Cheesecake Matcha

Thank you Red Leaf Tea for their awesome program! I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this at all, but I had been wanting to try match for a while now. This is a perfect way to try it out- plus try out different flavors!
I tried this two different ways tonight. First in hot water. It was pretty good, and I do like the idea that I’m getting the full value of the leaf this way. Then I decided to try it in cold milk. o.m.g. Yeah, I think I’m going to have to put in an order for this one for sure!
I also need to get a milk frother, because well, a fork just doesn’t cut it lol

I got my sample yesterday, and I decided to try it today. It smelled quite cheesecake when I opened it. I decided to try it as an iced latte, because of the flavor. I couldn’t find the top for the blender so I figured I’m make it in a cocktail mixer glass. I used a sieve to sift the tea as it seemed pretty clumpy, using a generous half teaspoon. I added milk and ice and shake shake shake. It got very frothy very quickly, but there was still a lot of tea on the bottom of the mixer and in clumps on the side. A quick hit with a spoon helped the bottom and some of the clumps. I shook a lot more and that helped, too.

It didn’t taste as strongly of cheesecake as I would have liked, but it had a nice flavor, a little bit green. I could see doing this as a morning drink in the summer for sure.

This is my first time trying matcha. I think I’ll try it hot later just to see if that works better.

Decided to have a matcha smoothie this morning: ingredients were banana, pineapple, soymilk, chia seeds and the cheesecake matcha. This definitely seems “desserty” but I also remember the time I had a really bad stomach ache from eating too much cheesecake when I was a kid! So the taste of cheesecake is not altogether a positive sensation.

I will need to try this with blueberries or strawberries as that’s more of a normal cheesecake fruit, I guess.

Have a great day everyone!

This is the March free sample of the month, so if you haven’t tried it yet, hop to it! All you have to do is pay for shipping and you get five servings!!!

I made a hot latte out of this for breakfast. WOW. Super cheesecakey! This is officially my 2nd favorite matcha flavor from Red Leaf, right under coconut (#1!). I would definitely order this one again :)

Thanks to Red Leaf for the monthly free sample! I’m thinking that I’m just not a fan of matcha. I’ve had matcha before, prepped hot and cold, with not so much success. Today, I took a jar and shook up some of this matcha with cold milk. I can kind of tell there is a cheesecake flavor there because it tastes more dairy than just regular milk. I just can’t get over the seaweed-y taste from the matcha base. It’s weird because I like “green tea” flavored foods that are essentially flavored with matcha. I just don’t like the tea itself I guess. It’s a real bummer because I always see these fun flavored matcha reviews and get really excited about it. Oh well, another lesson learned on this great tea journey of mine.

Matcha of the morning…..

Well, this is actually my second matcha today. I should be bouncing from the rafters, pretty soon. This was my free sample with my last order. I wish I knew what flavoring level the samples are. I asked on Steepster once, but my inquiry must have been overlooked. I have not taken the time to email directly, so that is on me.

This is pretty good. It really kind of reminds me of the Eggnog matcha, though. They are very similar tastes, I guess. I kind of feel that way about English Toffee and Caramel, too, but DS likes the English Toffee and not the Caramel. Go figure. I guess this could be a possibility for a flavor in the rotation. We can see if my daughter likes this better than French Vanilla. One of these days, I need to try a strawberry or coconut version.

Prepared with 8oz 1% milk, 1/2 tsp matcha and a little sweetener in a personal blender. No ice this time.

I got my “free” sample in the mail today, so I tried it out, because why not and also because caffeine, which I desperately need today as I cannot seem to wake up. (Better late than never, right?)

I made it cold shaken with milk and a dash of cream, like I did for the matchaccino. I used 1/2 teaspoon and about a teaspoon of sugar, and I think I added too much cream, so after drinking a few sips I added another 1/4 teaspoon and some milk. I think I need to sort out the proportions better, because I’m not sure what part of what I was tasting was the cheesecake flavor and what part was just cream overdose.

It smelled really good, though. Matcha-y and cheesecake-y and only a touch artificial which I don’t really mind at all. I look forward to trying it again?

