French Vanilla Matcha

Made this well and it’s just about perfect to end the work day. I will have to pee on the drive home but other than that, today was pretty good. Got a lot done. Too bad the lead wasn’t even here today to appreciate it (he’s MIA, no one knows why he hasn’t been at work for the past couple of days). I’m off of work tomorrow for what is hopefully the end of my medically restricted hours so I can go back full time come Friday. Looking forward to it.

Apparently I haven’t had enough of this matcha today. Know what I made for supper?

French Vanilla matcha pancakes.

Because I can.

Tonight I made a recipe from Pinterest called Creamy Garlic Pasta. It is creamy and also very easy. As usual, I did lighten up the calories a bit though I am sure it still had plenty!

After I ate it, I really wanted a milkshake. I have been craving something rich and chocolate-y all day but have abstained, so I guess that just rolled over to milkshake this evening. I decided instead to have a matcha latte.

I poured one cup of milk into a Pyrex four cup measure. I added a heaping teaspoon sugar and about 1/3 teaspoon matcha. I mixed it with my Bamix immersion blender and the top of the liquid level rose to three cups! That’s right, this made two whole cups of froth on high speed! I am letting it sit a bit, though I have sipped it, because I want the froth to go down a little! The froth on top is so thick it reminds me of when we made butter once, or when we made home made whipped cream and beat it a little too hard and too long!

What a great dessert! Eight ounces skim milk, about 20 calories worth of sugar, and I assume the matcha adds zero calories, yet I have a twenty ounce glass full of rich vanilla flavor. I can’t wait to try their chocolate flavor!

(mine is black tea base, delicate flavor)

And more matcha……

I think what turned me off about matcha in the first place was that I could not make myself crave green tea. I have tried some wonderful green teas, but I was always choosing my black teas in the stash over the green. Always. For that reason, I stopped trying to like it. When Red Leaf offered their free samples, I noticed they offered a black base. When I saw that they were offering a great deal on French Vanilla flavor for Black Friday, I figured it was as good a time as any to try the black version along with my free samples of the green.

I have tried this one whisked in hot water (never again)and prepared as a frappe the same as we do the green flavored matcha. My comparison is for the two prepped the same way. Compared to the green base, this one is roastier. I do catch more of a roasted earthiness where the green base just reads as fresh and frothy. I do like the French Vanilla flavoring, and know it will be purchased in green form at some point. My son really liked this one. I am very glad I purchased this. It will definitely be consumed by myself or my son, the tea and coffee drinkers of the family, but I know my daughter won’t like it. She is better off with the green version. Still, for us, I do think it needs a jump in the amount of flavoring. I can now confirm that the extra cost for the black base is not worth it for me. Is it wrong that I think I will try adding it to hot cocoa next?

I am reserving officially rating this for when I have the green based version, but for the black based version, I give it a 75. I will drink it up, but not rebuy in this form.

Matcha 2 of the day! I have to space these out quite a lot lol, my caffeine tolerance is not the best and if I down all of them quickly my stomach will heavily protest. But it is now the right time for another one, and oh my goodness, does this smell like vanilla! Sweet, soft, delicious…mmm, and so creamy! This is even creamier than the caramel, I think.

Once again, I am trying these just with hot water and whisking to taste them plain before I mix them with milk and sweeteners and such. I also got basic grade and robust flavoring for this one, with the 3 + 1 matcha deal that Red Leaf has, which is awesome! So yes, I whisked this up and the scent wasn’t quite as strong, but ohhh boy, does this taste good. I whisked this a tad longer than the caramel as there were a few lumps in that one from not enough whisking. This is smooth, fluffy and creamy! The vanilla flavor is PERFECT in this! It’s not an overpowering, ‘ugh too much frosting’ vanilla, but a rich, decadent yet light and fluffy vanilla flavor. Like a perfect little cupcake but so much better for you! I don’t taste the matcha as much in this one, in the caramel it was definitely a bit more present, but it works in this case as it did with the caramel. I got this one to mix with other flavors, but I definitely will drink this by itself quite often. And I haven’t even tried it with milk yet! This one can hold its own, and I like it a lot. Oooh that’s what it’s like!! DavidsTeas’s vanilla oolong! Yes. This is quite similar but less of the tea flavor and more vanilla :D

I really like this matcha. It’s creamy and satisfying. It’s light and soft. It’s excellent. If you like vanilla, I highly recommend this matcha. It’s awesome!

French Vanilla Matcha

Get it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html

Wooo hoooo my third matcha today. Its been a long busy crazy kind of day with the need to multitask, be sociable, run errand, work, make phone calls, help family out, entertain teen girls with girl talk time, and go go go. Thanks to the power of matcha it has been a breeze! Now I am waiting on the husband to get home from work hopefully within the next hour or so and spend maybe one hour of quality time with him before I can unwind silently on my own perhaps doing some reading. However, I am going for this cup to carry me through till that time.

