Matcha Japanese Green Tea [New Version]

I love it when I wake up in the morning & I can taste things!! Finally!

For breakfast: a hearty slow cooked beef stew with carrots, parsnips, green beans, lots of onions & garlic, & locally raised grass fed beef.

For tea, I probably should be having a bold Irish Breakfast with a meal like this, but I really wanted a cup of Matcha. I love Matcha, & of the ones I’ve tried so far, this one has been the best: pure, OH SO Green, This is my favorite color & shade in the world, the essence of health & healing…I love you…thank you…I am alive!

I have cooked with matcha, I have had matcha lattes prepared for me and I have even had loose leaf tea that was mixed with matcha, but today, for the first time, I made actual wisked matcha!!!
I bought this 50% off a while ago, but only just got it since it was delivered in the US and had to find its way to me. Finally, today, I decided to open my little kit and give it a first try.

I happily measured out my matcha and near boiling water and put them in the glass bowl that was included. I loved how green the matcha becomes in the water. It turns emrald green and after long attempts to properly froth it, I ended up with a tiny bit of pastel green bubbles on the surface of an emerald green liqour. I loved the smell. It reminded me of sencha with a bouncy personality to it. It was increadibly relaxing to prepare and at the same time exciting and fun.

The taste was amazing. Sweet, smooth and creamy with a hint of vegetable and vitamine bitterness that played in just right. My Dad and brother ended up stealing my first cup of it while my boyfriend stared at the liquid as if it were going to jump up out of the bowl and bite him. No luck convincing him to try it… Oh well… That means more for me! I made a second cup (both had about 1 tsp to 8oz of water) for me to enjoy. I loved it. I decided to sweeten the last few sips to see what happened, but I definitely liked it better plain. The natural sweetness of the tea was more than enough to make it delicious. 

Sadly (or maybe thankfully?) I don’t get any effects from caffeine, and I was sorta hoping that I would feel the caffeine in the matcha. I didn’t… Just a happy glow from having great tea and a smile from a quick afternoon nap after a bit of a good book next to my boyfriend and bulldogs. 

Tea makes happy afternoons even shinier! : )  

So.

Matcha + raspberry agave + chocolate milk…

= RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE MATCHA LATTES, y’all.

I know, I know. I’m a genius. No need to thank me.

(Celebrating my first cast iron sale – I honestly do think my customer will be happy with his pot too, and I came as close to falling into his budget as I could – and being sort of caught up to the other new guy who has already sold some. Now I just need to get on the daily top 40 list a few times, and we’ll be even. Also, everyone at work is going to praise my obvious geniuosity when I tell them to try making matcha lattes with chocolate milk, so life is grand.)

I haven’t had a nice bowl of matcha in some time so I decided to have some. I still love the velvety texture and the naturally sweet flavor.

Today I HAD to try matcha in a water bottle. I’ve only drank matcha a couple of times before so I feel odd giving this a numerical rating, since I don’t think I have enough experience to know whether a matcha is good quality.
It was so easy to make in the water bottle that I was a bit shocked. I put about 1/2tsp in a 12oz bottle and shook it up, and behold, matcha! I then proceeded to sip on it through the next class and feel happily awake.
If my wallet can withstand it, I definitely want to get some of RedLeafTeas flavored matchas in the future.

I picked this one up from the Teavana Heavenly sale. I have to admit that I’m super glad I did not pay full price for this. I am pretty new to the matcha experience. Mostly I have grown fond of overly sweet concoctions given to me by Starbucks. I’ve been wanting to buy a set similar to this for a long time so I was quite excited when it went on sale.
But this stuff has two things I don’t care for very much. It’s very astringent and somewhat bitter. It leaves a flavor on the back of my palate that I, in no way, enjoy. I would much rather have grassy nuances than full on punch in the face of whatever seems to be my issue with this tea. There is some nice elements, such as the initial creamy flavor. But it is easily over-run by the back end of this. Perhaps this is just a personal issue. I’ll have to keep trying to make this one.
edit I have to admit that I do love the set though. The whisk and the chawan are really lovely. I have also re purposed the box it came in! lolol I give the presentation an A+.

