3 Leaf Tea

I can’t believe I had this matcha in my cabinet for a year and it’s my first time trying it. Probably have too much matcha! Delicious as an iced matcha latte with chai sugar and oat milk. The oat milk really brings out the flavor. 3 leaf definitely has the best flavored matcha’s. I will definitely keep this in my cabinet. Now I have a lot of matcha’s from Sipology to try.

Hojicha charcoal hay up front with a slight milk chocolate finish. As a Hojicha, it’s nice, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase more.

AJRimmer Advent Day 21

I don’t drink a lot of matcha, so my preparation could totally have been at fault here. But the latte I made with this blend was disappointingly grainy and bitter, totally lacking in the sweet, creamy “cake” flavor I was hoping for. I picked up on a bit of vanilla, but overall it was disappointing.

Sipdown! (20 | 381)

I haven’t been drinking much matcha in recent months, so now I’m trying to make an effort to sip through what I have, so it doesn’t just languish in a drawer until it’s sad and brown lol…

Apparently I’ve never written a note for this one? It’s one of my favorites from 3 Leaf! I usually prepare my matcha as an iced oat latte, but this one is also delicious as a matcha lemonade, as you might expect. The raspberry flavor tastes very authentic to me, and has a nice balance of sweet and tart notes. It’s very present but I can still taste plenty of matcha, and their matcha base is smooth and flavorful, as always.

This is also fun to mix with their peach or lemonade flavors!

Sipdown!

I only bought the small packet of this matcha, but when I place another 3 Leaf Tea order (you know, that mythical time when my cupboard is smaller) I would be happy to get the large packet. If I remember correctly, this is one I also sent to Superanna and she liked it very much.

I only used it in smoothies. I don’t really do flavored matcha traditional whisked style but I use it for iced matcha, lattes, or smoothies like this. It adds such a blast of coconut flavor. This would be awesome with a pineapple smoothie in summer but alas, I never thought of it then. Maybe next year.

For some reason I’ve found this tea a little difficult to nail down the two times I’ve had it. At first, I mostly only tasted milk. Now I taste slightly bitter matcha with something like sprinkles flavor mixed in there. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the DavidsTEA ones I usually drink. I bought my friend the raspberry flavor for her birthday, and she loved that, but this one isn’t for me. It also stays clumpy and doesn’t mix well so you’re either drinking plain milk or bitter clumps. I know people love this brand, so I wish I’d enjoyed it more!

I only drank this as an addition to smoothies. It added very nice fresh blueberry flavor and hopefully gave me the afternoon boosts I needed. Today was a sipdown, although I still have a few of their others flavors left.

For flavored matcha and powdered hojicha both flavored and unflavored, I would definitely buy from this company again. I have enjoyed everything I tried from them.

I start every day with a smoothie that includes a teaspoon of matcha. I’ve tried experimenting with using flavored matcha before, but because they are always chalk full of sweetener, they made my smoothies waaaaaaaay too unbearably sweet. 3 Leaf Tea has the only unsweetened flavored matcha I could find, so I grabbed a couple of their flavors not long ago and added this as a sample to reach free shipping.

One of my favorite smoothies is a combo of blended coconut milk, mango, vanilla Greek yogurt, and lime juice. I decided to add this matcha instead of plain matcha to go for a mojito vibe, and it worked well! The flavor of the matcha holds out nice and strong against all the smoothie ingredients and adds a very refreshing minty note to the drink. I was expecting a strong peppermint flavor, but I’m actually getting more of a spearmint note. It’s really complimentary with the tangy lime. I can’t comment on the actual matcha itself, as I don’t really taste the grassy matcha taste in smoothies and I pretty much never drink it as a plain drink.

There is only a little left in the sampler pouch now, but I’d definitely be willing to get this one again. I may use what is left paired with a strawberry smoothie to see how much versatility I can get with a strong flavor like mint.

Sipdown! (34 | 189)

Finished off my sample pouch of this one, but I’ve already ordered a bigger size. :D

I’ve been enjoying mixing my matcha flavors together recently, and this one really lends itself to that as lemon can go well with so many things. It’s delicious mixed with birthday cake (I love lemon cake!), but my favorite so far is mixing it with raspberry and then adding some cereal milk-esque Chobani Sweet & Creamy oat creamer. It tastes just like Froot Loops cereal milk!

Definitely one I will stock from now on.

So I had a matcha craving the other day, and since I didn’t currently have any flavored matcha in my cupboard since sipping it all down, I made an order from 3 Leaf. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she offers sample sizes now! Not sure how long those have been available, but you can get 15g instead of the usual 30g for just a bit more than half the price. Sold! :P

Anyway, this is one of the samples I picked up, along with full-sized bags of flavors I already know I love. Having it iced with oat milk this morning, and loving it! It seems like a lemon drop sort of flavor, and combined with the creamy milk it reminds me of lemon pudding or maybe a lemon marshmallow. Exactly what I was hoping for!