So I am indulging in some french vanilla matcha from Red Leaf Tea linked above.

This is one of the smoothest matcha yet from Red Leaf. A lot like Bavarian Cream it is very velvety and creamy. I think I prefer this over the madagascar vanilla because this one seems to be a bit more vanillay more in your face a term I over use but everyone who follows me pretty much knows I like my flavors to be strong. Between the two, if you want something more mellow and laid back then Madagascar Vanilla is your cup of tea, but if you want something sinfully smooth, rich, thick, and creamy, then French Vanilla is the one for you.

My matcha was composed of the following:

Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Robust
Storage : Add Small Metal Tin Container (Holds up to 45g) 3.00 add on

I always get the tin as you probably know by now. Its an extra 3.00 but worth it unless you already have tins at home to use. While I love the pretty gold packaging that Red Leaf sends the matcha in but they don’t reseal, which is the only downside to ordering matcha from Red Leaf and thats not much of a downside! I do however like how the matcha does not stick to the interior of the bags and you can get most all of it out of the bag easily! They also have larger tins if you decide to get the larger quantity of matcha for I think 4.00 but don’t quote me on that.

I will probably do a bit more exploring of all the flavors Red Leaf Tea has to offer before ordering a larger quantity however I am pretty sure French Vanilla would make that list. I mean you can mix it with other flavors to get a more creamy texture and flavor out of them such as mixing Caramel matcha with French Vanilla but then I think I could do the same thing with Cheesecake, or Bavarian Cream so the list of possible mixes goes on and on!

It has actually been two days that I have been writing this review because I have been feeling a little under the weather but I did have a second cup today – or more like this evening – just to refresh my experience and I must say that it is such an easy matcha to drink, probably the best starter matcha I could think of. Its unassuming and true to what you would expect it to be. It is just like French Vanilla ice cream only more like a top quality ice cream rather than a store brand. Tomorrow I plan to do a Caramel and French Vanilla Mix – looking forward to that!
This is one that has a permanent home in my matcha stash!
Once again Here is the link:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html

Oh wow. Oh, wow! I wasn’t sure what to expect with this, which is why I got a sample instead of impulse-buying a larger size. Maybe I should have gotten a bigger bag! It smells like a bottle of vanilla extract dry and tastes like ice cream wet (I used milk, so that may be a factor in that, but the flavor is excellent). I have ~four cups left in my sample and I’ll have to ration it so I don’t drink it all at once!

Now, those who follow me and my reviews know I can’t stop raving about the Madagascar Vanilla from Red Leaf Teas. I’m almost out of it already, it’s the one I reach for the most and when people ask which one they should try first, my immediate answer is “Vanilla. Oh my goodness, the vanilla.”

But Madagascar’s reign may soon be over.

French Vanilla is my one true love. French Vanilla anything. Vanilla was my favorite ice cream flavor before I gave up ice cream. French Vanilla is the ice cream flavor I will risk my dairy allergy for. It’s just so creamy and rich and guh, so good. So when Red Leaf Tea let me know they had a new matcha out, a French Vanilla (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html), I was sold. It immediately went into my cart and I feverishly finished my other reviews so I could order it as soon as possible.

I opened the package this morning and almost drooled. It smells like icing. Like I had just opened up a new tub of Betty Crocker vanilla frosting. Oh god, I want to drown in it. It’s almost too sweet for this early in the morning, but I don’t care! I have to have some of this now! I’ll make bacon later to make up for it.

It…it’s perfect. It’s everything I ever dreamed of in a vanilla matcha. Everything. Creamy, smooth, beyond amazing. I want to shout from the rooftops that I’ve found The One, the tea I’ve been searching for forever, the tea that is the reason I own 6 different vanilla rooibos and 8 variations on a vanilla black. This tea is my holy grail. It’s matcha, which I have come to love and value over almost any other tea, and it’s that French Vanilla goodness that rocks my world. I know it seems like I’ve gone a bit crazy, but this is just…guh. It’s fulfilling my ice cream cravings, my icing cravings, my everything cravings.

That said, I will likely keep the Madagascar around for mixing, as it seems to blend beautifully with other flavors, but when I want to sit down and just enjoy a good cup of matcha, the French Vanilla is what I will be reaching for. Oh yes, my pretty. We will have a long, happy life together. Red Leaf Tea, I honestly cannot thank you enough for introducing this blend.

This is a terrific vanilla matcha. Especially when adding to other flavours for that extra kick of creamy goodness. I’ve had this a few times but haven’t logged it as it’s usually been an addition to another matcha smoothie. I’ll do a full write up soon on this one but it’s for sure a reorder whenever i end up getting through this one.

Sipdown! (332)
Thank you Sil for sending me a sample of this. I have only previously tried one of the flavored Matchas from Red Leaf, Caramel I think, & I didn’t really care for it as a hot tea, as a latte, or as a smoothie.
I followed your suggestions for a smoothie, & actually it is pretty good that way.