This is the first time I’ve had matcha since I was always a little afraid to try something that looked so weird and had such non-tea type flavors. But I’ve read so many reviews that made it sound good so I look the plunge into the world of matcha. I got the sample from Red Leaf Tea. OMG this stuff is good! Mixed it with vanilla soy milk and a couple ice
cubes in blender. Makes a lovely bright green liquor. Smells so much like cheesecake that I can’t believe it. I’m going to have to be careful of this stuff because I could easily drink way too much of this. The vanilla soy milk is low fat but it still has calories. I am really trying to not start any bad habits with foods. It’s so easy to do! (I lost another pound this week!) I think I saw some descriptions where it was just mixed with water. I’ll have to cheek those out.

Well, remember what I said about easily getting addicted to this… well, it’s about ten minutes later and I’m having another glass. This time I made it with half soy milk and half water and less ice cubes. Still very good! OK, now I really can’t have more or the caffeine will take over and I’ll have the whole house cleaned, basement organized, laundry done and dinner cooked! Heavens, we wouldn’t want that to happen! My husband will think I should that everyday! ;-D

Sorta sipdown? But it really doesn’t count.

I made this one last night cold shaken into a bottle of “Milk 2 Go” vanilla milk, and it used up the last of the cheesecake matcha I got long ago from Courtney, but I still have an unopened 30g package of this from my matcha order to go through. Hooray!

I drank it while watching Big Brother with Tre (it was a good episode!). It was pretty good, but really, really sweet. Yeah, the cheesecake flavour came through but with the sugary vanilla flavour already there it became just a touch extreme. I don’t think I’ll be doing Cheesecake/Vanilla milk again; the cheesecake is better in just plain old regular people milk.

The vanilla milk is weird; some flavours work really well, and don’t taste overly sweet AT ALL, like Pineapple (and Pear, which I’m drinking now and will review in a second) but others are so cloying. Tiramisu and Cookies & Cream are both ones that became hard core sugar bombs; this one was close to that level, but not quite there.

Side note: while we were watching BB last night I had the weirdest uncontrollable tremor in my right hand all episode; my hand was like violently shaking, which was a little concerning to both Tre and I. It stopped shortly before the episode ended though, and hasn’t picked up since. I’m wondering if I should be concerned, or whether it was maybe more of a caffeine thing? Since I’d been drinking black tea, guayusa, and matcha all day on top of pop (Mountain Dew!). Though, normally I can do that with no weird shaking…

Big thanks to Dex for sending some of this to me. This is my very first matcha experience, and it’s one that I’ve been looking forward to.

The very first thing that I thought when I saw the packet of dry tea was how much it resembled henna powder both in color and in texture. There was a similar grass note to the scent but I was definitely getting some cheesecake like notes as well (though they didn’t smell “smooth” but “tangy” instead).

I made this with just hot water as I wanted to get a sense of the “natural” tea before making a latte. After adding the water and attempting to whisk it with a small fork (worked not too bad IMO) I found that those same scent notes carried over to the aroma of the “brewed” tea.

My first sip was very interesting, grassy and a bit sweet it did end up delivering the promised cheesecake notes, though they were quite subtle. The mouthfeel was full but a bit chalky (I’m not sure if I just didn’t whisk it enough but my partner who had tried some in Japan a number of years ago said that it was the same texture as she remembered so who knows.) I also found that the cheesecake flavor lingered for a while and actually built up in my mouth over the course of the cup. I definitely enjoyed it though I really do want to try it as a latte.

Unfortunately that’s where the good parts of my experience ended… I came down with a big headache immediately after finishing the cup (I’m prone to them so it wasn’t guaranteed to be from the tea but there’s usually at least some buildup for me.) Then my stomach decided to disagree with it as well, violently… :(

Now I’ll be the first to admit that trying a new tea type first thing in the morning on an empty stomach was probably not the best idea, but I drink tea at that time/state all the time so it never even crossed my mind. Also a little research (better late than never?) pointed to the fact that I may have used a bit too much matcha for my matcha-virgin body to handle, especially since I was having it straight. Lesson learned… Next time, I’m trying this as a latte after lunch!