Next time I’ll have to try it iced with sparkling water! Also pondering mixing it with birthday cake for a lemon cake vibe…

Shook a teaspoon of this into my iced water for a hike in Malibu Creek State Park. The usually-dry riverbed is deep, the rapids painted neon with massive seaweed blooms. Creekbed to sky, everything is so green. I didn’t plan the color coordination, but bright matcha was right at home.

Sat down at our turnaround point just as I was getting the sugar lows; some gooseberries, an apple, and this refreshing little splash were a perfect pick-me-up. I look forward to having this warm with almond milk, as I think the berries will jam up and really shine.

My first note on this, and it is a sipdown!

This wasn’t bad and I see nearly everyone else loved it. I don’t hate it, but it was the least favorite among the 3 Leaf Teas I have on hand. The reason is butyric acid. Sometimes I can smell it so strongly. It doesn’t come through in the taste. I used this almost exclusively in smoothies so it could blend in with the fruit there.

Butyric acid smells like vomit, and it is in a lot of “natural” flavoring because it occurs naturally in these food in small amounts. I smell it in Lupicia’s Strawberry Black and Fraisier, but not in Carol or Merci Milles Fois. There are other examples, can’t think of them right now, but that aroma was in this tea for me.

Don’t be afraid of this, though. It tastes good, even though the smell made me throw away the first latte I made with it thinking the milk was spoiled!

I am still working up to enjoying powdered teas without additives. Almond milk and a tipple of maple made this taste like a bowl of cheerios with sliced banana.

Sipdown

A lovely little matcha, mostly consumed in lattes.

October Sipdown Prompt – a tea you have given as a gift

Usually I post notes of tea that Superanna has given me, but this is a tea I have given Superanna, as well as a few others from this company because she drinks a lot of matcha.

This has a nice lavender scent that isn’t too heavy, but I put it in a smoothie and the floral flavor pretty much disappeared.

I got an email for this tea and jumped on it. I love lavender.

I ordered it Friday afternoon. It arrived this morning. Wowzer.

I made my first glass with cold water, a tiny bit of simple syrup, and two scoops of the chashaku and whooshed it with my Aerolatte. I added a little splash of milk. Delish. Then a friend came over and wanted to try it and I did it all over again! Yums!

I felt like the aroma of lavender was light when I opened the pouch, but it didn’t get lighter in the actual drink. I like the amount of flavoring, and since two of my good friends who drink tea with me prefer things that are not heavy on flavoring, this will be much to their liking.

I am convinced that this is going to make delicious ice cream so that is probably going to happen tomorrow.

I actually had a sipdown of my plain hojicha powder from the this company but I didn’t take it out of cupboard because I got a new and bigger pouch of it with this order, and I am not even sorry.

Sipdown

I really enjoyed all these hojicha blends from 3 Leaf Tea. This is the final packet and I actually had it twice today – once with an afternoon snack between lessons and again with supper.

I still have a large bag of hojicha powder from Den’s Tea and when that is gone I definitely want to keep a hojicha powder on hand, especially during cooler weather. These are awesome as a hot chocolate substitute.

This one has nice honey and light lemon flavor when made with water but the flavors are so light that they are hard to notice for me when made with milk. Some of the other flavors were a little stronger in the flavoring department. I would happily restock this or any of the flavors I bought from them, as well as the one from Den’s.

March Sipdown Prompt – a tea with a leaf in the logo

First of all, I thought this was going to be the world’ easiest prompt, and then the first two teas I pulled to fulfill didn’t have a single leaf in sight. Well, now I have THREE leaves in the logo with this one!

I had this first as a latte and only tasted hojicha. Maybe it was just me, or I put too much maple syrup, or my tastebuds are just old. Tonight I was just craving something, anything, and decided to try it without milk.

Three matcha scoops of powder, about seven or eight ounces of 160F water, and a little splorp of maple syrup.

And wow, I like this so much better! I love this lemon flavor! It is fresh and light, not sour or tart but just…cheering. Now I am eager to have it cold, too. It seems like it will be so refreshing when hot weather gets here.

I am glad I got the large pouch of this one.

Sipdown! (23 | 103)

Ashmanra kindly sent me a sample of this one to try, thank you!

This is definitely my second favorite after the banana (which is a tough one to beat). I love the subtly sweet cinnamon with the toasty hojicha, such a natural combination. I prepared this as an iced oat latte, but I could imagine it being delicious hot in the fall. I haven’t been drinking much matcha lately, but this will definitely be on my list to buy when I make my next 3 Leaf order! I might have to try the cinnamon matcha as well…