ashmanra

This came as a sample with the matcha I ordered from ZenTea. I understand there is more than one company by this name. To clarify, this is the company in Canada whose site is ZenTeaLife.

I am having some of the Asian buffet leftovers for lunch and wanted a good green to go with it. I am delighted that I spotted this in my free sample and swaps box. I will get to do a sample SIPDOWN, which isn’t as exciting as for some of you because I don’t put samples in my cupboard, but is still exciting because I have reduced the embarrassing large amount of tea I own by one so I feel a little better about myself. Ha!

The color reminds me of the organic unfiltered olive oil I buy. The leaves in the sample pack are a good size but lots of teeny tiny bits escaped into my cup. It didn’t matter – it didn’t make it bitter. I have made two steeps so far and the second is as good as the first and just as flavorful.

My main thought as I drink this is that if I were chewing, I would know for certain that I was eating creamed spinach. I really like creamed spinach, by the way. So I thoroughly enjoyed both cups of tea and am glad to try my second gyokuro ever. Now I know what to buy for that rich, creamy spinach taste.

Thank you, ZenTeaLife for the sample!

Hoorah! Hooray! My tea came today! I just completed a SIPDOWN of another brand of unflavored matcha so I am glad to have this. I bought two pouches of it because the price was so reasonable and I would save on shipping in the long run.

The color of this is quite similar to the one from Zen Tea Life, and both are heartier in flavor than the one I got from Olive Nation. It is not as vibrant green as Kai Matcha or as the higher grades of Red Leaf Matcha, but it is lovely and an excellent price for a good quality of tea.

I made a latte with this as soon as it came and it was yummy! The smell reminds me very strongly of some Ti Kuan Yin and Dong Ding teas I have had, the smell of the acrylic paint art studio I took lessons in when I was very young. I LOVE that smell!

One thing I will be doing with this….I started out ordering all my matcha from Red Leaf in Robust. Now I love plain matcha and the robust flavor level is too much for me. Some of the flavors have a chemical taste if I put a full measure in, and if I cut back on how much Red Leaf I use, I don’t have enough matcha flavor for me anymore.

Solution: use half as much Red Leaf flavored, and replace the other half with a good unflavored matcha – like this one!

I am going to give a bit of this to my daughter and my bestie, because I think they are really going to love it.

Why are the chickens making me crave black tea? Each morning I go outside and watch the chickens we bought Sunday. One of them had laid an egg in the box during the auction. I didn’t expect them to lay for a week or so since they had a major upheaval in their lives, but yesterday both laying hens laid an egg. (One is an adorable pullet, too young to lay just yet.) I am on pins and needles looking for two more eggs to come at about five o’clock. Meanwhile, though, in the mornings I LONG for a pot of black tea even though I haven’t been having tea until afternoons for a long while.

This one sounded good today. It is one of only a few Assams that I can drink and not regret it. Others are too harsh for me and give me an angry stomach. I actually got distracted and steeped this one for over five minutes instead of the 3 1/2 I normally do. I was afraid it would be undrinkable but I took it outside and enjoyed every cup with a bit of Blarney Castle cheese from Kerrygold. Is anyone else excited at the cheese they are carrying at Sam’s Club now? They have some pretty decent ones and I try to buy one or two a month to expand my horizons.

Grace Rare Tea is consistently good for me. They don’t offer a huge number of different teas, but they offer high quality teas and people who have tea at my house generally really like their tea. I have had their Formosa Oolong, Assam, Winey Keemun, and Jasmine Green, and they have all been tasty.

I have had this for about three weeks, but I waited to review because I thought I had done something wrong. (Hang in there, I didn’t do anything wrong but there was a very fixable problem – solution is thanks to Rashad.)

The first two times I tried it, it was anything but delicate. It wrestled my tongue into a headlock and tried to cut it with a shiv. It was some very aggressive tea. But it wasn’t the base, it was the flavoring. I had loved, I say LOVED, every other Nina’s Tea I had tried. Other people loved it. Rashad loved it. What was wrong with me? I served it to a guest, and they said, “Meh.”

Then Frank’s teas started getting some off comments and he said maybe people could try airing it for a bit.

