Maeda-en
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Roommate came home like an hour and a half ago and she does the same thing every time: Walk through the door, stops midway and just laughs at me. Then she closes the door and asks what tea I’m drinking this time ahha. At the time it was my Jasmine Silver Needles and I was in the middle of making a tea sampler pack for my roommate from Florida!
Fun fact: I have a set chair in the dining room. This is the chair that my roommates will always find me in. The one in the back of the dining room, facing the door, right next to a plug where my laptop charger and my kettle is always plugged in. They know that it’s a heavy tea/study day if I have all my teas laid out taking up the entire dining table. I haven’t even known half my roommates for a month and one of the things they know about me I take my tea very seriously hhehe. I love them to death though, and a lot of the times I offer to make them tea and sometimes they say yeah. Aww roommate bonding.
I legit opened up my school textbook and went to the online quizzes, and I saw the date that the quizzes were due AND THEY’RE DUE NEXT WEEK. Oh this is just great. I was definitely going to make another cuppa before this but.. I got distracted.
I think this is my final cup of tea for the night! It’s nearly 1am and I’m just celebrating because my least favourite class is cancelled for tomorrow, and it’s at 10am! Yeah, not early at all haha. But at 1pm I’m taking my Chicken Butchery Practicum and I AM SO EXCITED.
It’s been exactly a month since I’ve moved out of my apartment in Florida so I think it’s only fitting that I’d finish the night off with one of my favourite teas that I bought there! This Genmai-Cha that I bought from Japan in Epcot :)
Definitely a great tea. I’ve had other roasted brown rice teas before, but this I feel is the most flavourful. Brown rice tea is one of my favourites! It definitely has a very unique flavour, something that other teas just can’t match :)
Dude it’s 1am. I apologize. I ramble.
(backlog) It took me forever to find this tea on Steepster! Mainly because ehh I’m too lazy to actually //look//
But yes. This tea is the genmai-cha that I bought from Japan in Epcot! Pretty much your basic roasted brown rice tea. Definitely much tastier than the genmaicha that I had from the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf from my aunt so long ago.
I had their genmaicha with match today. Quite yummy.
er, matcha
Dude. I’ve never actually… had matcha before.
I just feel like there’s a super special way of preparing it and I’m just going to mess it up! Ahh well. I’ll try my hand in preparing matcha for myself soon enough :)
Another tea sachet from the work stash. Since I’m not at home I’m not entirely sure whether this is a sip down or not. I know I have some Maeda-en teas at home but I’m not sure whether this is one of them. Now, if I had a spreadsheet like some of you very organized people I would not have this problem. Oh well.
I hope this isn’t a sipdown because I’m enjoying this. It’s roasty toasty ricey in aroma and even moreso in flavor. The liquor is a greenish yellow. The toasty rice is the main event, but the tea is sweet, not at all bitter, and plays a nice supporting role.
The flavor of genmai-cha always reminds me of popcorn even though it probably should remind me of puffed rice cakes. I’m thinking it would be a good accompaniment to a movie night at home.
ETA: Apparently I did not order this in quantity, so this is sipdown no. 35 of 2014.
Preparation
Mugicha and Korean oksusucha are very similar to my palate so I’ll kind of review both of them. This type of grain tea is very smokey and drinking it is almost more like eating a snack than drinking tea because there is a satisfaction that comes with it. I think it can be too heavy if paired with meat or something like that. I’ll always know it as a summer drink associated with happy memories from my time in Japan where the cold bottled and canned versions are very popular. Overall this tea is good for any time of the day or year depending on temperature or what food it goes with.
Preparation
Not sure if I had this, even though it was from Maeda-en and sencha. The bag was different, although that could’ve just been updated. It could’ve also been a sort of ‘fancy’ type. Anyhow.
Was a bit disappointing. It was green, I give it that, but otherwise very thin taste. No matter how many different variations on temperature and steeping time was it tested with. Just couldn’t grasp it. It was sencha, but ended up nothing more than worker’s tea for me. Took me three weeks to drink all hundred tea bags with a fellow student while we worked on our artist books and prints and after that during lectures. Then again it provided me a bunch of tea bag papers to use for my works. So nothing was done in vain.
