865 Tasting Notes
As I was drinking my half bowl something dawned on me. I think one of the reasons I love matcha so much is because it smells (and tastes, so I assume) like fresh mown grass and I have many happy memories sitting on my grandpa’s lap as a little kid as he mowed the grass. Say it w/ me… Awww!=D
Preparation
I love twist lattes so I decided to make a variation of one out of this tonite by adding 1TB vanilla creamer. Served w/ a pock stick of course:) The chocolate and vanilla compliment each other perfect and I’m even noticing the nutmeg more. I’m finding my pocky stick bitter though…
Preparation
Weird… the bag says 1TB/5oz water and the website says 6. Oh well. I’ll go w/ 5oz.
The raw leaf smells very earthy and complex, although not fecal like cooked pu erh. Aroma is almost that of a hojicha or gen mai cha which kinda scares me… The liquore is a pretty reddish.
While there are some similarities between this and the toastyness of hojicha and gen mai cha, it isn’t as strong and is smoother and sweeter. The toastyness isn’t my cuppa, but for those that enjoy it shui xian is a great oolong to try.
Preparation
I love 52teas’ Mandarin Matcha so much I decided to try to make my own. I have a bag of Tazo’s orange blossom so I steeped it for 3 min (8oz water) in boiling water then added it to my chawan w/ a scoop of matcha and whisked. Yum! The orange is much stronger than my Mandarin matcha, but I much prefer the mouth feel of the Mandarin.
Preparation
As everyone knows, I love flavored matchas and after trying 52teas’ Mandarin Matcha, I’m on a constant search to find preflavored matchas. Now, I know you’re saying “But this isn’t a flavored matcha…” Yes, I know it isn’t- technically. But it is a matcha blend so it’s close.
Their website says this is a 2g bag (how nice that they list that info!), but when I measured it I found it to be 2.33g- quite a nice size for a bagged tea… but then again the tea I had this afternoon was weaker than weak for 3.33g.
Ew… Nasty… Not liking the liquor… it’s a murky (because of the matcha) greeny, browny, yellowy, gray color… But the smell definitely makes up for it. The sweet citrusy of the lemongrass blends wonderfully w/ the freshness of the mint and the complexity and depth of the matcha.
I was a little leary of this particular combo because, while I’ve flavored my matcha w/ both spearmint and lemon verbena separately, I’m just not crazy about the lemon/mint combo just like I don’t like either in my chai. As soon as I sip it, I forget about my reservations. The flavor profile is exactly that of the nose profile and the matcha gives this tea a wonderful, rich, thick, complex mouth feel. I wish they had this in loose leaf, but this is definitely a bagged tea I’ll keep on hand.
Preparation
Normally when I want a thicker matcha, I whisk 1 scoop w/ 3oz water, but today I decided to double the matcha. I was afraid it would get chunky and gritty, but thank God it didn’t! It was thick, creamy, sweet, vegetal, and wonderful as always.
Preparation
Another man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Zeitfliesst doesn’t care for this so he passed it on to me. I love both carameled and sour apples so I’m on an endless quest for teas flavored as such. The trick; however, is that I don’t care for black based flavored teas and they are more common than green or white based flavored teas. I definitely realize that everyone’s taste in tea is different, but there are a few (like Ricky’s cocomint/nail polish comparison LOL) that I just can’t fathom or understand… someone not liking this is another. Oh well, maybe I’ll understand by the end of my cuppa.
As soon as I opened the tin I can smell both the caramel and the apple… infact mom said she could smell it steeping from the other end of our house. Because of the flavorings I decided to measure this by volume (1 heaping tsp) instead of weight. Infact, it smells so good I decide to skip the steeping all together and just grab a spoon… lol! Kidding. It’s tempting, but I decide to steep it anyway. I didn’t have any steeping suggestions, so I just used the general “here, this is a green tea” suggestion. I’m further questioning what could possibly be wrong w/ this tea…
The liquor is kinda cloudy due to the flavorings and the aroma is almost as strong as the raw leaf.
Craaappp… So this is what he was talking about! Have you ever been so excited to try a tea that when it failed to meet your expectations you were almost brought to tears? This is one of them. This tea is bitter. But, and this is a 1st for me, it’s bitter and weak. Weird. Don’t get me wrong, the flavor ratio of green tea/apple/caramel is pretty decent, but it’s just very weak across the board. And bitter. I feel bad giving this tea such a low rating because, except for a little bitterness, the flavor that is there isn’t bad… there’s just not much there to be bad… Now what to make to cheer myself up?
Preparation
I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t like it either :(
It’s so weird because the reviews at Teaviews all seemed quite positive, although they did mention the weak flavor as well. Oh well, at least I have someone agreeing with me.
But I didn’t want to agree w/ you! Ok, I’ll stop whining now lol:)
Aww, it’s always so upsetting to look forward to a tea and then have it turn out to not meet your expectations. This one really did sound good; I also love caramel and apples. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience!
Don’t you wish smell=taste
this seems one of those, OMG THIS IS AWFUL-here try some events….now i kinda want to try it LOL
@AmazonV – I was thinking the same thing, lol
AmazonV, except for some (slight) bitterness it is not awful. It’s just… well… I can’t say what it is, it isn’t.
disappointing?
Very. As I said in my post, it isn’t a bad tea. I’ve had bad tea.
Nice review I really hope to try this soon.
Awww! I am chorusing in …. : )