I think that Matcha Monday will not be a weekly thing, but a random thing, because it turns out that massive Matcha Showdown covered a LOT of the Matcha I planned on reviewing, so I will have to come up with some other ways of talking about Matcha. However there is at least one Matcha up my sleeve I have not blogged about yet!
Thanks to Tomoson, a new (to me anyway) site which supplies bloggers with cool stuff, in this case I got myself some Midori Spring Ceremonial (Emerald) Matcha, Emerald being the class of Matcha, which makes it in the middle, suitable for culinary projects and also for sipping as bowl of Matcha, a good beginners Matcha. I think after sipping Matcha in one form or another for almost 15 years I can safely say I am not a beginner, but it never hurts to try new things (that is kinda the whole point of this blog after all!)
I decided to use this Matcha first in a baking project. I admit I was astounded when I saw the amount of Matcha, I was expecting a small tin, but nope, it is a sizable amount! I love baking with Matcha, drinking it traditionally and whisking it has a wonderfully meditative feeling, but the inventive ways you can use it in food really get me the most excited. For my baking project I decided to make Matcha Coconut Macaroons, basically I took a standard Coconut Macaroon recipe (1 large bag coconut, 1 can condensed milk, a handful of rice flour) and tossed a bunch of the Emerald (a good description, very green!) Matcha into the coconut and rice flour mix and tossed it until the coconut was richly green. I then added the condensed milk and baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes (or until the tips of the coconut turned golden brown) the result was delicious! I definitely think this might be my new go-to Matcha for baking. It is sweet and green with a strong Matcha taste and no bitterness.
Next I decided to try it whisked traditionally, the color is quite lovely, not the most vibrantly green ever, but certainly a good middle grade coloring, it is a little pale, like the underside of an oak leaf, but lacks any brown tones to the coloration. The aroma is nice and sweet, notes of hay, sticky rice, and fruitiness waft up, with a slight hint of seaweed at the finish.
Once whisked the aroma is primarily sweet rice and a touch of fresh cut grass, and I can say it whisked beautifully! The taste is a little dry and brisk, very robust and green, starts out like green vegetation and leafy vegetables, grass and kale, this fades to a touch of sweetness at the finish. I prefer this as a baking Matcha I think, it certainly lives up to exactly what it says on the tin, it is a good medium grade, and I like that, it doesn’t say that it will be the best ever cup of Matcha, it says it is excellent in baking and lattes, and you know what, it is!
Thank you Tomoson for supplying this Matcha!
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/07/midori-spring-ceremonial-emerald-matcha.html
