Caramel Matcha
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-matcha.html
First matcha!!! Ermahgerd guys, I was so excited to get this, but also kind of afraid? I didn’t want to waste a single bit of it. I’ve known about matcha for a while, and always been intrigued, but also intimidated by it. The closest thing I’ve probably had until now (excluding, y’know, normal green tea) was probably a green tea frappuccino. I have a bag of something called “cooking grade” matcha from Aiya Matcha in my room, which I use for (duh) cooking. I’ve never tried to drink it because I guess I assumed it wasn’t good enough for drinking.
Anyway, somehow there was an explosion of matcha talk on Steepster (probably due to Azzrian) and I became super intrigued. Flavored matcha? Yes please. Getting a promo coupon was the final step that pushed me to order. Yay!
So, here I was, with a 30 g bag of basic grade, distinctive caramel matcha. I was afraid to open the bag. But I did.
“Ohhhhhhh,” I moaned. The most beautiful smell in the world. So I set about preparing my beverage. I used ¼ tsp in a glass bowl, and poured 2-3 ounces of water on top of it. Okay, side note, and I’d love for you to help me out here. I have a Kamjove for boiling water, and while it appeared that my water was boiling in the kettle, when I poured it into a measuring cup and stuck a candy thermometer in it, it wouldn’t even reach 180F! Why? So I suspect that my water wasn’t hot enough, but I forged ahead anyway.
I got some bubbles when I whisked (I just had this rubbery whisk with me) but not an enormous amount of froth like I was hoping. Tips? The intoxicating smell also faded a bit when prepared. But it was delicious! Not bitter or weird at all. The matcha sugar at the bottom of the bowl was especially delicious, haha.
Not sated, I proceeded to make a cold matcha, putting some tea and sugar in a bottle with about 8ish ounces of water and shakeshakeshaking it. It was awesome! I think I liked it more than hot.
So there is my tale. I still feel like I have much to learn, but already, I want more matcha. If anyone has ANY sort of tips, I’d love to hear them!
