865 Tasting Notes
UGH. Still sick… You’d think w/ all this matcha I’ve been drinking I’d have enough antioxidents in me to not only never get sick, but to live to be 120 lol! Anyway, plain unflavored matcha. Thank God the texture didn’t mess w/ my stomach.
Preparation
5th infusion 1tsp/6oz water. UGH. I’ve had a cough way back in my throat since last night so I wanted something w/ a thinner texture before my morning bowla matcha. I’m taking my aunt to SBUX today and I have a feeling that’s gonna bite me in the butt. Oh well, I’m going to our local tea shop after. Crisp and clean. Yum!
Preparation
Wow! I’m the 1st one to log this! It wasn’t even in the data base. Really didn’t feel like making tea, but I know that drinking tea would make me feel better. Other than Adagio’s flavored senchas, Den’s Tea is all the experience I have w/ Japanese greens so I went thru my sample bag to find something I haven’t opened yet. Although I should really finish the 2 bags I have open so I don’t accidentally spill them and waste them.
Anyway… On to my mecha… (which sounds weird lol). I WAS all set to use one of those open bags until I saw this. I’ve never even heard of mecha before. So I rip open the bag and notice a lot of VERY tiny leaves, but they’re chopped and not rolled like gunpowder. I take a wiff of the raw leaves and INSTANTLY do not regret opening something new. It smells like my best friend matcha! I pour 1tsp of leaves into my 6oz of heated water and notice it looks like a bigger version of matcha! If the matcha wasn’t ground as fine and you poured it into my ingenuiTEA, this is what it would look like. Mecha only calls for a 45sec steep. I’m thinking that the Japanese are even less patient than I am in waiting for their tea.;) The liquor that this short steep produces is a beautiful yellowish one and the aroma is very similar to matcha. When sip this, I’m in love. It tastes more like matcha than it smells. Infact, the only real difference between this and matcha is that it has a slightly thinner texture and I didn’t drink this from my matcha bowl. And I totally would have given it a 100 if I had. If you’re wanting to try matcha, but you can’t afford a matcha set or the matcha itself. Try this! Or better yet, If you do have a matcha (or any bowl for that matter), use that instead of a cup.
Preparation
Isn’t Japanese tea great? I got Apple Sencha instead. Seems “Mecha is green tea derived from a collection of leaf buds and tips of the early crops. Mecha is harvested in spring and made as rolled leaf teas that are graded somewhere between Gyokuro and Sencha in quality.” Gyokuro! (Highest Japanese grade tea) I have yet to try some of that. It’s on my shopping list.
I have apple sencha too, thanks to Lena. I like preparing it w/ premium sencha parameters. Ever since I got my matcha I’ve been sad I have to limit myself to half a bowl per day due to the cost/caffeine/and tannins. I was so annoyingly happy when I tried this. Gonna make infusion 2 now- IN MY BOWL! hehe. I was looking at their teaware and saw a cute shincha pot… Now gotta find out exactly what shincha is… haven’t heard of that either.
=D Wikipedia became my guide to Japanese Green tea.
Gotcha. So it’s a sencha pot by another name basicially. The names are similar so I thought that might be the case… but I know not to assume much about tea.;)
2nd infusion, 1 min. crap. This may be the end of this serving of Mecha. I poured the heated water into my ingenuiTEA and immediately the filter floats up to the top. GRRR! I just pray it doesn’t turn into a big mess… but oddly enough the water and the tea leaves stay in til I decant. And when I do, almost all of the tiny almost ground, leaves stay in my ingenuiTEA. How do I get all these TINY leaves out to put the filter back in??? I fished out a lot of them (which was kinda gross cuz they are slimy in texture), but what about the rest? sigh… But as for the taste, it’s amazing. The few leaves that did end up in my bowl give it even more of a matcha feel- literally.
You know I’m in love w/ a tea when I fish out tiny bits of slimy leaf that feels like it’s already been chewed and digested to clean it out and resteep them. And boy am I glad I did! 3rd infusion, 1min 20sec. As soon as I pour the hot water in, the liquor immediately becomes opaque like matcha or matcha dusted genmai cha. The liquor is an opaque olive/pea color and the taste is just like matcha. It just doesn’t have the mouth feel matcha does. Have I mentioned how great this would be for matcha lovers? This is especially good for wanna be matcha lovers that just can’t get over the texture.
4th infusion, 1min 40sec. Liquor is a little lighter and more translucent and the taste more of your typical steeped green and not matcha.
But… this tea isn’t related at all to matcha. Why the comparison?
Because while it doesn’t have the mouth feel matcha does, it tastes just like it.
Oh, I see.
This sounds great! I think I might add some of this onto my order from Den’s.
Still sick. Was craving a matcha latte, but I don’t want my congestion to get worse so no dairy for me. I think I’ll make chocolate matcha! Chocolate always makes people feel better. My friend gave me a tin of drinking chocolate for Christmas so I think I’ll use that.
1 scoop matcha, 8oz water, and 1tsp drinking chocolate mix. I backed way off on the chocolate mix (1/6th of a serving) and 2x as much water (it originally calls for milk) so it’s 12 times as thin as it should be, but that’s ok- I wanted to make sure the matcha came thru. A nice balance. Although I think it’d be better w/ at least some milk in it. anywhere from 1/3 water to 2/3 milk to all milk.
