aisling of tea

Now, I’m a Southern girl through and through, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret…I was born a Yankee. Yup, born in South Bend, Indiana and raised in Michigan until I was ten, when we moved to Tennessee. As a Michigander, I can say with complete confidence that Michigan blueberries are the best blueberries in the entire world. Blueberry season comes around and the state explodes into a world of deliciousness. You can stop at just about any roadside stand and get a ten pound box of blueberries, or you can head out to one of those you-pick places, if you’re feeling particularly energetic (or you’ve got young kids…I’m looking at you, Mom!). Blueberries played a huge role in my childhood. We would snatch up all the blueberries we could during the season and freeze them. Blueberry pancakes, muffins, and cobblers were served all year round, but my favorite blueberry dish was blueberry ice cream. It’s a real complicated recipe, y’all ready? You take frozen blueberries and pour cold milk over them. Yup. We’re a simple folk.

But my love of blueberries has come with me through my travels and life path. So when I spotted a blueberry matcha, my immediate reaction was one of “Um, heck yes, please!” The scent when I open the package is to die for. Oh my goodness, blueberry. In your face, juicy, sweet blueberry. My mouth is watering already.

The taste? Oh my. No, no, let me rephrase that. Imagine that I’m George Takei. Oh myyyyyy. Yep, it’s that good. George Takei “Oh myyy” inducing good. You know when you go into one of those bath and body stores, and you pick something blueberry up, smell it, and immediately tell your wife you wish you had something that tastes as good as it smells and then you lick it and it just plain doesn’t taste as good as you want it to? No? Just me? Well, this matcha tastes the way those soaps smell. Intensely blueberry and incredibly delicious. Juicy is just the word that comes to mind with every sip…it’s incredible. I have a few blueberry fans among my friends who will go ape over this.

This review brought to you by the letter M and the number 2, which is the number of cups of matcha I’ve had this morning in an effort to taste them all and get my reviews written…and it’s only nine o’clock. Pray for my wife, folks, she’s in for a crazy morning.

So I am mightly impressed with matcha. For a few weeks now, I’ve been having a cup almost daily, and I have to say I’m seeing benefits. I don’t know if it can all be blamed on the matcha, but the matcha is the only real change I’ve made recently. When a tea company makes claims about the healthiness of their teas and how this tea will make you skinny or that tea will calm your anger, I tend to just laugh it off. Just another marketing ploy, I mean, really, it’s just tea. It’s delicious and better for you than soda (if you don’t weigh it down with tons of sugar and cream like I used to do), but it’s still just tea, not some magic potion that’s going to solve all of your problems.

Well. Since matcha came into my life, I’m more alert (obviously) and my system seems…cleaner. I don’t feel bogged down by the terrible foods I sometimes indulge in, and somehow my system seems less responsive to my dairy allergy. Don’t get me wrong, it still makes me sick, but it’s not the gut-wrenching “I’m gonna die” feeling I’m used to, it’s more of a “Oh man, I forgot and ate dairy again”. On the whole, I just feel healthier. Which is awesome. Everyone can afford to feel a little bit healthier, am I right?

Anyway, this tea (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/green-apple-matcha.html) smells amazing. Like juicy Granny Smith apples, sweet and tart all at the same time. I want to dip this tea in caramel. The flavor is perfect. It’s exactly what I expected this tea to taste like. It’s very juicy, my mouth is watering after every sip, and it’s tart without being stomach-turning sour. I am having a really hard time not adding some of my Red Leaf Tea Caramel matcha to this. They’re just begging to be blended. In college, I was big fan of the Caramel Apple shot, which is basically one part sour apple Pucker to one part butterscotch Schnapps. This seems like a good alternative for me to take to work and not get fired! Though now I’m wondering about matcha cocktails…

I love these matchas that are encouraging me to mix and match, play with different blends, bake…I love it! I wish I had the time to just lock myself in my kitchen with my matchas and experiment to my little heart’s content.

Now, those who follow me and my reviews know I can’t stop raving about the Madagascar Vanilla from Red Leaf Teas. I’m almost out of it already, it’s the one I reach for the most and when people ask which one they should try first, my immediate answer is “Vanilla. Oh my goodness, the vanilla.”

But Madagascar’s reign may soon be over.

French Vanilla is my one true love. French Vanilla anything. Vanilla was my favorite ice cream flavor before I gave up ice cream. French Vanilla is the ice cream flavor I will risk my dairy allergy for. It’s just so creamy and rich and guh, so good. So when Red Leaf Tea let me know they had a new matcha out, a French Vanilla (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html), I was sold. It immediately went into my cart and I feverishly finished my other reviews so I could order it as soon as possible.

