This is from the recent Red Leaf Tea side by side blind taste test. If you were included but haven’t completed your survey yet stop reading now.
During the testing phase I prepared all of these teas hot. This was my lowest rated one. The color is blah, the dry taste is bitter. Prepared the color was still blah and muddy, while the taste was bitter but leafy.
So today, I used 12oz of 2% milk, two packets of Splenda, and a well rounded tsp (more like 2 tsp) of leaf to make a cold frap type drink. What I have discovered is if you use enough powder, the tea foams up really easily, even with a spoon. Use too much and it is harder to get mixed. Anyway, when the proportions are right, the mix becomes heavy and thick like foamy cream. Pretty cool. This one accomplished the task easily.
The problem is the taste is just meh. It’s OK but nothing to remember. Making it worse, this is fairly pricey for culinary grade matcha at over $6/oz. That makes it 6 about times more expensive than my top two rated teas (Starter and Deluxe both from Red Leaf) and 6 times more expensive than the Tradition powder I have been using daily.
I see no reason to pay so much for meh, when you can do a lot better.
