Maeda-en

Delicious in a foamy green tea latte on a hot day. Before the chill and rain struck DC, I wanted two of these per day. Matcha + milk + honey + ice and whew! Delicious, creamy, green, healthy, refreshing.

Found this at the local Asian Market. I have a different (far less expensive) brand coming in the mail, so it will be interesting to see if the quality is there. I have no complaints about this tin from maecha-en. The expected flavor and strength were there, even though I did a poor man’s brew – just a vigorous stir in the mug with a fork. Adding coconut sugar, almond milk, and ice was also tasty. I can’t wait to try this properly blended, in smoothies, in baked goods… yum.

I have been using this matcha for years mainly to make my mom’s favorite green tea ice cream & a delicious green tea pound cake. I have never drank it it straight b/c i don’t currently own a proper matcha brewing kit & I’m not sure how to brew it other wise w/out proper tools. It also makes for great lattes with vanilla soy milk so you don’t have to add any extra sweeter. I decided to leave this with a score of an 80 due to me not having this tea plain.

Happy Earth Day!

Yay, back home from an exciting day of eating dim sum and going to the Asian market! I just recently got a Japanese cookbook and needed to stock up on dried noodles, miso, sauces, etc. This was my only tea purchase from the Asian market, which let me tell you, is impressive. They basically had an entire aisle of tea in various mysterious packets and I wanted to check them all out, but I didn’t want to subject the boyfriend to that when he was already being sweet enough to go shopping with me. I just happened to see this package in passing, and since I love kukicha I decided to give it a try. It was only about $7 for the 150g packet, after all. The stems have that familiar straight and stick-like appearance with a mix of rich green and lighter cream colors. Dry scent is a touch grassy but really sweet.

I would say this tea is definitely worth the price! The beginning of the sip has more of an umami presence that I normally find in kukicha and almost tastes like sencha. However, the middle and end have that unmistakable sweet flavor that just says “kukicha” to me. It’s also very smooth with no astringency or bitterness whatsoever. Definitely worth the price at just over $1 per ounce! I’ll have to make another trip to the Asian market sometime soon just to check out all of their teas.

Backlog:

I like this one a lot. I’ve tried a couple other of the MatchaBooster products from Maeda-en and I think this one might be my favorite, I like that roasty-toasty flavor. I like that this product stays incorporated until I finish the bottle. I don’t have to keep shaking it. I do shake it occasionally because I like the little bit of foamy, light, frothy texture that it produces at the top of the bottle when I do shake it, but I never saw that it needed it.

I really like this with just water. I pour a level teaspoon into my favorite 16.9 ounce water bottle and shake vigorously and it’s great like that. It’s also really, really good mixed with coconut water.

Very rejuvenating! Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/11/09/product-review-genmai-matchabooster-from-maeda-en/

Backlog:

This is similar to the Unsweetened MatchaBooster that I reviewed a week or so ago, except that this is sweetened. You require more powder for the same amount of water of this product because of the sugar that’s in this. And really, I’d rather it not be sweetened, I prefer the unsweetened.

The sweetness is a little jarring, as I said in my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/11/01/product-review-sweetened-matchabooster-from-maeda-en/

I think it’s a little too sweet. What I did with subsequent uses is that I’d use one tablespoon of this powder and 1/2 teaspoon of the unsweetened powder in my 16.9 ounce water bottle and this made for a much more pleasant experience – it was still sweet but certainly not as sweet, and actually quite enjoyable.

And even with the sugar in this, it doesn’t completely mask the flavor of the Matcha, I am able to taste the buttery notes of the Matcha, light vegetal tones and hints of cacao.

This particular product would be perfect for a Frappe type of recipe – where you want a sweetened product but for on the go, I think you might be better off with the unsweetened.

Backlog:

This stuff is great! It’s a really economical way to enjoy Matcha (to go!) every day. It’s a very versatile product. You can add it to juice, coconut water, smoothies, or anything that you want to “boost” with Matcha.

When I first tried it, I went simply and added a teaspoon of the powder to my 16.9 ounce water bottle and gave it a shake. It mixes completely with no lumps and no sediment and makes a perfectly tasty “tea to go” without any sweetener.