Rashad’s tin of Marie-Antoinette arrived and it was “anything but delicate”, while his sample had been quite good. He decided to air the tin, and when I saw his note I decided to try it, too.

All the difference in the world! That is what it made, indeed. Now this is a sour apple tea that is lightly rose scented. The rose appears in the scent and in the aftertaste but is light, not heavy and perfumey. The tea base can now be tasted, and I really wasn’t getting the base before.

Nice tea save! Thank you, Rashad!

I am putting today’s tea drinking under this tea, but there will be three teas mentioned here. The other two do not have a designation of their own.

My bestie, Melissa1, came over today for lunch since she is on spring break. We did a side by side test of three instant matcha latte mixes; this one, my home made blend of Olive Nation matcha and sugar, and Red Leaf Tea’s sample of Caramel Matchacinno No. 4, which is a test sample and not the final product that will be sold.

I made three glasses of milk and put a scoop of mix on top. As the matcha begin to bleed its color out into the milk, the differences were immediate and obvious. Rishi’s matcha was a bright spring grass green. Olive Nation was more of an olive green color, as was Red Leaf, though the flavoring does slightly change the color of theirs. Note: the mixes call for eight ounces of milk per tablespoon of mix. I have found that it is plenty sweet and flavorful enough to put one tablespoon mix to fourteen to sixteen ounces for me.

I used an Aerolatte to blend the mix and froth the top.

The Rishi had the strongest matcha flavor and tasted the sweetest of the unflavored. Olive Nation home made mix was good, but their matcha is more earthy and muted. I do like it, though.

The Caramel Matchaccino was still too strong for us at 12 ounces milk so I went with fourteen. This is a good thing, as it means I can make my mondo glass of latte and not go broke putting two tablespoons in it! Also, the flavoring level was either delicate or more likely, distinctive. I thought that was plenty strong enough and I would not order it in robust personally. I think I will put my money in upgrading the base now and go with lighter flavor, because the flavoring is generous enough as it is and the base makes the most difference to me now that I have developed a taste for matcha. The caramel is creamy and sweet.

As we poured up the last of it, she laughed and gasped, “How did we drink so much already?” I thought that was pretty funny since it is something you would expect to hear over a bottle a wine, not a table full of matcha! :)

Hubby used to drink only black tea, and even then it was loaded with sugar and milk. And sugar.
He got adventurous and started drinking puerh, greens, and oolongs – PLAIN! The past two weekends he has asked me after breakfast if I am making tea. When I ask what he wants, he says, “I don’t know. Nothing weird. Maybe something green.”

Today’s nothing weird something green was Premium Silky Green from Bird Pick, which we are pretty sure is a green oolong. It is so buttery and good.

On a side note, and only the forty and over crowd will probably know the answer: there was a comedian/magician who was on TV in maybe the 70’s. He sort of hummed this little song as he did a trick where he hit his hands together and he was holding up several fingers on one hand and they would magically “transfer” to the other hand. I think it was on Johnny Carson. I have googled and youTubed exhaustively and can’t find the guy. Does anyone remember who it was? I did find someone doing the same thing, but it was a much newer video.

Glory be, it’s a SIPDOWN! Why am I excited? I wasn’t letting myself buy any more Keemun until I finished the ones I already have. I am pretty sure this is the last of my last one. The little pile of empty tins is growing. The list of what I can order now is, too!

This was the first tea served because I wanted something fairly neutral to go with our first treat at tea party time. It was Orange Creamsicle Ice Cream, home made. Oo, it is yummy. I just made the basic vanilla ice cream in the Cuisinart book and added a tablespoon of Penzey’s orange extract.
Now I want to search for the perfect crunchy bits to add to it, like chopped almonds or toffee bits. I think it will be good as a float this summer, too. Maybe I will put it in ginger ale or cream soda.

Tea is funny! I had this yesterday and thought it was mainly peach. I had it today and got apricot first, peach second, and apple almost not at all. LOL! Anyway, it was excellent!

The tea base is very light and the flavors taste very natural without that irritating alcohol up your nose fumes that some flavored teas give. I think it is a nice level of flavoring, not overbearing.
This is a delicate and foofy tea for tea party time! Very enjoyable.

