Jade Monk

Drank cold. I wish matcha was more affordable!

Not so much instant matcha as it is sweet orange flavored green stuff. I liked it, but it was a kool-aid nostalgia thing for me. It was waaaay sweet and light on the matcha. Cool packaging though!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/05/17/product-review-cranberry-blood-orange-instant-matcha-green-tea-mix-jade-monk/

Imagine, if you would, a scale of 1 to 10 – one being ‘tastes like Tang’, ten being ‘tastes like tea’. This ranked about a 3.

The package promised energy… Lots of it. I’m still waiting for the energy, but it hasn’t been that long since I drank it. It has a natural peach taste that has an artificial edge or tang to it. Weird. The match part didn’t seem that impressive, but it did t have much of a chance to shine out from under the overwhelming peach. It was way too sweet and has that gross stevia taste hidden in there. It didn’t mix very well in the hot water I used. Even after I stirred it a bunch of it settled down to the bottom and made for an intense and difficult last couple of sips. I like the packaging tho. It has an interesting dragon on the package which drew me it, but it’s not going to be anything I seek out again.

I’m glad I gave these another try! I picked up the $1 sample today just in case I liked this one more. I still think that I wish these tasted more like matcha. The flavoring in this one does not have the same strange aftertaste that the peach one had. I still think it might be the chicory. The lime is very tasty and I thought that I would like to kick back with a cuppa this on a hot day! The mix blends very well, even with very cold water. For what it is, it’s pretty tasty!

They had small trial pouches of these for sale at my fresh market and I thought I’d give this a whirl! I was surprised that the first ingredient was sugar. There were also no instructions, so I simply mixed it with cool water. The peach itself is very tasty and aromatic. I was surprised how juicy it was! But this does not taste much like matcha and that’s a real shame. The chicory is weird and keeps reminding me that there are additives to the mix. I’m very iffy about this one for now.

So I found the Jade Monk teas at Earth Fare and I was intrigued. The equivalent of 7 cups of green tea, and mixes with cold water. So I saved this one for coming home from a gig after doing two weekend gigs and dragging at church on Sunday. No better time to try it. This reminds of drinking a fireball candy. It’s really sweet. The stevia and fructose make it a bit to sweet for my liking. I did however notice feeling a little more awake during service. I think I would rather stay with straight up matcha. This is just ok more reviews to come. I’m digging the new look and feel of steepster.

This is the last of my Jade Monk. I love how it’s unique and completely different from anything I have ever tried as far as a Matcha Novelty Product is concerned.

I also love the art work on each package!

I used cooler water…near lukewarm and I agree with Liberteas this makes everything work better than trying it piping hot! I do like the flavors in this one! I can taste the blood orange AND the Cranberry and both are lovely. It’s hard to find Blood Orange flavored things that actually taste like Blood Oranges but this is right up there with the goodies! The Cranberry is pretty awesome, too! It sort of has a cotton candy type feeling about it but it all seems to work well!

Thumbs up on this one!

So far this is my favorite of Jade Monk’s so far! I have one more to try in the near future but this is my favorite flavor because of the lime and stevia ratios working so well with each other here!

This has a nice popping lime flavor with super sweet stevia flavor but because of the puckery-lime and peppy-stevia they work swimmingly together! Then there is a bit of ‘blossom’ aroma in there, too, which is quite pleasant.

There are interesting, contrasting features to this matcha product…it’s eye-opening and a nice energy-booster yet somewhat calming.

The aftertaste is much like lime-aid…I really like it!

While I do agree with my SororiTea Sister that these offerings from Jade Monk are different than I was initially expecting … I have come to actually enjoy these drink mixes. I just needed to get beyond the point that they really aren’t tea for someone who loves tea like those of us here on steepster – these are Matcha powder drinks for someone who wants the health benefits and energizing power of Matcha without actually tasting much of the matcha.

So, once I got past that, I was able to find these drinks to be very enjoyable. They aren’t like any Matcha that I typically keep stocked in my tea cupboard, but they aren’t supposed to be. They are energizing though, and I like that.

This particular offering from Jade Monk, this Chai Spice, it is a sweeter chai. The spices are cinnamon, clove and cardamom, and I think that this blend could have benefited with a contrast note of peppery ginger. These three spices together (cinnamon, clove, cardamom), along with the stevia and cane juice powder offer a sweet taste that is enjoyable and exotic.

I like it alright. It isn’t my favorite as far as chai goes, and it isn’t my favorite as far as matcha goes. But, as far as energy drinks go, I’d say it’s good.

