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I’m sad to see this tea finished, but it was a delightful cup on a cold autumn morning.

As another reviewer mentioned, this is phenomenal with a touch of vanilla or hazelnut creamer. I like Silk’s soy creamer and it has a lot of flavour but in a way that compliments the coffee bean, toasty, and chocolate notes.

This is a strawberry and vanilla rooibos with a nice red rooibos base. It benefits from a splash of milk to bring out the vanilla notes. It is also great cold. The strawberry is very natural and somewhat subtle.

Brewed in 250 mL hot water + 50 mL soy milk. This is very smooth and has a light maple flavour. It benefits from adding more milk to make it creamier and some maple syrup as sweetener.

In my desperation for finding a replacement for the Starbucks blossoming rose rooibos latte, I bought a gigantic 16 oz bag (that’s 455 g!) of this on amazon.

Pros
-cheap because it is in bulk
-ground rooibos is difficult to find

Cons
-more gritty than Starbucks or Red Leaf/Matcha Outlet rooibos matcha
-doesn’t really dissolve very well
-larger bits tend to accumulate at the bottom of the cup

So for the price, this can’t be beat. However it is definitely not as fine or powdery as any other rooibos matcha I have come across. Even mixed into milk you can feel all of the gritty texture.

You can buy a variety pack from Pristine leaf on Amazon.ca (and probably the USA version also). My matchas just arrived the other day and I’ve been desperate for some flavoured matchas.

The matcha itself is grassy, vegetal, and bitter. It has that protein powder thickness to it. I really don’t taste much peach (subtle in the aftertaste but not present in the smell or initial taste). The matcha seems thin. This is also made from a Chinese green tea, so obviously it isn’t going to be high grade traditional Japanese matcha. Since I just brew mine in soy/oat milk (or half water and half milk) I don’t care about what grade my flavoured matchas are.

This is the best matcha available at Just Matcha. This little store just opened in downtown Victoria, BC.

Platinum was expensive, at $1.50 per gram ($60 per 40g tin). It was definitely the best straight matcha I’ve ever had, however there was still a touch of bitterness in the after taste. In comparison to the gold grade matcha, the platinum is creamier/thicker, and less bitter. The main tasting note is the green soy bean/edamame flavour. Touches of vegetal and seaweed notes in both the taste and the smell of the brew. No grassy notes. Less drying than the gold and also much smoother.

I went to a new matcha shop last week to try some high level matcha and this was one of two I tried.

As it turns out, there is a huge difference between matcha gold ($1.13 per gram) and matcha platinum ($1.50 per gram). I’m glad I tried both. I am also glad I didn’t try the bronze and silver.

The matcha gold was surprisingly bitter (less so than cheap culinary grade matcha, but definitely not what I hoped for). I was under the impression that high quality matcha was not bitter. As someone quite sensitive to bitterness, I can say this may not be as bitter to other people as another person in my group had the gold one and she loves a bit of bitterness/astringency in her tea.

Lots of umami, very strong resemblance to edamame/soybean. It is a very dark/rich green with vegetal and seaweed smell to the prepared brew. No grassy flavour. The mouthfeel was interesting. The tea was definitely lubricating, but also the bitterness made my mouth feel dry.