I am really surprised at myself. I have avoided genmaicha thinking I would not like it very much. I had Chocolate Delight by the Teaguys, and it has toasted rice in it I am fairly sure, but there are so many other ingredients in that blend that I wasn’t sure what made it tasty! Then I tried a bagged genmaicha and must have made it badly because it was TERRIBLE! But I think I just didn’t know how to handle it.

This one is easy, forgiving, and really tasty. My tea party guest did a double take today, almost setting her cup down after her first sip but taking it right back under her nose to sniff. “This is good!”

Indeed it is, and I recognize some of the flavor from Chocolate Delight, so I must have tasted the toasted rice after all. The caramel lends a really smooth, warm taste. The base comes off more as black tea than green to me.

This is one of my favorites from my birthday box! Thank you, SuperAnna for the tea, and Laurent for choosing!

I was saving the first tasting of the tea for tea party day (tomorrow) but I have not had a nice big pot of good hot tea in almost a week. I decided to go ahead and have this one because it smells very enticing. Thank you, SuperAnna! And thank you, Laurent, for helping her choose my gift box!

I used water just barely at the boil and gave it a three minute steep. Nice color to the liquor makes me think this was a sufficient steep time.

It was hard to wait for it to cool to drinking temperature, but worth it. I took one of the little dried fruit pieces and it was so sweet and nice. The peach flavor in this is very good. I have one or two peach teas that I drink but I always have the feeling that I am getting some kind of burning fumes up my nose from the artificial “high note” that must be a byproduct of the flavoring. This tea does not have that to me. The fruit flavors are light, sweet, and natural tasting. The peach does not “turn” my tongue and make me pucker, and I am pretty sensitive to peach flavors. Done right, I like them. Done wrong, like in peach yogurt from the grocery, they gag me.

I thought at first that peach was the dominant flavor, and I will have to say it is the dominant aroma for me, but as it cools and as I sip, I do find the apple coming out and I think it keeps the peach from misbehaving. Apricot is dicey for me to recognize, since I have eaten very little apricot, and the taste is much like peach to me, only mellowed and warmer.

This was a nice choice for this dreary grey day while spring is being held out of my grasp!

I spent about half the day yesterday getting our taxes ready. I have been putting it off, dreading it, when I should have gotten it over with. I just felt like I could not face that chore! Finally, I knew we were getting down to the wire and I had no choice. And when I was done, it felt like a great weight had been lifted. I should have done it sooner!

I wanted to celebrate, and since we don’t drink alcohol plus I was wanting to give hubby a treat for working on my chicken tractor, I suggested Five Guys Fries. OY! I think a pint of liquor would have been better for me. I waited to eat until almost noon, but still I was a bit reflux-y. I am just not used to eating fried foods anymore! (On a happy note, I have lost all the weight I gained over the holidays and a little more to boot!)

I needed puerh, so I have been drinking this all day and my stomach is quite happy now. Puerh really works for me when I eat too much fatty or greasy food. I made this western style with a nice long steep so it was quite dark in the cup. It was sweet and smooth.

On a side note – the names for the chickens have been tentatively chosen…Nom Nom Nom de Plume (she will be Samwise’s hen, probably a Buff Orpington to match his spot), Darles Chickens (ruminate on that a while, you’ll get it), and Dame Digby Chicken Caesar.

Since I am trying to learn a lot about matcha, I had my daughter pick up something at Whole Foods called Sweet Matcha by Rishi. We don’t have it around here. It was really good made as a cold latte, but expensive (to me) all though it is cheaper than buying at SBucks. The bag was $10 and it makes 9 or 10 lattes, but only eight ounce ones. I usually make at least sixteen ounces!

I decided to try my hand at an instant latte mix using my Olive Nation matcha. I compared the calories per serving of the mix with calorie count on different types of sugar and came up with what I thought would be a good proportion. I decided on one part matcha powder to five parts sugar to replicate their calorie count and sweetness level. Of course, if you want it less sweet you can add less sugar and then use less than a tablespoon in your drink.

I am rather pleased, though there is one thing I would change. Rishi says they use milled cane sugar. I wasn’t sure what that meant but I went with confectioners sugar thinking it needed to be very fine to dissolve quickly. I think next time I will use my raw cane sugar from Whole Foods, and I may pulse it in my grinder before mixing it in.

