Matcha Outlet

Guys, tea friends, fellow geeks and gamers…I am getting a new phone. So funny story, Ben, for all that he is a tech lover, hates smart phones, he has a garbage flip phone that he paid like $10 for, it is so retro. His new job has required a lot of driving around and he keeps using me as a GPS, so I came up with a genius idea: buy me a new and better phone, and he can have my functional but kinda lame phone. So yay! It has a 8 megapixel camera (ooh so much better than my 5) and more memory. Yeah, it is still a low end phone, but I can take slightly better photos and with more memory I can go back to playing games while still keeping the apps I like around. Exciting!

Ever wondered how I first tried Matcha? Back when I was a teenager, I went through an obsessed with Japan phase (hilariously did not start with anime, though it led to it, it started with sushi and other food) and in my exploration of the culture (ok I never really outgrew that phase, it just calmed…a bit) and food, I stumbled across Matcha Mochi ice cream, that green sweetness was truly a love at first bite. Exploration led me to the beautiful Chado and Matcha in its ‘pure’ form. I had a treasured canister of Matcha and Chasen and had no real idea what I was doing, but I enjoyed myself immensely. Of course even though I love and drink Matcha in the ceremonial way, I still love that sweet ice-cream filling inside a Mochi, and of course the oh so famous Matcha latte. Which brings me to Red Leaf Tea’s Sweet Matcha! This is one of those Matcha that is sweetened, it is very much so a toss powder into a cup, add milk, insert hand mixer and viola! Latte! According to the website it is organic and that it is good for Lattes and Frappes, and that is all the info we get, so it is an adventure! The color and the aroma is pale and faint, notes of sugar and grass, fresh vegetation, and hay waft off the very fluffy powder.

So, that is what I did, after photographing and sniffing the powder I tossed it into my hand-mixer’s mixing cup with some whole milk and mixed it up with great vigor. With such a mild aroma I was a bit dubious, but it is actually pretty rich and very sweet. Refreshing grassy notes, broken fresh hay, and bright green sweetness, it tastes like Matcha ice cream that has melted into my cup. I admit I have a bit of an addiction to this stuff, I tend to make it strong, to really bring out the grassy greenness. Of course that does make it extra sweet, which I wish I could dial down a bit. I serve lattes made from the Sweet Matcha to my friends when they are in the mood for a sugary treat rather than a bowl of Matcha. I enjoy this stuff immensely, I just really wish it was not so sweet, but to counter that I just toss in some culinary grade Matcha to keep it as rich while cutting down on the sugary sweetness a bit.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/08/red-leaf-tea-sweet-matcha-matcha-monday.html

an ok tea:

when i smell the matcha powder, i smell vanilla and slight grassy notes.

when i smell the brewed tea , the smell is a bit diluted.

when i taste the brewed tea, the vanilla is very diluted and the grassyness is a tad bit stronger.

even though i used a half a teaspoon, the tea is so diluted i the vanilla is not strong enough to really enjoy it. if i were to use more tea it would probably become bitter and even less enjoyable.

since i was kinda disapointed, i rate this a 50

still under the weather, so i needed some vitamins. So i had a Cantaloupe ‘N’ Honeydew smoothing with milk, ice and this matcha :)

IT….. WAS…. AWESOME!!!!

This stuff is awesome in hot water alone!

Specs as I’m doing this on my iPod

1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon.

250ml mug.

Below boiling water temp.

When I smell the matcha powder, I smell fresh cut grass with a lovely sweet smell.

When I smell the brewed tea, the smell is intensified.

When I taste the brewed tea, It tastes fantastic! :D. Freshly cut grass and awesome sweetness!