I’m curious…what do you do with the tea bag papers? I’m always looking for good ideas for how to reuse things
Well. Sometimes I use the papers themselves for example in a book format with writing or images (the pen I use doesn’t seep through as much as I doubted which was surprising), or as chine collé in my etchings (they give a wonderful patina to the prints)..I still haven’t tried how they’ll work as a book cover when glued (with wheat starch glue) many layers on top of each other. Recently I started using them with offset lithography where I exposed them with UV light onto an aluminum plate. You can see the results from my blog ( http://mintblack.blogspot.fi/ ), there are some of the prints I’ve made. The chine collés are waiting to be put there too, when I have more time for that….what else..oh yeah. I also once made origami Christmas balls out of them with my lil’ sis. That paper actually suits origamis amazingly well, the transparency and subtle color palette of them create very beautiful play of shadow and light within the folds when held against the light.
And more ideas come up the more I make experiments with them.
Oh and I almost forgot, I made an artist book out of them as well! It can be found from my blog as well, it was part of three books in white boxes.
Those are some brilliant ideas. Thanks for sharing the blog link – you’re very talented.
The origami Christmas balls sound like fun
Heh, thanks! I need to make more of the balls so I could post the instructions online for them if you’re interested. There’s nothing so enjoyable than folding papers in peace while others jump off the walls during holidays. Except having a simmering cup on the side.
yes, I’’d love to see the ornaments instructions
My standard grade matcha I’ve just been putting in smoothies, today it was a banana/mango/pineapple smoothie with almond milk. I don’t think I will ever get used to the taste of commercially made almond milk, it is so much tastier when you just make it yourself at home (but I hardly ever do).
I’m slowly turning into a matcha smoothie addict. This is what I drink for breakfast on the weekends and sometimes for a snack. I vary the fruit a lot but today it was frozen pineapple, banana, a fuji apple and some soymilk. It’s a great way to get in your servings of fruit and your tea at the same time — I love it!
I got this at the Japanese grocery store a few weeks ago, I am planning to do a blog post on Matcha soon because I have a really nice matcha bowl now. This particular brand of matcha I got more for blending into smoothies in the morning. Today I’m having it with blended with banana, pineapple and hemp seeds and it’s terrific! I have a Blendtec and I use it a few times a week for an easy breakfast or dinner. I will wait to give it a numerical rating until I’ve had the chance to try it plain.
Preparation
Amy, does the Matcha come through all those wonderful fruit flavors? I haven’t had too much Matcha, but I do enjoy it; although, sometimes it can be a little bitter, & it can be….what’s the word…chalky?? I’m not sure that’s the word I mean.
The last couple weeks, I’ve been having a small bowl of oatmeal and/or fruit smoothies with a combination of different fruits. That fills me up.
Maybe I’ll throw some matcha in-that sounds good!! What is your ratio of matcha to fruit??
Scott,
I probably throw in 2 teaspoons of matcha in a 16 oz. fruit smoothie. The flavor does come through! I agree sometimes matcha is bitter and chalky but when you blend it, that problem goes away… lol. Pineapple and banana is great, the matcha is also good with berries.
Sounds delicious to me. :))
I have tried to make matcha I want to be able to make matcha – I watched videos, I read steepster reviews, I am seeing conflicting information and so I went for it and did 1/4 c water 2 scoops matcha powder that didnt work was too dark and murky and tasted odd. ( I have had matcha a few times so have a little bit of an idea what it should taste like ). Then I tried less matcha more water … no go. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong and which video or review to believe on how to make it. No rating – not the matcha’s fault. I also tried two different brands this and one from enjoyingtea.com
Maybe this one can give you some ideas :)
http://www.matchasource.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=53#link1
Hmm, I guess I’ve only made (and tried) matcha lattes, but I use about 1 tsp per cup. Perhaps you should try making it into a latte? I can’t say I’ve tried it straight (and perhaps won’t).
And I’m wondering if the two scoops + 1/4c water was to initially get it dissolved without being chunky, and then you add quite a bit more water, as that sounds ridiculously strong to me!
