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“YAY! I’m finally well enough to make my matcha drinking chocolate that I wanted to have for breakfast Christmas morning. 3TB drinking chocolate mix and 1 scoop matcha in my bowl. 1/3 cup milk...” Read full tasting note
“See previous note for this tea I didn’t mention this in the last note and wanted to add that this matcha is very smooth, among all of its other great qualities. My first matcha ever was Teavana’s...” Read full tasting note
“Half-milk, half-almond milk matcha latte with vanilla. Yum! I would pay $5 for this at Starbucks (or preferably Second Cup!). This is my first time doing anything unorthodox with matcha and I’m...” Read full tasting note
“First foray in to the realm of matcha . . . I like it a lot. Been drinking it every day.” Read full tasting note
Matcha Kaze is a thin Matcha called Usucha and best for the everyday Matcha drinker. Yet, it is very satisfactory quality to enjoy genuine taste of matcha. Many Sado class uses Matcha Kaze for practice.
Origin: Nishio, Aichi
Harvest: First
Species: Yabukita
Tasting Profile:
It is a light creamy liquid with a very sweet and mild flavor.
Den’s Preferred Brewing:
Water: 3oz @ 180F
Matcha: 1 gram or 1 scoop of Chashaku or 1 1/2 rounded teaspoon
Whisk the Matcha well with Chasen (Bamboo whisk). See “Making Matcha”
Company description not available.
YAY! I’m finally well enough to make my matcha drinking chocolate that I wanted to have for breakfast Christmas morning.
3TB drinking chocolate mix and 1 scoop matcha in my bowl. 1/3 cup milk heated just to the point where small bubbles started to form on the top. Mixed completely. Do not use your chasen.
YUMMY! Rich, smooth, creamy, chocolatey… and way too much fun to drink hehe;) I do taste the matcha in the very back, but I’m thinking that might only be because I know it’s in there. I was hoping the matcha would come thru more due to the small amount of milk I used. Does anyone have a better recipe? Oh well. Even plain drinking chocolate drank out of a matcha bowl, especially for breakfast, is definitely a bright spot in my day.:)
See previous note for this tea
I didn’t mention this in the last note and wanted to add that this matcha is very smooth, among all of its other great qualities.
My first matcha ever was Teavana’s matcha… which is absolutely disgusting – unless you like drinking bland flavored water with the texture of sand. That experience almost turned me off to matcha completely until an awesome tea friend of mine opened my eyes to the realization that all of Teavana is the epitome of evil.
I have had a couple of different matcha’s since that tragedy, but none as smooth as this. There is no grainy texture to this matcha, even after getting pretty darn close to the bottom of the bowl. It feels like drinking tea and not like chewing on sandy seawater.
Their organic has a thicker mouth feel, but it’s also very smooth. Thanks for the warning about Teavana’s. I was wondering about theirs.
Sadly, Teavana’s matcha is the only one I’ve had (that and the Lupicia flavored/sweetened ones). And I think it’s ok, having nothing to compare it to. (Probably like a Lipton drinker who thinks it’s fine until they try "real tea) So, I expect to be blown away by the DoMatcha Ceremonial Grade that is patiently waiting for me to finish the Teavana stuff…
I hope you have better luck than I did Janefan.
First foray in to the realm of matcha . . . I like it a lot. Been drinking it every day.
Cool! Did you get a whisk and all, or just mixing by some other means? (Macguyver!)
I got the chasen and the chashaku (scoop thing). its awesome. got their noobie sampler too. they’re having a sale on some of their loose teas btw.
That’s really cool… it seems like the only way to really enjoy matcha is to do it properly, and unbelievably (considering how much I like Japanese green tea) I haven’t experienced it yet. I know! The sale is really good, but I think I can resist… I ordered their kuradashi recently, anyway.
