87
drank Caramel Matcha by Red Leaf Tea
2201 tasting notes

This morning I had to get up at, no joke, 3:30am so I could drive two hours to the airport for my flight to Ohio to visit my boyfriend. If there was ever a time to need to the matcha energy boost, it was this morning!

I did a dual preparation, first off a bowl of hot matcha. This time I used probably 3/4tsp of matcha, and I actually measured out 8oz of water. Pour, whisk, pour. This time after I added all of the water I took a sip and was amazed. Here was the natural sweetness that people talk about with matcha. Even the addition of a little sugar (to try to bring out the caramel a biiiit more, but really it was pretty prevalent) didn’t really do much to it. I finally think I figured out a decent matcha prep method! When I first sip I don’t necessarily taste tons of caramel, but it quickly builds up to be nice and strong.

For my second preparation I tried the “cold brew” matcha so I could take it with me on the road. A half teaspoon of matcha in an old Simply Orange juice bottle (~13oz), a little cold water, a lot of shaking until it looked dissolved enough, and then I filled the rest of the bottle up with cold water. At first sip I thought I hadn’t added enough matcha. It seemed weak. But a couple more sips reassured me that it actually had good flavor, and the caramel came through well. This prep was so easy and so delicious… all of the matcha-y natural sweetness, all of the lovely caramel flavor.

Even that much matcha can’t really help keep me alert now that I’m at the airport waiting for the plane, but it certainly made the drive go well.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C
gmathis

3:30…that’s love :)

Nik

I’m really enjoying the journal of your matcha experience. Thanks for documenting each experiment! :D

charab

Really interesting chain of experiments, fantastic to read. I’m also still a little bit novice with matcha so thank you for sharing your experiences with it, helps a lot! By the way if you haven’t tried already I recommend to taste matcha ice cream, which is basically just ordinary vanilla ice cream with some matcha mixed with it. You just take the amount of ice cream you want to eat, then decide how strong matcha flavour you want (I usually go with two teaspoons but it really depends on the amounts and the taste you’re after) and then just mix it patiently with a spoon so it really ends up all smooth and green. Easy to make, delicious to eat, and highly addicting.

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Comments

gmathis

3:30…that’s love :)

Nik

I’m really enjoying the journal of your matcha experience. Thanks for documenting each experiment! :D

charab

Really interesting chain of experiments, fantastic to read. I’m also still a little bit novice with matcha so thank you for sharing your experiences with it, helps a lot! By the way if you haven’t tried already I recommend to taste matcha ice cream, which is basically just ordinary vanilla ice cream with some matcha mixed with it. You just take the amount of ice cream you want to eat, then decide how strong matcha flavour you want (I usually go with two teaspoons but it really depends on the amounts and the taste you’re after) and then just mix it patiently with a spoon so it really ends up all smooth and green. Easy to make, delicious to eat, and highly addicting.

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Bio

I am tea obsessed, with the stash to match. I tend to really enjoy green oolongs, Chinese blacks, and flavored teas with high quality bases, especially florals, bergamot-based teas, and chocolate teas.

In my free time I am a birder, baker, and music/movie/tv addict.

Here are my rating categories, FYI:
100-90: Mind-blowingly good, just right for my palate, and teas that just take me to a happy place.
89-86: I really really like these teas and will keep most of them in the permanent collection, but they’re not quite as spectacular as the top category
85-80: Pretty tasty teas that I enjoy well enough, but definitely won’t rebuy when I run out.
79-70: Teas that I would probably drink again, but only if there were no preferrable options.
69-50: Teas that I don’t really enjoy all that much and wouldn’t drink another cup of.
49 and below: Mega yuck. This tea is just disgusting to me.
Unrated: Usually I feel unqualified to rate these teas because they are types of teas that I tend to not like in general. Sometimes user error or tea brewed under poor conditions.

Location

Ohio, US

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