Preparation
GOSH THIS DAY KEEPS GETTING WORSE! You know it’s bad when I haven’t had the desire to make, drink, or log tea… this is only my 3rd cup today after my matcha. Infusions 4-6. 6-8min of infusion time respectively.
Preparation
Agreed! I’m not in the mood today either. I made myself a cup of Pu-erh Vanilla Mint and I didn’t like it. Ahh, what is going on!?!?
At least, the tea I did have, other than my matcha being weird, was really good.:)
Stop rubbing it in! I think the bacon just killed my mood for tea today.
Grrr… today is the kind of day you don’t want to be around me unless I have tea or coffee in my hand. Dealt w/ a very immature person that I used to care very much about last nite and woke up not feeling any better, emotionally or physically, than yesterday. Matcha always makes me feel better so I that’s what I went to this morning. My matcha better not talk back to me today.;) Got my new PINO kettle yesterday so used that to heat the water. The C/F conversion they gave me didn’t have every value so I’ll have to look up the complete chart online. I hate the US school system, it’s caused me to be very annoyed w/ temps that aren’t farenheight. Grrr… oh well. So I get it all set up, and read the directions. Well TRY reading them. The author of this doesn’t know English. Incomplete sentences and poor grammar. Then I couldn’t get it to work because it didn’t work quite the way I think the directions were telling me it was supposed to. I’m starting to understand why this product is discontinued… but I just can’t justify or afford paying an extra $30 for the newer model. Finally got the water heated. I thought this was gonna make preparing tea EASIER. I really didn’t have the patience to flavor it by this point. Heating all that water just for a cup is a pain. So I add the water to my matcha and whisk… and it seems weak today. Both in flavor and color. And the matcha seemed to separate from the water immediately… I just may burst into tears before the day is over… It’s a bad day when even my matcha disappoints me…
Preparation
I need something to kick this cold so in this cuppa I’m having 3 servings of this prepared Premium Sencha style w/ a couple things added.
-1.5TB (7.7g) Ginseng Green (note: If you have a fever, you’ll wanna use a white tea to help lower your fever so your amount, steeping temp, and time might vary)
-3.85g ginger root
-3.85g lemon verbena or lemongrass
-6oz water
I would have added 3.85g Organic Echinacea, but I didn’t have any.
Preparation
2nd infusion w/ lunch, 2 min. Dinner was Subway last nite. Italian BMT on flatbread w/ extra pickle, lettuce, pepper jack, light ranch, and chipotle south west dressing- toasted at the very end, I HATE when they toast it and then put cold ingredients on it, so I had mom pick up an extra one for today. Added some red peppers, a lil hummus, and babaganoush and reheated it. SO greatful for the crap load of flavor since I have a cold. Did you know the only difference between grape soda and orange soda is the aroma and the color?
3rd infusion, 2 min 40 sec.
4th infusion, 3 min.
Holy cow. Woke up w/ a HORRIBLE cold. Coughing, sore throat, sneezing, sinus congestion. Definitely gonna make my cold soother blend later. But 1st, my morning bowla matcha. Pine matcha today.
40 chopped pine needles steeped in 8oz boiling water for 25 min. Decant and reboil. Add to 1 scoop matcha and whisk. Wow… I’m shocked. The pine is VERY faint. It’s in the very back of the sip, but I don’t think I could identify it if I didn’t know it was there. Oh well. Plain matcha is nothing to complain about. It sooths my throat and lifts my spirits.
Preparation
It sounds interesting. I hope you soon feel better. My mother always said that the cure for the cold was broth soup (chicken soup for her, miso soup for me) and hot buttered rum.
I’ll change that to tea and hot buttered rum:) Stay tuned for my cold soother recipe;)
You know, I’m reading so much on Steepster about people with colds, I’m beginning to wonder of the cold virus can be spread by Internet. Pine sounds like a wonderful comfort for a cold.
My favorite white! 2.25g/6oz water. I’ve been told Adagio’s steeping times for whites are WAY over board so I tried 3 min. WOW… how can this seem stronger than when I steep it for 7? Maybe I just haven’t had it in a while.
Preparation
It’s because a long steeping time kills some of the initial flavor. It least it works for me like that.
If you have the time some day, it’s worth a try tasting a tea you like every thirty seconds of steeping until it gets really really bad to get a feel for what you like.
infusions 2-3, 2 for my mom and 3 for me. 4 & 5 min respectively.
Hah! The people at Starbucks must hate you!
They better not. They say they can customize your drink 87,000 ways so they have no right to. I’ve actually had very little trouble. Most of the time I just get a laugh and a “OK, what was that again?”. I either state my order very slowly at least twice or have it prewritten on a card and just hand it to them. And they always say it back.
Wow, that’s impressive! I can’t even get the sizes right when I go into Starbucks! I always end up pointing and saying, “Oh yeah, can you add…?”
@Peggie, I do that too if I don’t have it at least thought out in my head. So writing it down helps me even more than it helps me:)