Their noobie sampler was great, and I’m sure very effective for them… definitely made me a fan.
yeah the sampler does what its meant to do, i feel i have at least a basic understanding of the different types of japanese green tea now (houjicha, sencha, fukamushi). im liking the looks of the kuradashi a lot.
concerning matcha, the chasen is essential. its a very delicately constructed whisk. other than that im sure one could get away with using any vessel and scooping utensil. the other thing ive been using is a small seive to break up the clumps. i scoop the matcha into the seive and rub it through the screen into the bowl. its really a delicious drink and actually feels healthy. im not really a health nut (everything in moderation) but there is a beautifully rich and clean aspect to the matcha, so much so that its even perceptible in the mental and physical systems. again, i dont put too much stock into it but the feeling is agreeable.
That’s cool to know. When I drink powdered sencha, I do break it up through a sieve, but again, since I don’t have the chasen, have just used a small metal whisk. It works, but I’m sure it actually makes a difference not using the proper too. Some day, probably at a tea house, I’ll try some real matcha made the right way.
I do like how simple it is to prepare though… no timers, thermometers, etc. needed.
I had to correct the brewing instructions on here. 2 scoops at 16oz of water?! that’s almost 3x the suggested amount of water, even for a usucha. I seriously doubt that would make a pleasant matcha.
I typically do 2 scoops from my chashaku to 1/3rd cup(2.6oz/80ml) of 175F water. Den recommends only 1 scoop for that amount(Usucha is typically more water/less scoops, while koicha is more scoops/less water). Definitely use a sifter on this matcha, it tends to clump very easily, resulting in an over-powering grassy-bitterness when mixed with water if not sifted.
Likely due to my quantity of scoop, I find that it froths very easily (using a chasen, not a frother) – Not a bad thing, quite good if anything. The matcha “powder” colour is an almost vibrant green, suggesting minimal oxidation exposure (usually indicative of quality – the higher the oxidation (darker the shade of green), the lower the quality and more bitter. The more vibrant-neon green, is the less oxidized, and the higher the quality/taste). The sweet notes is minimal at best, but the bitterness is not high as some lower end bulk-matcha company stuff you get out there from tea-chains or supermarkets. I’ve had much better matcha(koicha), but the price more than makes up for its shortcomings, for your every-day drinker. Not ideally suited for desert-drinks. Den sells a separate “ingredient-grade” matcha for that, it’ll be easier on your wallet to buy that instead.
My first matcha!! I was so nervous making it since I’ve never done it before, but I can tell with practice it should be no problem. I haven’t figured out what’s going to be my dedicated repurposed matcha bowl yet, so I improvised using a wide shallow bowl to do the whisking and then transferring to a gaiwan. It was pretty messy—thin film of green powder all over the place, and some of it goop as it got wet accidentally, whoops.
A little surprised by the taste given how all the matcha lovers on Steepster describe it. It was indeed creamy and thick, frothy, with some sweetness especially at the front, but it also tastes exactly how I would’ve guessed powdered whole green tea leaves would taste before reading about it from fans—grassy and pretty bitter, especially at the back and lingering in the aftertaste. That said, I don’t dislike it entirely. I think I just need to get used to it. The aspects that are lovely are lovely enough I can be patient and keep working on it. When I reached the bottom there was some powder left despite my sifting, which made the whole thing end on a sweet, even thicker note, which I liked but I’m guessing means I need more practice whisking.
I’ve enjoyed this straight-up in my cup, as well as mixed with milk and a bit of chocolate powder. It’s a solid Match for daily home use.
I received this as a sample in my most recent Den’s order. This is meant to be thin match (Usacha). I was pleasently sursprised by the lack of bitterness. It was smooth and creammy, sweet and delicious! I immediately wanted more! The caffeine kick was amazing, move over coffee I just found your morning replacement. I will have to include this on my next order as I loved it so much.