I opened the package this morning and almost drooled. It smells like icing. Like I had just opened up a new tub of Betty Crocker vanilla frosting. Oh god, I want to drown in it. It’s almost too sweet for this early in the morning, but I don’t care! I have to have some of this now! I’ll make bacon later to make up for it.

It…it’s perfect. It’s everything I ever dreamed of in a vanilla matcha. Everything. Creamy, smooth, beyond amazing. I want to shout from the rooftops that I’ve found The One, the tea I’ve been searching for forever, the tea that is the reason I own 6 different vanilla rooibos and 8 variations on a vanilla black. This tea is my holy grail. It’s matcha, which I have come to love and value over almost any other tea, and it’s that French Vanilla goodness that rocks my world. I know it seems like I’ve gone a bit crazy, but this is just…guh. It’s fulfilling my ice cream cravings, my icing cravings, my everything cravings.

That said, I will likely keep the Madagascar around for mixing, as it seems to blend beautifully with other flavors, but when I want to sit down and just enjoy a good cup of matcha, the French Vanilla is what I will be reaching for. Oh yes, my pretty. We will have a long, happy life together. Red Leaf Tea, I honestly cannot thank you enough for introducing this blend.

Raspberries are my favorite fruit, hands-down. My grandmother used to have the most gorgeous raspberry plants in her backyard, and they would bear fruit for ages. Seriously, my mother’s birthday is in October and every year my grandmother would make her an angel food cake with fresh raspberry icing. I get my love of raspberries from my mom. But raspberry teas…they fall short for me, they tend to taste artificial and like raspberry candy. Don’t get me wrong, raspberry candy has its place, but I crave real raspberry flavor, I want a tea that tastes like I just ate the juiciest raspberry I’ve ever gotten my hands on. But I haven’t found that yet, which is why I was so excited to try this tea. Red Leaf Tea only uses natural flavoring in their matchas, so I’m really hoping that results in a natural raspberry taste. It also makes me really happy to see a company willing to refuse to use artificial flavoring.

Oh my goodness, this smells amazing. Red juicy raspberries, guh. So much love. I am so making this into an iced tea with summer with real raspberries in it. It doesn’t taste exactly like raspberries, but it’s darn close! Oh man it’s good. I need to try this iced. I will have a long, happy relationship with this this coming summer. It tastes purple. I don’t know why, it just does, in a really awesome way. I recently ordered a new travel mug in a “raspberry swirl” color, and this tea tastes the way I imagine that color would taste if it had a flavor….okay, now I’m just getting weird.

I am in love with matcha and I am in love with this particular one (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/raspberry-matcha.html). If you’re a fan of berries at all or raspberries in particular, then you need to try this matcha. I’m very eager to try this mixed together with one of my vanillas and make a raspberries and cream little beauty. Or cook with it! I get none of the matcha bitterness I’m used to, which is very nice. I did add sugar, I always add sugar to every tea I drink, otherwise the only tasting notes I would have would be “Tastes like tea. Needs sugar.” Ah well, as far as addictions go, it’s not the worst. I like to fool myself into thinking the goodness of the matcha outweighs the badness of the sugar, but I know I’m crazy. I might order some of Red Leaf Tea’s Sugar Destroyer matcha, just to see if blending that eliminates my need to oversugar my matchas.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

So in my search for the perfect vanilla (which I’ve now found in Red Leaf Tea’s French Vanilla matcha), I’ve found that many caramel teas are close enough to temporarily satisfy me. But after a while I miss that vanilla creaminess and begin the hunt anew. Plus, caramel is my favorite sweet candy, though I prefer sour candies. But as a child who went through two sets of braces, caramel was not a treat I was allowed to indulge in often. But every Halloween I would buy a bag of those Caramel Apple suckers, braces be damned, and make them last for ages. My love affair with caramel has been a long and torrid one.

Anyway, caramel brings out those feel-good feeling in me. So of course when I was ordering my Green Apple matcha from Red Leaf Teas, the caramel (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-matcha.html) had to tumble into my cart too! I have to try them mixed, or I’ll be doing my teenage self a grave disservice. But first, I’m going to try it by itself, with sugar added, of course. If it’s anything like their French Vanilla, I’m in for a treat. I’m trying to try all of the new ones, but all I want to do is return to that little gem.