It’s not as good as matcha deluxe but I still rate a 100

a not too good tea. :(

when i smell the matcha power, i smell cheese cake.

when i smell the brewed tea, i smell cheese cake and a hint of orange peels.

when i taste the brewed tea, the orange peel taste way overpowers the cheese cake. :(

i rate this a 10 instead of a 1 because it wasen’t too bad but its something i don’t like and will not order again

all i can say now is, THIS IS THE BEST MATCHA EVER!

i just tried a cold latte with this stuff. it was quite good, but i prefer it in hot water

so my “Red Leaf Tea” order came in:

what an amazing tea:

when i smell the matcha powder, i smell sweetness and green grass

when i smell the brewed tea, the smell is intensified.

when i taste the brewed tea, i taste strong and lovely sweetness and fresh cut grass. mmmm :D

i rate this a 100 because this is the perfect matcha for me :D

i definitely recommend trying this tea!

this is best with 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon

I need some whip cream. Currently drinking this cold because it’s warm out. Just threw 6 oz in the blender followed by 1tsp of matcha. Great chocolate smell emits itself from the package. The taste is also much better then I was expecting. Oh man…. I just had a great thought! Mix this with the orange matcha. Oh that is so happening!

I had a sample of this and prepared it the same way I did the Belgium Chocolate one.

*with a few ounces of hot water and whisked in a chawan
*stirred with a few tablespoons of cold water and topped with cold, unsweetened cashew milk
*stirred with a few tablespoons of hot water and topped with hot, unsweetened cashew milk

I added sweetener to all three preparations. Again, as with the chocolate one, I felt like it was strange to have a candy-like flavour without significant sweetness. I’d have to try these again with dairy milk, to see if that provides enough sweetness on its own.

I liked this a lot better than the chocolate and would consider restocking. The flavour is good, very butterscotch-y. The matcha is a bit bitter, but not unpleasantly so.

I’ve tried this twice and both times not according to instructions, quite frankly the recommended 1 tablespoon is too much in my opinion. The first one was half hot water (80C) and half milk, mixed well with 1 heaped teaspoon of matcha. I found this to be rather bitter after a while and while it was sweet at times it tasted too strong and not evenly balanced.

So I tried warm water (50C) with 1 level teaspoon of matcha and 4/5 water to 1/5 milk. This was almost perfect. The sweetness is enhanced with cream and sweet but lightly bitter grass. The sweetness is like honey, not too much but a nice level. Overall flavour is lighter but the matcha flavour is distinct and as it settles towards the bottom of my cup it becomes stronger with each sip. Plus I also found that it tastes lighter and stays foamier with most water in the mix.

Next time I may try a bit more matcha but it makes for a nice treat every now and then. I picked up a pound in their sale :D Should give me enough time to perfect the brew.

This is my fourth sample from the flavored matcha sampler. It’s delicate flavoring with the classic base. The flavor is very subtle. It doesn’t actually taste like flavored matcha. It doesn’t taste like unflavored matcha either. It’s somewhere in between.


This tea is very smooth and less grassy than most other matcha. It’s a little creamy but doesn’t taste like cream per say. I can’t really describe it but it’s good. I definitely recommend getting a higher flavoring level if you want to really taste the cream. Unlike other reviewers, I’m not getting anything even remotely lemon-flavored or citrusy here.

I also tried mixing it with Vanilla Bean Matcha because I thought that would be stellar! Ironically, it wasn’t super amazing like I was expecting. This is a good matcha for people who like smooth, creamy matcha that isn’t heavily flavored. Personally, I think I’ll stick to other flavors for future purchases.

this stuff is great with milk and bananna made into a smoothie!

I used this in a latte – cold milk and Splenda. I really enjoyed it. Adding 12 oz of milk to 2 tsp of powder tends to overpower the taste of most matcha. I thought this stood up really well. Grassy and vegetal.

This is my third sample from the flavored matcha sampler. It’s delicate flavoring with the classic base. The dry leaf aroma is full of beautiful vanilla goodness. The flavor is gently sweet vanilla bean. The aftertaste is really lovely and the best part of this tea in my opinion. The natural-tasting vanilla flavoring lingers long after the sip.

