Matcha Cinnamon Apple

I’m usually great at eyeballing tea leaf or matcha measurements when making myself a tea, so when I went to make myself this matcha today in freshly washed mug I figured that was what I would do. Why spend the time hunting in the office for a good matcha spoon when my eyes are almost just as good, right? Except, the second I went to pour out a small amount of matcha from the sample but it just dumped out waaayyyyy too much. Like, more than a tablespoon worth of this unsweetened matcha in a 12 oz mug…

And because the mug was newly washed it essentially all got wet and then was no back peddling on the amount of matcha I was using. Now, y’all know me pretty well. I am basically incapable of throwing out tea, so I buckled down for what I knew was going to be an INTENSE cup of matcha. I was not wrong. This basically became koicha.

Honestly, for as brutally strong as it was the taste of the matcha itself wasn’t bad. It’s a nice, smooth and creamy matcha base that Adagio is using. However, cinnamon apple!? Not a chance – I didn’t even get a hint of either of those flavours, which was certainly a little disappointing.

Home – 9:30 AM

Ugh, Monday. Always creeping up on me when I’m minding my own business, binging Netflix on the couch with my knitting and drinking copious amounts of tea… ;)

Anyway, matcha milk of the morning! Prepared with 1 teaspoon of matcha to 8 ounces of soy milk and slightly sweetened.

The flavoring on these Adagio matcha blends is far subtler than I expected. In fact, for the chocolate version I couldn’t taste it at all. For this blend, I can taste it slightly, but I don’t understand why they were so restrained with it. Anyway, otherwise the matcha is grassy with a touch of marine. Like the other Adagio flavors, it’s more bitter than it needs to be. There’s just a hint of cinnamon apple flavor.

I guess I should try these prepared traditionally, to see if I can taste the flavoring more that way. I’m not sure I’ll be able to drink them that way, though, because if there’s still some bitterness when prepared with milk, I’m sure it will be much more prominent with water.

I’ll have to give that a try though, for science.

This tea has me wondering if I simply don’t like matcha, or if I’m just terrible at making it.

I bought the whisk from Adagio and everything. Though I might be using it too gently. I need a mentor, apparently. Anyway, I’ve been using water that hovers around 170-175F and about a teaspoon’s worth of powder for a small cup, around 8 oz. I followed the directions about letting a few drops fall in, making a paste with the whisk, then adding the rest.

On my first attempt, I tried to drink it straight. It had come out a very deep and heavy shade of green, and there was almost zero froth. It was very, very bitter. Like someone had blended Apple Jacks and seaweed. I hardly made it through the cup.

On my second attempt, I made it latte-style but with 1% milk because that’s all I had. I can see how this would be good as an actual latte. Sure, it still has nutty and seaweedy notes that are a tad odd with cinnamon-apple, it’s a huge improvement from the first time. And with the milk, it’s a very beautiful shade of green. Still, it’s just not really something I’d crave.