On to the caramel! I’m only making a small cup of this as it is 9:30 at night and I want to sleep at some point. But hey, sleep is for the weak and matcha-less, right? Right. The smell is amazing. Like I just want to crawl into the package and spend the rest of forever there. The taste…mmm. Mmmmm….mmmm. Okay, it tastes like….mmmm. Maybe I needed a bigger cup. A soup bowl, perhaps. Guh…mmmm. It tastes like the French Vanilla, but with a lovely burnt sugar aftertaste that is rocking my world right now. It tastes like real caramel made on the stovetop with nothing but sugar, cream, and a big mess that is completely worth it. Mmmmm. When I was in high school, at a church carnival I won a caramel cake. It was a caramel-flavored cake that was laced with real caramel bits, caramel icing and drizzled with, you guessed it, caramel. This reminds me of that. Or the caramel pie from O’Charley’s, which was essentially a pie crust filled with caramel. This is amazing, and I want to order some with the “There’s matcha in this?” flavoring option so I can just drown in the caramelly goodness. This is a must-always-have-in-stock for me.

Edit: My wife just pointed out that it tastes like marshmallow Peep s’mores, and I couldn’t agree more! If you’ve never made s’mores with Peeps instead of marshmallows, you haven’t lived. Just ask my father in law XD.

Snagged a cup of this to go on Wednesday since I was falling asleep at work. Note to self, herbals are not a good choice for your tea of the day. Asked them to sweeten it to hell and back and it was perfect. Sweet without losing that tasty matcha goodness, it gave me a much-needed energy boost.

This was my cold-steeped work tea on Wednesday, to go with my pink lunchbag with matching pink salad thermos and pink bento boxes. It was a very pink day nods

I used up the last of my stash for this, planning to head out to Tealish on Sunday to pick up more, but it’s out of stock! Woe. Ah well, that just gives me an excuse to travel downtown when it is back in stock. Nom. It’s fruity and tasty…one of my friends at work has had dragon fruit before and encouraged me to try it, so I might try to get my grubby hands on some in the near future.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Wow. I’ve been very impressed by all three cupcake teas! The chocolately tastiness of this one cannot be denied. My wife and I shared a pot last night and to my shock, she actually sweetened the pot with a touch of sugar! Usually she drinks her teas black and I sweeten mine. But she was hoping the sugar would add a little depth to the flavor and boy did it! It tasted like chocolate cake to me, which is awesome…except for the part where I don’t like chocolate cake. But it is what it claims to be and that makes it awesome in my book. Definitely keeping some around for when those killer chocolate cravings hit.

So the Easter bunny came to my house last night and brought not only a GIANT stuffed penguin, but he ALSO brought me a tin of this! Oh, I love this tea. I crave cake quite often, but then we end up with an entire cake because I only wanted a taste of it…and then we eat an entire cake >.<. I am very much looking forward to this helping with some of those cravings.

Nom. Nom nom nom nom nom. Gah, I was so excited for this tea and it lived up to the hype. I’m not one for milk in my tea, but a touch of rice milk in these cake teas takes them to a whole new delicious level. Even without the milk, it’s creamy and the sips are different! On one sip I get chocolate and on the next I get strawberry…oh my goodness, I have missed strawberry ice cream. This is a beautiful tea I can’t wait to stock up on.

(posting this for both teas as I feel EVERYONE should know about it!)

I’m sure you’re all waiting on pins and needles for me to try the Shamrock Shake wannabe I’ve been talking about for ages XD. Well, I did it this morning with the following recipe:

1/4 t Mint Matcha
1/2 t Madagascar Vanilla Matcha
2 oz hot (but not boiling) water
4 oz vanilla soy milk
2 t of sugar because I like overkill

So I dumped the matcha and sugar into a Perfect Mug from Davids and whisked in the water with my handheld milk frother. I added the milk to the mix and…

OH

MY

BOB.

There are not words. Seriously, all I can say is that if you are a vanilla mint fan, buy these two matchas and get to mixing. Now. I’ll wait.

You ready? Awesome. It’s creamy, it’s sweet, it’s minty without being harsh, it’s creamy without being too sweet, it is heaven in a mug. Heaven.

Bumping my rating to the ceiling for this glorious mix.

I’m sure you’re all waiting on pins and needles for me to try the Shamrock Shake wannabe I’ve been talking about for ages XD. Well, I did it this morning with the following recipe:

1/4 t Mint Matcha
1/2 t Madagascar Vanilla Matcha
2 oz hot (but not boiling) water
4 oz vanilla soy milk
2 t of sugar because I like overkill

So I dumped the matcha and sugar into a Perfect Mug from Davids and whisked in the water with my handheld milk frother. I added the milk to the mix and…

OH

MY

BOB.

There are not words. Seriously, all I can say is that if you are a vanilla mint fan, buy these two matchas and get to mixing. Now. I’ll wait.