What tools do you use to make the Matcha?
I have the scoop (don’t know the formal name for it) and the wisk (again I fail to know such words yet) its a small travel CHASEN that’s it :) (proud of myself here) …
I even have a proper bowl – not that I think this matters any.
OK. Do you sift the matcha? Here is what I do, I’ll try to take you step by step, but, bear in mind that I’ve been doing it so long that I eyeball it and know what’s going to work … and it usually does.
I use the Chashaku (bamboo scoop. Long handle, looks a bit like a hockey stick made out of bamboo) to scoop out the matcha. I usually use 3 – 4 scoops of this, and I scoop it directly into my sieve. I use a simple sieve that I purchased at the grocery store in the utensil aisle (for about 2 bucks), it’s basically a tiny hand strainer. I use the back of my scoop to push the Matcha through the mesh of the strainer, and sift the matcha through the strainer directly into the chawan (matcha bowl, although any bowl will do)
Then I carefully pour the hot water (I usually use 160 degree F water) over the matcha… just a small amount, and use the chasen (bamboo whisk) to whisk the matcha into a paste. Then I gradually add more water as I’m whisking until I’ve achieved the right consistency. Then I give it a really good whisking until its well incorporated and frothy.
Please feel free to PM me if you still have problems or questions, I’m happy to help you if I can. :)
Thank you – I did use the sifter – mesh strainer thing but I did not add the water little by little – maybe that is my issue! Thank you I will try this as I did everything else in your suggestions well I also didn’t use as much matcha how much water do you use with the four scoops? I will pm you this as well in case you don’t see this and thank you!
Tommy and Krystaleyn thank you – I will watch that vid Tommy. I agree Krystaleyn I thought it was too much to but LiberTeas is saying more matcha – but I PMd her to ask about how much water per 4 scoops.
Try about 3/4 cup of water for four scoops. Start with a smaller portion of that, about 1/8 of a cup to make your paste, and then gradually add the rest to make a total of 3/4 cup. After you’ve whisked vigorously and its all incorporated, taste it and see what you think… you can always add a little more water if it is too thick.
Now I wonder how much a scoop is! That sounds incredibly strong to me :)
Thank you LiberTEAS I do appreciate all the help and will give it another go this evening. Krystaleyn – they are not expensive – Den’s tea still has the mini travel chasen with scoop for 5 bucks if you plan to order from them anytime soon.
You may not notice there is a small scoop there in the picture but there is – its hidden inside the scoop and it has a prong in the middle so you can expand its size sorry can’t explain at all but it is a normal sized scoop.
Oh wait or do you mean how MUCH matcha to scoop up? Yeah that is a good question as well – I just watch the videos and eye ball it according to how they do it but every one is eyeballing it lol
A scoop is about the size of an average almond.
Ah indeed I did read that somewhere – thanks for the reminder!
Hmmm, that would make a scoop closer to half a teaspoon?
LOL I am going to say yes … just because it sounds good :) I have no idea though I will try making the scoop the size of an almond then put it in a half teaspoon and let you know :)
Chicken Butchery Practicum? What is your major? :)
I’m a Hospitality Management major!
I’m taking the first class in the Restaurant series so I get to work in the kitchens! It’s definitely one of the best classes I’ve taken hehe. Almost all of the tests are in the kitchens so it’s so much fun :)
How interesting! I would never have thought they’d teach people how to kill chickens in a class.
Ahahha it’s all a part of my major, really!
It’s working up to the final class, working at the kitchens. We have a restaurant on campus that’s ALL student run and we rotate roles like every 2 weeks so we get a feel of how it really feels to run a restaurant.
First part of the series is the class I’m in now, the basics of working in a kitchen and getting familiar with knife cuts and learning different cooking styles and methods.
Part two is menu engineering and planning. Restaurant engineering and planning. Pretty much the planning phase of any basic restaurant with marketing all all that stuff.
Part three is putting the two together and actually working and learning everything from the past year in a very very hands-on environment :)
Ahh I’m just super excited to take all these classes!