It was a fun experiment, pretty successful since I have been enjoying these easy peasy lattes almost every day, and I think I came out way cheaper than buying another Rishi Sweet Matcha!

Trying to finish this tin as it is getting on a bit. Good tea, but now I have found other white teas I like even more. I thought this might be a sip down, but when I opened the tin it was still about half full! OY!

YUM!

Today was tea party day. My first student of the day stays for an hour and a half after her lesson to have a tea party with us before my late afternoon students come. As we were finishing her lesson and were about to go to the table I smelled a wonderful scent, like on Bugs Bunny when some enticing aroma wafts to him and turns into fingers to draw him near. What is that? Ah, it must be the coconut!

Indeed it was, and this turned out to be the favorite tea of the day. (We always have three and rank them.) Don’t be misled by the description. I think it says with a hint of tartness or something like that, but don’t mistake that for sour or astringent in the base. To me, the pineapple is very light and overall this is a smooth and creamy cup of tea. Granted, I had made homemade ice cream flavored with vanilla, almond extract, and chocolate chips as well as a chocolate cake with the boiled frosting that hardens, so perhaps if it were not paired with food the pineapple is stronger, but we loved it just the way it was!

I actually ordered the peanut butter flavor matcha intending to mix it with chocolate matcha for something like a Reese’s Cup, but Sil’s notes on smoothies made me want to try all kinds of ways to use my matcha and I realized that peanut butter is a great addition to a banana smoothie for protein, and I could use the matcha to add a little extra kick to the flavor as well as to give some extra energy boosting power to the smoothie. Right away, I discovered that I didn’t like actual peanut butter in my smoothies. The texture was a bit sticky for me, but by adding just the matcha powder you can get the peanut butter taste. You can find it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/peanut-butter-matcha.html

I chose the robust flavor level for this one, because I didn’t realize how quickly I was going to learn to enjoy the taste of matcha! It isn’t too strong for me, though, but if you are drinking it plain you might want to take it down a level, especially if you already love the taste of matcha. I drank it most recently as a matcha latte, and with 1/2 teaspoon of matcha in eleven ounces of milk and water with about a tablespoon of Turbinado sugar, this made a creamy, mildly nutty, afternoon pick me up, emphasis on creamy!

Having ordered Bilberry with the upgrade to the base and just the distinctive flavor level, I think there are a lot of these flavors that I will do that with in the future. My beloved almond, French Vanilla, and Caramel flavors will probably always be ordered in robust though because I love it so much. (My son actually requested an almond matcha latte this weekend!)

The smell and taste of this matcha is really authentic peanut butter. I bet if you held the jar of matcha under someone’s nose, they would swear it was a jar of Jif or something.
If you love peanut butter, this would be a good one to try.

Good heavens, why haven’t I had this one in a while? I had leftovers from our Asian Buffet takeout and decided to myself a small pot of this to have with it. Good choice, me, good choice.

This was so excellent with my food. When I have green tea with food I usually perceive it very differently. Not so much with oolongs, but definitely with greens. This one was so mouthwateringly fresh that I felt like I had springtime in a cup. Delicious.

See that “Add to Cupboard” I clicked there? That’s because this isn’t a sample! No sir, this is part of my birthday gift from my eldest daughter! She emailed Laurent and they went back and forth putting together a gift box of four small tins and one large for me, and Laurent helped her choose my teas. The tins look beautiful together, and red is my accent color in my kitchen and there are little pops of it in my Williamsburg blue living room, so these are a nice decorative element as well. Here is a photo I took yesterday of the small tins. I hadn’t opened the large one as yet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/8561345077/

I decided to drink this because…well, I got it yesterday, and Demain means “tomorrow” so I thought I would drink it…tomorrow which is today! Got that?

I was having a quiet morning as everyone slept in after a late night watching movies and playing games. I got out my lovely Lady Carlyle cup and made a whole pot of this. The liquor is so lovely in the cup. It is a bright, clear, medium yellow color, really I would call it golden without a hint of orange. So pretty! I drank the whole pot before doing yoga with my son.

This is a bright and refreshing green tea flavor, yet not astringent or puckery. It is a good one for waking up!

Thank you, Superanna and Laurent!