You ready? Awesome. It’s creamy, it’s sweet, it’s minty without being harsh, it’s creamy without being too sweet, it is heaven in a mug. Heaven.

Bumping my rating to the ceiling for this glorious mix.

Millions of peaches…peaches for me! Millions of peaches….peaches for free! Yay! Flashback to the nineties, y’all. This time I’ve tried the Peach Matcha from Red leaf Tea (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/peach-matcha.html), and yum…it takes a bit of fiddling, but once you get it right, it is delicious. A welcome addition to any collection! And keep in mind that I’m still new to matcha and trying to figure it all out.

As any good Southern girl would, I have a deep love in my heart for peaches. Deep, deep love. That fruity sweetness…is there anything better? There are few things in this life better than a fresh, juicy peach. A close second is ice cold peach tea. Peach cobbler, peach pie…summer is a good time to be in the South!

I opened my package of this matcha and, my wife will back me up on this, my first words were “Whoa, momma!” It smells so good. Like juicy peach candy….nom. It smells painfully delicious.

The taste certainly follows up on that scent! It tastes like a big, juicy peach lollipop. It’s not a fresh peach, but it’s a peach candy. It reminds me of the peach soda I used to get in high school at the local Food Lion to take to our weekly slumber party with my best friend. So I’m grateful for those memories. Makes me want to pop a big bag of popcorn and dip it in nacho cheese. Oh yes, we were super healthy.

Anyway, this matcha has the same bitter kick as the lemon matcha, but a touch of sugar chased that away. I think that’s just a matcha thing. It’s definitely one I want to try again and see how it goes. Maybe cut it with a touch of the vanilla…peaches and cream! Yes please! This would be good in my smoothies this summer, maybe a peach raspberry smoothie dream…nom.

I made a second cup with different parameters (12 ounces of water instead of 8 to one half teaspoon of matcha, as well as a bit more sugar) and it is heavenly. Juicy enough to satisfy this Southern gal! Finishing off my sample of this will be no great hardship, I assure you. It tastes like a fuzzy navel without the alcoholic bite! Or those peach gummy candies…yum!

I let some of this chill and GAH. Cold, this is beyond amazing. This is what I needed, cold and fruity and peachy! It’s not too sweet, it’s not too bitter, it’s just a beautifully refreshing cold drink for summer…I have a feeling this will be a staple in my cupboard this summer.

Now, I haven’t hidden this fact, but I am writing these reviews in exchange for free matcha. Free matcha! If you buy a matcha from Red Leaf Tea and review it with either 250 or 400 words, they’ll give you a credit for a free 30 g or 60 g of matcha. Which is why these reviews are soooo much longer than the others. But I like it, I like pushing myself to get those 400 words. It forces me to sit down and really focus on the tea and think about it. As a result of these reviews, I can’t stop thinking about the Madagascar Vanilla and I drink it all the time. And I mean, really, if the tea weren’t good, I wouldn’t work so hard to get more of it. And it really does offer those of us on a budget a good way to increase our stash (like I need any help with that!). I can’t stop raving about these matchas to every tea lover I know, and I do know that several people have purchased these teas based on these reviews. So it’s win-win. But I would never hesitate to give a matcha a bad review if I didn’t like it, free matcha or no.

Which brings me to this tea, Lemon Matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/lemon-matcha-tea-organic.html). I wasn’t really sure of it. I ordered it for my wife in the hopes that it would be her gateway matcha drug, but she really doesn’t like matcha, so it will likely be a bust (though she’ll be a good sport and try it anyway). But I’m only a citrus fan to a point, that point usually being grapefruit. Mmm, grapefruit.

When I first started mixing it, it smelled like a mix between Lemonheads and lemon cleaner. But the sip is pure lemonhead. It tingles down my tongue! It’s tasty in its own way, and if you’re into Lemonheads and the like, I would definitely recommend this to you. My wife has a coworker who loves lemon, so this matcha might be hers after another cup or two. It has a lemony bite that someone who enjoys lemons and sour candy might love. It’s more of a mild vegetal flavor than a stronger matcha, which my wife appreciates in a matcha. The lemony bite can be cut with a touch of sugar, so while I can see that this matcha would be right up the alley of a lemonhead lover, it’s just not the tea for me. I am extremely grateful to have tried it, though!

For more information about the free matcha promotion, look here: http://www.redleaftea.com/free-matcha/

One other thing Red Leaf Tea has going for them is incredibly reasonable shipping, which is very important to me, since I live in Canada and international shipping can be a nightmare. And orders over $75 are free, which is easy to do! My wife lives for their Earl Greys, their Earl Grey Oolong is a staple in our household. When the raspberry Earl Grey was no longer available, she nearly went into mourning. So between the two of us, it’s almost dangerously easy for us to build a $75 cart. The first time we ordered, we spent $80 and got 16 different teas, about an ounce of each. Enough to try it several times and make a decision as to whether you want to restock it or not.

