Matcha DNA

I decided it was time to finally secure the proper matcha accouterments—a bowl (chawan), a bamboo whisk (chasen), and a scoop (chashaku). MatchaDNA was kind enough to send me one of their large handcrafted bowls to get me started. They come in two sizes—small and large—are available in black or white, and are made with lead-free food safe glaze. The measurements of the large bowl are fairly standard: 4.5″ across the top and is 3.25″ tall, which gives you plenty of room to use a traditional bamboo whisk, or even a milk frother to prepare your matcha.

Because it is lightweight and has gently sloping sides, the bowl is very comfortable to hold, even if you have small hands. I find that I prefer this style over the much heavier, straight-sided bowls that are traditionally used during the colder months. If you’re looking for a bowl to use year-around, this open style is perfect for everyday use—it’s even large enough to double as a rice or soup bowl, something that anyone with a small living space will appreciate.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/12/8/tuesday-tea-handcrafted-matcha-bowl-matchadna

I can’t figure out how to upload a full picture of the thing. Sorry.

Whisking matcha is labor intensive. I personally don’t enjoy it, especially first thing in the morning. Saw this and thought it was worth a shot.

When it arrived I thought, man that’s tiny. The housing is silver plastic. I know they were going for a metal look but honestly it looks cheap. I think some cool colors would look much more appealing. The batteries (2 AA) are not included. That is the bad stuff. Now on to the good.

I bought it from Amazon for less than $8. It came with a five dollar off coupon for the next Matcha DNA order (if that interests you). Installing batteries is easy. You can kind of feather the on off button to work the speed. It is not a speed control but I still found I could make it behave like one. Once up to speed, the button locks in place. It’s deceptively powerful. Make sure the wand is fully submerged and the cup is not over full before switching this on.

So how well does it work? Excellent. I could not achieve the level of foam this generates with my little kitchen whisk. Maybe with time and skill a bamboo whisk works as well (can’t imagine much better) but bamboo is more expensive and clean up sounds like work. I have found that by pulling the wand up towards the surface, I can make a cold milk latte half foam – even with cheaper matcha.

I have no idea how long this will last but I am very pleased with it so far.

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.

Amazon is an amusing place to look for matcha. It just is. The emphasis in the descriptions is usually on the amazing cure all powers of said tea. This one mostly walks the line without jumping into over hype mode. Well except for the “Never Irradiated – Not From Japan – Swiss EU and NOP Certified” sigh.

I used this today in a cold milk and Splenda frap. I noted before I liked this hot. I find I still like it, and more so cold. It has a nice fresh flavor with what struck my taste buds as kind of a leaf and melon note. I ended up adding two packets of Splenda to 12oz of milk to take it into Starbucks territory. It was not bitter or gritty. At about $2.47/oz this would be a nice everyday kind of powdered tea for frap use. I rated three teas higher (out of 12). One was three times as expensive. The other two (both from Red Leaf Tea) were less than half the price. Even so I found this to be pretty good for how I used it.