I was feeling a little adventurous as well as feeling very much in need of liquid refreshment when I prepared this, so I added some ice cubes and a little bit of freshly drawn, filtered water to my blender as well as the contents of this packet to my blender, and kept blending until I could hear no more rattling of ice cube particles. I have a slush like beverage now, and I’m really enjoying it.

Super cold and quite tasty, I think that this might be my favorite of the Jade Monk offerings that I’ve tried thus far. The lime has a nice tart yet sweet taste, and it offsets the flavor of the stevia enough so that I didn’t even notice it in the first few sips. I notice it now that I’m about halfway through, but even now, it’s not bad at all. Sweet with a slight stevia taste. Mostly though, I taste lime.

Nice, and when made into a slush like this, very very refreshing too.

With this flavor from Jade Monk, I decided rather preparing it like a Matcha (with hot water, whisking it in my chawan), I chose to mix it with cold water and stir vigorously. This Matcha drink is MUCH BETTER using this cold water method rather than attempting to prepare it like traditional Matcha. Even with the stevia, the stevia tastes less bitter and leaves less of a funky aftertaste. I still taste the stevia, but, it doesn’t taste as “off” as it did when I prepared the peach matcha from Jade Monk with the hot water.

Still, I’d rather there be no stevia in this at all. But, stevia is a better alternative sweetener over aspartame which I cannot drink… So, I guess … for what this is, it’s pretty good.

The more I drink of this, the more I enjoy it. It is sweet and the cranberry and blood orange are a nice combination of sweet with just enough tart to keep it from tasting too sweet. Overall, it’s pleasant, I don’t taste a lot of the Matcha … but I can feel it’s energizing effects.

MATCHA-THON #9 MATCHA
There is no way I will have time to make it to #10 – DRAT!
I gotta jet!

BUT! YES!!! It HIT me! Woot! FINALLY!!! MATCHA-THON!

Which is great because I have to keep on keepin’ on until late this evening…part two of my ‘job’ – busiest time of the year. The BEST part of this Matcha Choice is THIS Matcha says it’s like drinking SEVEN cups of Green Tea! Woooot!!!!

This smells like REAL Peach…sweet and juicy Pennsylvania Peaches, perhaps???

This has the same ingredient list as the other Jade Monk Mix I tried the other day…after closer examination…all of their flavors do…but…this DOES taste a lot different than the Chai! I wasn’t too hot on their chai, if you remember. This one…I think the Stevia and Cane works MUCH better with this flavor vs that chai.

In away this tastes a little like Sour Patch Kids or like candies…I remember a vegan gummy-oh that was peach…that’s what this reminds me of!

Yeah…I like the Stevia and sweetener MUCH better in this one. Azzrian tempted me with Peach earlier and I had to cave and try this. Glad I did. I agree with Liberteas that it’s not a straight matcha but a noveltea matcha or like a power drink with sweetener.

Depending on how tomorrow goes I might have to do round TWO of MATCHA-THON!
LOL

FUN!

This is WAY different than I expected. When I saw Chai Spice I was thinking…SPICY. Well, First and Foremost I can taste the Stevia. I can also taste the Evaporated Cane Juice. I’m kind of surprised they used BOTH of these sweeteners. It is VERY sweet. VERY.

I can taste a little chicory and maybe a little bit of something like OJ…perhaps the Citric Acid…not sure.

The SPICE is more in the end-sip and sort of lingers on to the after taste but I, personally, would have given it a different name than Chai Spice. It’s not overly spicy but it sure it INTENSELY Sweet.

It’s interesting and creative and I am glad I got to try it but it’s far from being a CHAI SPICE type offering I would go for. They could have probably toned down the amount of Stevia and it would have been better – in my honest opinion.

This is a bit different than I was expecting. It is definitely PEACH, which I was expecting, and there is definitely green tea. But this reminds me more of a green tea power drink than a typical matcha. It isn’t quite as creamy as a matcha, and it doesn’t froth up like matcha.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not tasty. It is sweet and deliciously peachy! I do wish that there was no stevia in this, but I am glad that the cane juice manages to curb the taste of the stevia somewhat. I don’t really like the funky taste of stevia, but other than that, I am enjoying this.

It tastes a bit more like a sports drink or punch than it does matcha … more like a green tea made for people who typically don’t like green tea but still want the benefits of green tea, if you know what I mean. That doesn’t make it bad, it just makes it a bit different. Not your typical Matcha… for the other three flavors of this that I have, though, I think that I will use cold water instead of hot, because I think it’s better chilled.