JagaSilk

A recent acquisition from a joint order with a coworker! I feel like I’m probably going to pick up more matcha at Toronto Tea Festival at the end of the month, but in general I think I should really start cutting back because now I have a lot to sip through…

Thankfully, in addition to my morning matcha, I usually have a second matcha during the afternoon as well. That’s when my first tasting of this one was, actually. Just hot and plaint for my first tasting. It’s definitely very smooth and velvety, with floral top notes that progressed into a more brothy feeling mid-sip with undertones of rice milk. Good natural sweetness balanced with the umami!

It’s my first matcha from JagaSilk, and I was intrigued by it because the tencha is milled here in Canada by JagaSilk. In Victoria, specififcally. There’s something about that I find appealing, especially with this ongoing matcha shortage because one of the many contributing factors is the bottleneck at the limited tencha processing facilities in Japan. So, grinding it here in Canada maybe alleviates a small drop in the overall ocean of a problem.

This is a lovely “stir-in London Fog” mix that I picked up at Victoria’s Tea Festival. The micro-milled Earl Grey is blended with vanilla sugar and the flavour is actually quite balanced. It’s fast and easy to prepare. I’ve had JagaSilk’s Earl Grey alone and it’s excellent. I think that’s the real secret to any great London Fog and it isn’t lost in this instant mix. I’ve been content to have the Chai mixes with water, but there’s something almost sacrilege to making this with anything but steamed milk. Might just be me though.

This was another addition to my cupboard from the Victoria tea festival. It’s a micro-milled matcha-chai powder that can be stirred into milk for an instant tea latte. I found it flavourful enough in water though, without needing the milk. The combination of chai spices with matcha is a really interesting flavour combination. The matcha brings a silky creaminess and somewhat grassy flavour which blends into a spicy and peppery finish with the chai. Looking forward to trying their other chai varieties.

Finally sipped this one down, whew. It’s an interesting concept but don’t think I’d repurchase since I’ve simply had my fill of this particular flavour profile. Yay, more room in the fridge.

I’ve had this for over a year and I’m only writing about it now. The good news is is that it’s still as good as I remembered. This is a black matcha chai, and its predominant note is the cardamom. I’ve had this hot in the past but right now, I’m trying it cold with coconut almond milk, and it’s so awesome this way.

Creamy coconut, cardamom, and ginger iced latte. I’ll easily polish off the rest having it this way. This is much better than Red Leaf’s pumpkin pie black matcha.