I am a green tea novice, and received this tea as a gift. With apologies to tea-purists, I made a latté with 1/2 t. of the Matcha Kaze, hot and frothy non-fat milk and a little honey. It was absolutely delicious. I had no idea how much tea I would be able to make with this small tin, but apparently there are 20 servings or so. If you compare the price and the quality to, say, Starbucks green tea latté, this is so much better and a fraction of the price. This is the first warm drink I’ve found that feels like a treat and not a sacrifice if I have it instead of coffee. And it feels like a HUGE treat! Love it.
Oh, wow… I want to do this!
So you’re not adding any additional milk after the 1/3 cup? And why not the chasen— are you using a spoon or fork or another type of whisk?
No extra milk, and I’m glad I didn’t- I’m afraid the matcha flavor would have been even lighter. I didn’t use my chasen because I was afraid it would get too gunked up and since it’s so delicate it would be a pain in my butt to clean. I just used a spoon and that worked great because I didn’t end up w/ any matcha residue at the bottom of my bowl like when I make it w/ water or milk. I stirred the matcha and chocolate powder together a bit before adding the milk.
I think I’m going to go try this now—I have 3 different drinking chocolates and they’re all spicy. You think this is a good idea?
Oh, and I only have rice and almond milks…
I think it’s a wonderful! idea. I’d go w/ almond milk.
Well, that was truly inspired, Ms. Cofftea!
I had to wing it on the amounts of chocolate and milk, lacking measuring implements here, but as a gesture of compensation, I did use my chasen, which survived just fine. :-)
One scoop of Essencha’s Jade Bliss Matcha plus 3 spoonfuls of Lake Champlain’s Aztec Hot Chocolate added to some amount of unsweetend vanilla almond milk heated just to the point of small bubbles forming on top.
Holy moly. This was nothing less than exquisite liquid truffle. I wish I could sigh and say that oh, I couldn’t possibly have something this rich more than once a week, but that would be a bald-faced lie. I’ll probably do it again before the day is done.
I’ll be playing close attention to any future tweaks you make to this, Ms. Cofftea. The only thing I’ll do differently next time myself is drink it while it’s hotter. I, too, only taste the matcha “in the very back”, and I like the way it works. Maybe I’ll try a different chocolate next time—I do have one that isn’t spicy but has notes of almond and orange in it. That could be brilliant, I think.
Chocolate, almond and orange w/ the almond milk and matcha I think would be lovely! That makes me wonder where my mandarin matcha order from 52 teas is…
I wouldn’t be surprised if you could taste the matcha behind the chocolate. one of the most popular items I make to bring to work potlucks are simple little mini-chocolate cupcakes with a matcha buttercream frosting. They disappear quickly.
@Seattlemeg- I definitely could, although I was hoping the matcha would be stronger.
I had a treat someone brought to me from new york that I’ve never found since – a hershey bar that had green tea as a filler in the squares. Ever seen it? It was actually really good.
Yum! No I haven’t. I’ll stick w/ this, it’s more fun to drink chocolate out of a bowl;)
may I ask where you got your bowl? I’ve been meaning to go to our local humongous Asian grocery store (uwajimaya.com) but haven’t had time. I really need to try more matchas.
I got this set http://www.denstea.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=289_295 I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! It was on sale for $52 at the time and there was no shipping because it was over $50. If you’re a 1st time customer they have a sampler that they normally charge $3 for (it’s worth way more than that though) that you can either get free w/ your 1st $15 or more purchase or you pay the $3 and get a coupon for $3 off your 1st order that totals $15. All the Den’s Tea teas I have except for the apple sencha are from that sampler.
cool, thank you, bookmarked!
OMG that sounds amazing! That may be my Happy New Year drink this year.
Oh it was Carolyn…. it was! While it would be a good NYE drink, for me at least, I think that’d take away a little bit of the novelty and fun because part of why it rocked my socks off was because I had it for breakfast. So maybe another flavored matcha at midnite and then this as your watching the sun rise?:)