When I saw that Red Leaf was doing another sale on Cheesecake matcha, I knew I couldn’t resist. Since I already tried some green matcha for my last order of caramel, and cheesecake was a desert tea, I decided to spring for the white matcha this time because I really wanted to try it. I had never had white matcha tea before. I figured I could always mix it with caramel, too. I even sprang for the faster shipping to make up for the postal holiday.
I ordered the 30g Cheesecake Matcha, White Matcha, with Robust Flavoring
(found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cheesecake-matcha.html). I’m not sure what the quality of white matcha is, since you don’t get a choice of different qualities of matcha like you do with the green, but I’m assuming it is comparable to the Starter (Basic Grade). When I opened up the package, it had a cheesecake smell to it, but it also had an interesting butterscotch undertone to it. I’m not sure if that was the white matcha or just the flavoring. The powder was darker than I expected too. I expected white powder, but as you can see from the picture, it was more of an off-brown color. I was also surprised at how dark the liquid became when I mixed up my first cup. It was a medium-brownish color and I guess I was expecting something lighter because of white tea.
The taste was definitely interesting. I could taste some cheesecake, but the white tea brought an interesting flavor, too. It’s hard to describe, because I haven’t really had any experience with white matcha, but it’s definitely less vegetal than regular green tea matcha is. It definitely is a lighter taste, similar to how I expect white tea to be. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I might try the green/white matcha mix next time. I also want to mix the caramel to see how it compares.
Just like with the caramel matcha, I found that the flavors enhanced when I added milk. It definitely made it smoother and gave it more of a desert flavoring. I didn’t find the flavoring quite as strong and distinctive as the caramel flavoring even though they were the same level (robust), so I’m thinking the white tea matcha is a little more overpowering than the green tea. I also had a little harder time mixing the white matcha than I did with the green. But, this may have been due to user error.
All in all, the white cheesecake matcha was an interesting experiment. I think in the future, though, I may just stick to the green matcha base. Or, I may go with a stronger flavoring.
