Jade Leaf Matcha

Last tea of the night and since I have a few things to do.. matcha seemed like a good choice. I got this from Amazon CA, Ceremonial Grade. It’s a lovely shade of green which reminds me a bit of DO Matcha. I totally made this a matcha latte, I regret nothing!

This was a late night matcha latte. I promised myself some really nice matcha from somewhere like Sazen or Yunomi and an actual matcha bowl (been using a small cereal bowl for YEARS) if I drink through all/most of the grocery store matcha I’ve collected. I think I have another pouch of Jade Leaf culinary grade, a bunch of the little packets of Jade Leaf ceremonial, several tins of Aiya (clearance sale!) and maybe some Republic of Tea and a couple others.

I’m not sure if the culinary grade is the same as what Jade Leaf uses in their latte mix but without the sugar but I’d guess they’re similar quality. Definitely not something I’d want to try to drink straight. It has a bite to it when I make a latte to my preferred level of greenness unless I add some kind of sweetener. I wonder if my preference for extra strong matcha lattes comes from starting out as a straight matcha drinker? When I first discovered matcha it didn’t occur to me that it could be made as a latte. I don’t add milk to any other green tea so I didn’t think to add milk to matcha. I also had some hilarious misadventures early on in my tea exploration that resulted in vast quantities of SUPER strong matcha so maybe it just broke my brain a little and I can’t accept a wimpy little latte that tastes like nothing but warm milk. Little story time…I started drinking tea as a broke college kid. A coffee shop I liked to study at sold bulk tea and an assortment of tea paraphernalia but they were still mostly a coffee place. The teas were all different prices per ounce to buy the dry leaf but they were all the same price to buy a pot of brewed tea (really cheap, I think it was like $2.00). I’d frequently buy a pot of tea and camp out for a couple hours studying. I tended to go for the higher end teas to see what all the fuss was about and if they were worth the high price because I was broke enough that I wasn’t willing to spend a lot on something I hadn’t tasted. I’m pretty sure the baristas prepared all the teas exactly the same way regardless of type…x number of scoops into the mesh basket of the teapot, whatever temperature hot water comes out of the coffee machine, leave the filter basket in the teapot so it gets nice and over brewed if the customer doesn’t realize it should probably come out at some point. So one day I decided I’d get the matcha. Yeah. They must’ve scooped like $40 worth of matcha into the teapot brew basket and poured in hot water just like they did with any other tea. It was…intense. I think at that point I’d only had one other matcha and didn’t really know if I was preparing it correctly but I knew enough to know the teapot full of green sludge I was handed was weird. I remember looking in the teapot when it was nearly empty and seeing a big blob of wet powder still in the basket. Perhaps that wild experience is why my matcha lattes tend to be more matcha with a splash of milk than milk with a splash of matcha? Who knows.

Man, it’s been way too long since I’ve had a good matcha latte! I used to regularly grab a coffee shop matcha latte while out shopping but I’ve been going fewer places since the pandemic started and just don’t want to deal with the on and off of masks to get a snack or drink while I’m out. I have lots of matcha but I never seem to manage to make myself a latte at home.

I think calling this a latte mix is kind of weird because it’s just matcha and sugar. There’s no powdered milk or anything else latte about it until you add your own. I dumped what seemed like a good amount of the powder into my fancypants Capresso milk frother pitcher thingie along with some half & half cream (I didn’t have any milk, I like my creamy drinks creamy anyway) on the hotter of the two warm froth settings. It ended up a good temperature for sipping (too hot for gulping), not so hot that the tea or cream burned. I THINK the maximum amount my frother can hold is 8oz and once it was all warm and frothy it just barely fit in my 12oz glass mug. Green creamy deliciousness. My complaint about coffee shop matcha lattes is that they often don’t have enough matcha in them. My DIY latte was finally matcha-y enough for me. It was definitely sweet from the sugar in the mix but not as sweet as something like the TeaDrops Matcha or a coffee shop matcha latte if I forget to tell them to go easy on the syrup and skip the honey (my local coffee shops like to use at least a coffee latte’s worth of vanilla syrup plus a large squirt of honey and not very much matcha…I don’t think they like the taste of matcha very much and don’t think anyone else does either). I don’t think this is a matcha I’d want to drink made traditionally with just a small amount of water but it’s not really meant to be drunk that way. I have added a little of this mix to other cheap low-grade matchas I thought were too bitter, though. It helps some if you’re really determined to drink the cheap stuff without making it into a latte but it won’t magically transform it into GOOD matcha. I’m not sure if I’d buy the latte mix again. Jade Leaf is one of the few matcha brands I can find locally so maybe if I was all out of matcha and desperate for some immediately…but I could probably find something better and cheaper online and sweeten it myself if I thought it needed sweetening.

I had the matcha green tea again to get more practice making in it for my tea ceremony. It was really good and I will continue making it with lots of matcha because I figures out that works best for me for the flavor.

This tea was very much needed today and delicious. I had a little later on in the day around lunch time. I think this is a good time to have it to settle the stomach before a meal but I also enjoy starting off my mornings with a cup of matcha. I used 5 scoops to make it more sweet and made had the tea at a warmer temperature.

Today I made the matcha tea again, this time I added some extra powder to see if I like it better that way. Yesterday I used 3 scoops and I ended up pitting in 5 today. I think I prefer it with the extra scoops because I just really like the matcha flavor. The tea wasn’t as hot today as well, I think I’m gonna make it warmer tomorrow.

This tea was delicious! I am a really big fan of matcha and this tea really hit the spot. The flavor is so natural with a hint of sweetness and even some bitterness. Also it kind of smelled like plants, a earthiness to it. Using the bamboo whisk and scooping the matcha was all a very delicate and calming process. I just felt at peace the whole time. This tea is the one I choose for my Tea Ceremony I made it around 10 AM. I’m definitely a morning person so I think I’ll continue making the matcha tea around this time. It’s a really nice way to start the day.

This tea is really good. I recommend it with a sweet treat of your choice. I had it with red velvet cake. I also went through the traditional process of preparing the tea using a chawan and bamboo whisk. Overall the experience was nice and very therapeutic.