I bought this because apparently I am a crazy person and I am trying to acquire every matcha that crosses my path that is under $40 a tin. Help.

On the bright side, this made a really good latte! The color of the dry powder is almost identical to the Olive Nation matcha, not nearly as bright as KaiMatcha Premium. I have a really nice froth lingering on my latte, and it has nice enough flavor.

I noticed that the above says it is $24 for a 40 gram tin. I went on their website to make sure I was looking at the right tea. On their site it says it is $34.50 but is on sale for $19.99. That is a great sale price for 40 grams of organic matcha. Most matcha comes in 30 gram packages.

Edited to add: I just looked at my account and I did indeed pay $24 for my tin. I wonder why their site now shows $34.50 as the price. Maybe the sale is to clear out the last of this batch and the next batch will indeed cost that much?

I wanted a good black tea to pair with….a spoonful of frosting. Yes, that is my shameful mid-morning snack. My youngest daughter just made birthday cake number two – with four kids in the family and my godson plus hubby and me, one birthday cake isn’t enough! She did a beautiful job, and now as the birthday person I get first choice on beaters and pans. I chose the frosting bowl! Heh heh. But I really only scraped out about two teaspoons worth or a tad more.

I am really trying to sip down some teas and I am trying VERY HARD not to order more, but I can’t say I have had much success with that part! I have even given away two big boxes of teas lately! And still we have way more tea than food in this house. And way more tea than money. LOL!

I have enough leaf left now for one more pot, and I won’t be replacing this one. I thought I would back when I first bought it. My daughter liked it and it was not bad, but I have had Keemun Mao Feng from Harney and Sons and Organic Superfine Fragrant Keemun Black Tea from Teavivre, and those are superior.

I don’t regret purchasing this. It has served us well and is pretty good, but I am glad to open up space on the shelf for some other, more treasured teas to come in. It was really good with my cream cheese frosting, though!

I am tasting this tea thanks to the amazing JacquelineM who miraculously produced a sample of this long unavailable tea. When I first joined Steepster, this tea was all the rage. I put it on my wish list, but the company that sold it – sob! – closed before I could buy any. I think losing the opportunity to try this legendary tea bothered me more than any other that “got away.”

And here I am with a generous sample. She could have sold this on the black market to some tea head for lots of money, but instead she sent it to ME! And I saved it for my birthday, which is today! This is my evening cuppa, a treat for myself in the quiet now that the day is winding down.

This is beautiful, beautiful leaf. Dark, long, twisted leaf that is highly aromatic, especially when you scent your cup first. (Thank you, Garret, at Mandala Tea for teaching us to do that. It adds so much to the experience. Pour your hot water in your empty pot, let it warm a moment, then pour out the water and add the leaf. Put the lid on for a moment. Now, lift the lid and take a long, deep sniff of the pot and leaves. Once you have experienced the aromas, add your hot water and steep.)

This is an extremely complicated tea. I am so glad I tried the hojicha first because my thoughts went something like this: Cocoa! Rough cocoa! Roasted cocoa! Roasted….something….coffee, caramel, smoke like hojicha, and…was that a hint of cinnamon? Chicory, yes, it is there also.

No wonder everyone loved it. Thank you so much, JacquelineM, for blessing my birthday with “the one that got away.”

On another note, when I looked up the plantation on google I saw an article that said a tea garden manager of that area was abducted in fall of 2012 and held in the jungle by some group – I forget now exactly who – but had been rescued. Oh my! Glad to read that he was rescued.

This is my first hojicha ever. I must confess that I was scared of it, especially once I cut the sample package open. (This was a free sample included with my matcha order.)

Smoky, but with something that came across as a burnt toast aroma. Oh dear! But I determined to try it anyway. And guess what? It was pretty good! I really thought it must be very similar to coffee, but I am not a coffee drinker so I can’t say for sure. I thought it might get bitter or harsh as it cooled, but instead I liked it more than when it was hot.

The burnt toast aroma has now turned to caramel followed by smoke, and that is something I can definitely handle. This is so bold (though not in the least astringent) that it is hard to believe it is low in caffeine. I would think that people who can’t have caffeine in great amounts or in the evenings would really enjoy a nice bold cuppa like this – lots of strength and flavor but no jitters and no insomnia.

