The first time I made this (last month) I followed the directions – basically dumped the powder into milk, stirred with a spoon, heated, stirred again… and got an almost undrinkable cup of hot milk, lightly flavored, with green clumps.
This second time, I went a bit overboard the other way on prep, but it worked. First I sifted the powder into my mug of Silk vanilla almond milk. HOWEVER, there is granulated sugar in the mix, which is too big to go through the holes. So after the powder was sifted through, I dumped the leftover sugar in after it (there were no tea clumps to worry about.) I whisked with a metal whisk to get the big stuff, then my chasen (bamboo matcha whisk) for a much finer result. Then I heated in microwave as directed, and whisked again afterwards. Finally, as an extra, I frothed about 2oz of 2% milk and poured it over top for a very luxurious drink indeed!
Next time I will forgo the sifting and use the chasen to whisk the powder into about 3-4 oz milk, then mix in the rest of the milk, heat, and stir. I think that will minimize the prep while still delivering a well-blended cup. The frothed milk on top really is nice, so I’ll probably keep that! :-)
Flavor-wise, I agree with Suzi – it’s slightly salty, but creamy and sweet too in my opinion. It does not taste like cherry or even flowers. It’s ok, and seems really to go well with the vanilla almond milk, but really it’s just lower grade matcha with sugar added. I’m looking forward to trying the strawberry and caramel which I hope will have a more intense flavor.