I’ve since added it to a bottle of pomegranate juice (Yum) but when adding it to juice, if you want to taste a stronger impact of Matcha, add maybe an extra half a teaspoon. When I added a 1/2 a teaspoon to 8 ounces of juice, the juice overpowered the matcha a little. A little more Matcha and it is better.

Here’s my full-length article: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/10/24/product-review-unsweetened-matchabooster-from-maeda-en/

TTTTB 5/7
I cold brewed this in the past and liked it but saved some to try hot.
I ruined my last cup, I can tell I need to change my water filter. I meant to use my gallon of spring water but I forgot.

Genmai-Cha Brown Rice Tea is what I would call a “savory” tea. There’s a strong flavor in between toast and cooked rice with a vague hint of nuttiness. I believe it would pair nicely with any savory food or substitute for a vegetable broth.

If you’re into sweeter teas, this probably won’t be your cup of tea. For me, this may be a new staple.

bargain basement sencha that fully deserves its price. Awful cutting & rolling. Gross, twiggy smell. Very forgiving to brew, but always the same crude, dry, woody flavor. I’d really consider this more of a kukicha.

Every summer we always have a lot of cold barley tea for the family. This is our favourite. Served ice cold it is refreshing and also inexpensive!

I enjoy a cup or three of this a day. I brew it to be sweet and slightly grassy. 3 steeps (1min, instant, 1 min) in a covered porcelain mug with a large porcelain strainer, which allows the leaves and water to circulate freely.

I thought I reviewed this tea but couldn’t find my tea tasting note. I had to try it after having Tealux’s Tenkaichi Sencha. This one is a good sencha. Very grassy, smooth. I have to agree with the reviews here. It’s a good economical everyday sencha. The one from Tealux is a better sencha with it’s nutty buttery notes but this one is still a good cup.

Sipdown no. 59 for the year 2014. A teabag from the work stash. (Gyokuro in a teabag? Whoa.)

There are two other entries for Maeda-en Gyokuro teabags in the Steepster database, but one is for “premium” and one is for “supreme.” Mine was simply called “Green Tea Tea Bag” so I created a new entry for it.

I attempted to get my water from the spigot at work down to something approaching 140 degrees by letting it sit after dispensing for five minutes.

The teabag smells terrific, sort of like buttery spinach, and after steeping it smells even more like that. The liquor is a very light chartreuse color. The tea’s aroma is very subtle chlorophylly smell.

The tea has a very light flavor, not as deep and vegetable-like as the few other gyokuros I’ve tasted, but still mellow and not bitter. It has a touch of butter, but not a lot, but it’s also not grassy. It has a nice umami aspect, that is present but not thick. I suppose it does suggest seaweed, though as I mostly eat seaweed in connection with sushi, I don’t usually focus on the taste. To me, it’s suggestive of spinach.

I have to wonder whether there would have been more to this under better steeping conditions. It was pleasant, but lacked the fullness of the other gyokuro’s I have tried.

Sipdown no. 46 for the year 2014, with a caveat. This is the only teabag I have of this. It’s from my work stash. But I may have some Maeda-en Sencha in loose form at home.

This is a solid sencha. It’s everything I have come to expect from sencha plus a little more. The flavor isn’t bitter, except for a bit of grassiness that seems to be a characteristic of sencha. On the contrary, I find it to have a bit of sweetness. There is some roastiness as others have said, but to my tastebuds it’s only enough to make the suggestion and not nearly as prevalent as in the genmaicha or the houijicha. It gives this a unique character. I find it quite tasty.

Sipdown no. 40 for the year 2014. A sample teabag from the work stash. Again guessing at temperature. Split the baby on time between the suggested 30 seconds to 1 minute and steeped for 45 seconds.

I don’t think I’ve ever had houji-cha before (and now because of the thing… you know, the phobia…) it might be a long time before I have it again unless I have some other samples tucked away somewhere.

Which is a shame because this is delicious. The aroma after steeping is wonderfully roasty, almost like an oolong but not as strong and with clear whiffs of green tea vegetalness. There’s a sweet toastiness to the flavor, too, but without reminding me of popcorn like genmaicha does. I don’t get any bitterness, just a bit of grass in the finish that lets me know this is a Japanese green tea despite what my senses might be telling me.

This toastiness is more like what you get from roast vegetables. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it caramel, I can see where that thought originates. It’s the same sort of roasted sweetness you get from carmelized vegetables, like onions.

Really enjoyable.