What’s going on with Red Leaf Tea?
I have written them twice and gotten no response. I placed an order for their new flavored matcha samplers. When I received it, I ripped open an old favorite: Strawberry Matcha. It was disgusting! It didn’t taste like strawberry at all, not even a little. And the matcha base was bitter and gross. I don’t know what I got and I wrote them twice asking for the matcha base quality and the flavoring level. I have waited over a month and gotten no response. I also noticed their entire site went down for over a day. It came back up but I don’t know why it went down in the first place. What is up with them? Does anyone have any insider knowledge? Are they going out of business or does their customer service just suck now?
They have sent out samples for their blind matcha taste test reviews in the last few months but I haven’t seen much else. At one point they had a promotion that you paid what you want for matcha. I was really hoping they would report back with a summary of how that went as I was very curious, but nothing so far.
I haven’t ordered from them in years but I always found the strawberry to be very chemical tasting. Like bathwater with too many bubbles. Yuck. :(
ps – If you can find the thread about their matcha taste testing you can see who it was they contacted frequently. I am trying to remember the name of the person that set it up. Amanda Soggy Enderman, maybe?
I’ve always had problems emailing with them. They were having problems with not receiving emails from certain people at one point. Maybe try sending a Steepster message or tag them on social media (not sure if they’re on there, tbh).
I have had serious difficulty with email correspondence with Red Leaf Tea, and at some point the owner thought his emails were going to my spam filter and that’s why I wasn’t getting them. I never saw them go into the junk or deleted box in my email, so that wasn’t the case, but adding his email address to my safe sender list seemed to fix the email problem somehow.
The email address is [email protected]
Would definitely help if the email address was listed on the website because I’m not sure if the email form on the website works.
I use Outlook.com for email. Dunno if that helps.
Can’t speak towards the issues with contacting Robert, but I made a fairly substantial order not all that long ago and didn’t notice any difference with the quality of base used. I got about five different teas all at distinctive level flavouring with the basic grade of base and then the ‘Choose your own flavour’ sampler as well (though I didn’t pick strawberry as a flavour).
I’m about 90% sure the sampler uses basic grade matcha and either delicate or distinctive level of flavouring. What level of flavouring do you normally order for your Strawberry Matcha? Typically the higher the flavour level the worse/more chemical and artificial RLT’s fruit flavours taste. That’s definitely a well documented issue.
I usually get robust flavoring with the basic base. It didn’t taste chemically to me; it just tasted bitter and not good. I’ve had the strawberry matcha in robust flavoring before and found it delightful so that’s why I was confused and disappointed with the sampler.
Can I ask how you prepared it? I’m wondering if the water you used might have been too hot, contributing to a bitter flavour which might not have been masked by the added flavour if the sampler only uses delicate/distinctive level flavouring compared to the robust you’re used to. Damn that’s a run on sentence if ever I saw one.
I always prepare matcha with 175 degree water in my Nespresso Aeroccino. I’ve made it this way before many times and enjoyed it. So I don’t think the water temperature contributed to the bitterness. I think it’s one of the following: my tastes have changed, I got a bad batch, or it’s bad flavoring overall.
Unfortunately I’ve had terrible luck with all of Red Leaf’s fruity flavors, all of which have been purchased in the past few months. I wonder if they’ve changed something about them lately, because many have such good reviews here.
I am not what you’d call a matcha veteran, but I’ve tried a pretty good handful now, including every one of RLT’s unflavored matchas plus a few of their flavored ones. It seems from my experience storing them and from what I have read and heard from other sources about matcha that matcha is one of the hardest teas to process, store, and keep fresh. I imagine there can be a great deal of difference between harvests because of how delicate the process is. I wonder if it has to do with old stock that needs to be refreshed, or with new harvests simply not living up to older ones? Some of the teas from RLT I liked quite a bit the first time I tried them have been worse and some substantially better, and it’s been about a year’s time between, so I’ve tried them from what should be different batches, since one was samples from a friend last year and this time samples directly from RLT for their matcha taste test just a few weeks ago. It’s tricky to say what’s going on with the flavor differences. I almost have to wonder if part of it is my tastes evolving as well.
Very insightful, Lion. I agree part of it could be my tastes changing. I’m not sure how Red Leaf processes or stores their tea. I get the feeling it’s freshly flavored but I could be wrong. As far as the leaf freshness, their matcha has always been bright, vibrant green when I’ve received it. So I believe it to be fresh and/or stored well. I know they heat seal the packages to make them air tight. I’m not sure if they also pump in nitrogen for added shelf life. Some companies do that. I’ve only recently run into noticing differences between tea harvests from year to year (although not with Red Leaf in particular). That’s a new discovery for me along my tea journey. I guess matcha wouldn’t be any different in this regard. There could be a lot of things going on here to contribute to the unexpected flavor. I guess I’ll never know why, but I do know to stay away from this particular flavoring again.
CHAroma, did you ever receive a response? I’ve been trying without luck as well.
I did. Robert ended up calling me. Turns out they were having issues with their e-mails either not sending or ending up in your Spam folder. Try e-mailing them directly at [email protected] and using the contact form on their website. Good luck!
Thanks! I tried the contact form a couple times with no response. Just tried the direct e-mail, hopefully I’ll hear back.
Hi,
I’m checking some older posts here and noticed your. I hope I got back to you already but if I did not please email me again at [email protected]. We have been having problems with emails and some other system issues. I will make a main post soon, but we are moving to a newer software with new domain: www.MatchaOutlet.com. It’s almost finished, trying to move products now and add some finishing touches. My apologies for the delay. The new website will also have my phone number listed on main page for faster service :-)
I had one of their matchas recently and thought it was meant to press into a bath bomb… not sure if it was actually something I should have ingested
I have one of their cheapest unflavored matchas virtually every morning and I find it delicious, (if a bit chalky towards the end, but it is only 1.25/oz)…
I can’t speak to the flavored stuff but their cheap-o Deluxe matcha from China blows away many of the pricer Japanese matchas I’ve tried. It almost makes me suspicious that it’s so inexpensive.
That’s the one I’m speaking of -. I love it enough to start my day with it every day. I think it may be that a quality considered ‘good’ in Japanese matcha is intense umami and brothy flavoring. I’m not the biggest fan of that, and I would argue that Deluxe matcha is on the opposite end of the spectrum, the floral and sweet side. I just wish it were a bit finer and it would be my perfect treat.
The deluxe is quite floral and it’s ediable. The apricot I had made me swish the first bottle of wine I could open in my mouth. We learn from pain and I learned quite well.
I hear that the ‘creamier’ flavors tend to come off better, for what it’s worth. Also, I think most flavored matchas are intended to be enjoyed as doctored up lattes, so that may be skewing perceptions of them as well.
The Deluxe is amazing. Their unflavored matcha (and Chinese powdered options) in general are great, the problem is with some of their flavoring. As I mentioned in one of LP’s tasting notes, numerous teas I’ve tried from them have been the absolute worst teas I’ve ever had. Undrinkablely vile.
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