sweetness of caramel. I HAD to make a bowl right then and there!
For this first preparation I sifted a teaspoon of matcha powder into my bowl – I highly recommend doing this! Without it, you risk the chance of having clumpy matcha, and no one wants that! I wisked in two ounces of warmed water with my electric frother until the matcha was fully dissolved. Filled the bowl with the rest of the warmed water, about 6 ounces worth.
In my opinion, the “robust” flavoring is lacking a little. When I tried Amanda’s “distinctive” sample I could taste the caramel, but thought a little more flavoring would help. That’s why I added the “robust” flavoring on my order. But I found it missing an element – maybe it’s sweetness, which is something I usually associate with caramel. While Red Leaf Tea doesn’t add any sugar to their matchas, I found this benefited from some added sweetener.
I also think I might prefer the Caramel Matcha prepared as a sweeter latte – either hot or cold.
Not that they are necessarily comparable, but having gotten this and the Boysenberry Matcha with “robust” flavoring, I’m favoring the boysenberry more. That one was pretty fantastic without adding sweetener and the boysenberry flavor really popped!
I do look forward to playing around with the Caramel Matcha more – mixing it with other flavored matchas from this company. Caramel Cheesecake, Caramel Green Apple, Caramel Espresso, Caramel Vanilla, just to name a few! Oooo and I bet baking with this is going to be AMAZING!