Anyway, on to the tea! I’m a sucker for cinnamon, so of course I had to try the Cinnamon Matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cinnamon-matcha.html) It smells so good. Sooooo good. Not like fake cinnamon hearts (which I adore too), but like real cinnamon. I want to slather this matcha on toast…but that would be weird. This is another matcha that inspires me to bake. Matcha snickerdoodles? Don’t mind if I do! I need to start actually trying some of these recipe ideas. Like cinnamon matcha cinnamon toast! Or a cinnamon matcha apple pie! Nom nom nom.

At first sip, it was delicious. At second sip, it was delicious. At third sip…well, you get the idea. There is something I don’t care for about it, a bit of a tangy aftertaste, but that’s not enough to keep me from drinking it! I’m excited to see how it will taste when blended with the vanilla. Ooooh, I should see if they have an apple matcha, that would be yummy mixed with this. Or pear! Oh dear, my list of desired matchas is growing longer and longer…

But really, I just want to dump a whole mess of sugar into this and make some cinnamon raisin toast. And bake my little heart out! I think this is a matcha I will end up mixing more than making straight, but that’s okay. I am seeing a wide world of possibilities coming from this little beauty. Cinnamon and I were good friends before, but I think is safe to say that this tea has pushed us over the edge into best friend territory. Plays well with others, makes me feel better, and encourages me to eat tasty, tasty sweets! I can see this becoming a staple in my cupboard, sitting right next to my beloved vanilla.

Ah mint. My wife and I both adore mint, but I’m a spearmint girl, where she’s a peppermint lover. And these are two very different mints.

But I have love in my heart for mint teas. My childhood summers were fueled by Lipton tea bags with fresh mint set out on the porch to brew in the sun. Picking mint and just chewing on it as we played in the sun. Heck, my college days were fueled by mint juleps and raspberry mojitos. Mint and I are good, good friends. And a Shamrock Shake is a must-have for me every March! At least, it was until I found out about my dairy allergy.

Which is what brought me to this tea, Mint Matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/mint-matcha.html), was a desire to make my own version of the Shamrock Shake (which is essentially a vanilla-mint milkshake from McDonalds) with vanilla and mint matchas and soy milk or ice cream. But for the sake of this review, I’m drinking this matcha the way I drink all my tea, no milk and some sugar.

Earlier today I made a cup of this for a friend of my wife’s, who I am eagerly trying to seduce to the ways of matcha with my Red Leaf Tea collection, and I fell in love the second I opened the package. It smells like a smooth creamy mint. When I commented on how good it smells, my wife agreed with me…and she doesn’t even like matcha! I can’t wait to have a cup of this myself!

My wife’s friend (who needs to be on Steepster, darn it!) says this tea tastes like Christmas (which may have something to do with the Rudolph travel mug I sent it to her in!). This made me think of my favorite tea of all time, Santa’s Secret, which is a vanilla-mint black tea, so I have high hopes for this one.

Holy mint, batman! This is definitely a peppermint tea, with just a hint of the smoothness that reminds me of spearmint tea. Wow. I am definitely craving a raspberry-mint matcha mojito now. Yum, yum, yum. It’s mega minty in a non medicinal way and now I am dying to try it with the vanilla, but if I have any more matcha today, I’m going to explode XD. I love it! The burst of strong mint really helps wake you up too, and can definitely see myself adding this to my collection. And mint mixes so well with berries and fruit that I can see endless smoothie options here. If you’re a mint fan, I definitely recommend this one.

No notes yet.

Used this to make Earl Grey lemon squares for the wifey today. It’s nice, just a hint of Earl, not in your face like others. I am very pleased.

This was lovely. I sipped some hot in store and eagerly got a cup to go iced. There is a reason why I had over 5 different vanilla rooibos in my cupboard at one point and this is why. I was searching for the perfect French vanilla rooibos and this certainly delivers. Here’s just hoping the ice cream bits aren’t enough to set off my dairy sickness.

Smooth, creamy, perfect.

In preparation of a day spent running about with Miss Red Rose (TinaS), I made us a pair of matcha lattes. I dumped some matcha into the blender, added some super strong spearmint tea and cold soy milk and there we go! A super tasty (dairy free) vanilla mint matcha latte! So much love. So very tasty. Send my energy level through the roof! (poor Tina)