So – what I thought was going to be an ordeal has turned out to be a really pleasant cup of tea.
Thank you, Zen Tea, for expanding my horizons a bit today!

Well, I don’t how orthodox it is to post a tasting note for something that isn’t available, but here it is!

I was really looking forward to today’s latte. I realized that I need to continue sipping down some samples, including these from the Red Leaf “taste off.” I think I have almost perfected my matcha latte recipe now. I love it with honey more than any other sweetener, and realized that I also like lots of milk, not just half milk half water.

I put one tablespoon of honey in a large glass and pour in just enough hot water to “melt” the honey. Then I add a little crushed ice just to cool it a bit so I don’t burn my matcha. Next I sift in one teaspoon of matcha powder and whoosh with my aerolatte, then fill the glass almost to the top with milk, and add a little more crushed ice so it will be nice and cold. This had really nice color, a little greener than the Olive Nation matcha I have been making lately. The flavor was creamy and good.

I am loving the Working Glass I bought from Williams Sonoma just for my lattes. I am surprised others in the family haven’t tried to lay claim to it yet! The top startled me when I tried to shake the hot water and matcha – it POPPED and I got spritzed with tea! So don’t shake if the beverage is hot! LOL!

An Italian friend of mine is very health conscious, buying organics, eating fresh, whole foods, making her own household cleaners. I asked her for a recommendation for the best, TRUE, olive oil and she referred me to a selection at Olive Nation. I love that company, by the way. Their matcha is great for lattes, nice and earthy but not at all bitter. Their vanilla beans are excellent and not expensive at all.

My new olive oils arrived this morning, so I decided to have a sort of Shepherd’s lunch – olive oil mixed with Penzey’s Tuscan seasoning, Parmesan, and dried garlic served with Italian bread, some Swiss cheese, and apple slices.

Something else also arrived – an adorable, handcrafted card by GMathis with some Tulsi inside. I have it displayed on my writing table! The color is prettier in real life and in the background you can see another she sent a while back. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/8552541342/

I needed a tea that would pair well with this strong Extra Virgin olive oil. As I pawed through my tea, I realized this was a great time to sip down a sample! This was sent to me by Zen Tea a while back and I reach for it whenever I want a nice, strong Keemun that isn’t rough around the edges.

Lightly smokey with cocoa notes, it was brilliant with my lunch. I am finishing the second steep (by the pot, not the cup!) now. Thank you, Zen Tea!

By the way, their teawares are awesome and I really want that Zen Brushstroke matcha bowl. Maybe soon…

I have really been dragging all day. I didn’t sleep much for a couple of nights, plus allergies are acting up. Youngest had two dental/orthodontist appointments today and got a Herbst appliance, and I was trying to wrestle the new shelf into place over my bread table but it was too long to go in the closet, no matter what geometric gyrations I went through. My neck and shoulder were sprung and undone. I even took down the burglar alarm box and the fire extinguisher. I was pooped, and clearly couldn’t do the work I had planned for this afternoon, so instead I thoroughly cleaned the refrigerator. And that was when I found out just how much of a problem I have.

I have been doing the buy three get one matcha deal at Red Leaf. I usually give one to my daughter and one to my best friend. Yet still I have Black Cherry, Bilberry, TWO strawberry (at least), TWO Caramel, French Vanilla, Butterscotch, TWO Cheesecake, Peanut Butter, Belgium Chocolate, and this one, Bavarian Cream.

I also felt very unqualified to be tasting and reviewing matcha since I didn’t know much about it a few months ago, so I also bought four plain from other vendors for comparison. I just ordered another. Oh dear.

Anyway, my reward for cleaning the reorganizing the fridge was a nice, cold matcha latte. It was 71F here and cloudy, but nice enough to sit on the hammock and enjoy a cold drink.

I didn’t know what real Bavarian Cream was when I ordered this and was expecting something like the inside of a Krispy Kreme vanilla cream filled doughnut. I was surprised when I smelled the light and lemony aroma of this one. I didn’t know if I would care for it, but it has turned out to be a favorite, and when I find the right way to start using these in recipes this one will probably be a cooking staple. I can really see it in home made frozen yogurt. This has gone from a what-the-heck? flavor to a “don’t run out” flavor.