This is delicious but I think I’d prefer vanilla as a component in a flavoring rather than the only thing going on. I can recommend this one, even in the lower flavoring level. I think vanilla may be one of those flavors that you want to be delicate. Although I’m really on a vanilla kick right now and I almost always prefer for it to be punched up about 100 notches. So that I enjoy this in delicate flavoring level is saying something!

grandma made shortbread cookies with starter matcha from “red leaf teas”. all i can say is, mmmmm.

https://instagram.com/p/8oGMJYp443/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

i tried this with just milk in a blender, tastes good

so i tried something new.

putting a teaspoon of this matcha in hot water, stir and drinking it. then using the stuff left on the bottom, i would add more water and stir and repeat.

the experience is: somewhat bitter then gets sweeter over 3 to 4 refills :D

i suggest trying this

tried a different smoothie:

starter matcha + 2 strawberries + milk = a smoothie that’s good but not as good as banana version

starter matcha info can be found here -→ http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/starter-matcha-en.html#.VbuNgvlViko

so, since my other review left me with a good feeling, I trie this tea just now with water and it was great!

love this matcha! it’s great for matcha smoothies and matcha pancakes! I have yet to try it with hot water

When I didn’t think this tea could get much more perfect I found a way….by dipping ginger biscuits into it! Now it’s ginger toffee matcha :D

A beautiful aid while I watch Sixteen Candles. I adored Anthony Michael Hall when I was a teen. Always had a ‘thing’ for ‘geeks’ which probably explains why I married an IT professional. Well that and it comes in handy to have someone ‘in the know’ when my laptop/blog goes ‘tits up’. Oh and if you don’t know what ‘tits up’ means then check the link. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/385050.html

Hopefully I will have a tea fuelled weekend with lots of reviews, and I hope you all do too! Hurrah for the wonders of tea.

I want to apologise for being inactive. A lot has been going on recently. I had my driving test and study before hand, of which I failed and have had to re-book. That was very upsetting, the nerves got the better of me and I made stupid mistakes. So this left me feeling down, as did the fact that if I want a car I need to find a job and save up for one. My husbands money is covering everything else but we can’t get a car as well, so for the last month or so I’ve been job hunting. After starting at one place and fainting on my first day, there has been no other progress. I was messed around a few times with training and supposing to start work but at the last minute they let me down. So needless to say everything has left me feeling about an inch small and my depression got the better of me. Hence no blog writing, no SS posts, no Steepster posts and so on. It’s been difficult and I’m just back on the road to recovery. This really is a long story put simply into a small paragraph, please know it was not my idea to leave the wonderful tea community for the time being but was rather something I needed to do. I was away from most online communities but continued to cross stitch as a sort of therapy, stitching away my problems.

Anyway that is enough of that, I’m not back to bloody depress people! So today I’m drinking this English Toffee Matcha which was with my last RLT order. I tried it originally in normal flavour but thought I would order distinct, to really see what the difference was. It actually does make a substantial difference, this one is creamier and more toffee flavoured though it does still have some of it’s Matcha flavour characteristics. In the background especially; for example it starts off creamy, sweet and toffee but turns stronger and slightly bitter with mild grass tones. Despite that it leaves a very creamy after taste in my mouth, making it seem that the Matcha qualities were just a figment of my imagination…until I take another sip and taste them again.

This truly is delightful and I’m glad I went for distinctive. It was worth the extra money for it :D And this still tastes like English Toffee so I’m happy on all levels.

I will be working on articles hopefully this weekend, if not the start of next week. I have 2300 Magic The Gathering cards coming tomorrow so I will be busy sorting them out before I go down on Sunday to play with people. So please forgive me for that additional delay, but believe that I am back and plan on staying. It’s time to stop letting my depression get the best of me.

This was a free sample that someone kindly gave me but I cannot remember whom, there is also a possibility this came from the EU TTB. Unfortunately it got mixed with some other stuff so I may never know. Either way thank you!

This says it can make 5 cups which sounds rather nice for a sample amount.

As I open the packet there is an overwhelming scent of toffee, definable as toffee as well, the type of toffee that I used to have sweets of as a child. A large block that I would buy on holiday at the seaside and break pieces apart with a hammer. Such good childhood memories all come rushing back as I smell this. As nice and creamy as it does smell there is little to no Matcha or green tea among it.

Putting one serving of this ie one scoop into my bowl and filling with a combination of 3/4 warm water and 1/4 milk. Whisking produced a nice level of bubbles and froth, more than expected though they didn’t last long.

Flavour was more subtle but the toffee notes were there, so was a slightly bitter undertone from the Matcha. Some dryness though subtle and the after taste is creamy though short lived.

Overall the scent is stronger than the taste but regardless this was a pleasant flavoured Matcha. One that I would consider purchasing should the chance arise.