I picked up a matcha set that Teavana had on 50% discount and it included a can of their Imperial Grade Matcha. I’ve had adulterated matcha in drinks and I drink a lot of matcha-iri genmaicha, but this was my first try of the straight stuff.

I used the bamboo whisk and bowl provided in the kit. The powder mixed very well but I couldn’t build much froth. I’m guessing that’s a skill built over time. The flavor was strong, grassy, clean and somewhat creamy. The powder suspended very well so there wasn’t any grit to ruin the flavor.

I’m sure I’ll discover better matcha over time but this was really quite good for an introduction.

I just got a big box from Teavana today, and the matcha gift set was part of it. Also, it turns out I ordered a lot of tea. More than I realized. Oops.

This would be my very first matcha. It is pretty good! Very green, very grassy, but not vegetal, like some green teas are. My only problem with blending it was that it turns out the bowl that comes with the set is 16 oz. I poured….16 ounces of water. Oops. So blending it was a bit messy, with all the tea sloshing over. Lesson learned, never to be repeated!

I rewhisked it after it was about halfway done. It is much darker now, and still not all the way blended. So the blending process was sort of a bust on this one. Does one have to be patient with the whisking? I may not be patient enough, and stop whisking before it is ready.

Hmm, anyway, I have a lot left, and it isn’t bad. I hope the reputed caffeine buzz kicks in soon, since I could use some energy.

So it took a few tries for me to actually make it right but I have finally, after a year of try, been able to make a near perfect cup of Matcha tea. Now that it has been made correctly, I love it. There is a very light taste in the mouth of vegetables freshly washed and the bubbles on top add a nice texture. I actually really like using this as a face mask when my face breaks out every so often, for some reason it just seems to really clear out my face.

My girlfriend is sympathetic, texting me throughout the day. By the end of my work day I’m a bit grumpy, even irritable. My back still hurt, the boots I had worn had started to dig into one of my heels, now dead tired, and the six shots of espresso I had taken throughout the day to try to keep myself propped up had just added a strange bend to my reality which seemed to make things a bit further away than they really were.

She’s trying to be supportive, but she does it with “I’m sorry your back hurts,”, “I’m sorry you’re tired,” and I know she’s trying to be sympathetic, but “I’m sorry” comes off as an apology to me and it’s a mild irritation, and in present mindset, it’s a major irritation. I have to keep myself from re-addressing this because it’s appearing as a bigger issue than it actually is. I’m driving home and she texts me and there it is again, “I’m sorry this” “I’m sorry that” and I want to text back “You talk like your apologizing that you exist with how much you say that!”

She’s trying to help, but it bugs me, and I try to disengage from any communication with her that isn’t necessary, which probably doesn’t help her out emotionally, but I know myself and with such a internal stress, I feel like it’s only a matter of time until I let it out on her, if I keep up- that is.

I’m planning on marrying her, so I disengage and she doesn’t seem to notice, or at least doesn’t complain. I sleep, and the morning- my back still hurts, my heel is now sore from the boot, but I’m conscious and feel well rested. She sends me a picture of herself while I’m in line at the BMV waiting to get new plates and wondering why I’m the only person in line at the BMV that doesn’t look like they just got done working as an extra as a Morlock in a low-budget, made-for-TV adaptation of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine. I want to be good to her, and sometimes that’s by doing nothing.

At home, I drink a bowl full of Teavana’s overpriced, but good matcha. My girlfriend had given me a matcha whisk for Christmas. I think she didn’t really know what it was for or what it was used for, but it was on my Amazon wishlist and carried a low price tag. I made matcha for her the last time she was visiting and she seemed to like it. I used her whisk and thought about her.