Mizuba Tea Co

When I ran out of plain matcha, I decided to restock this one; I decided there was no sense in someone like me, who doesn’t really jive with the taste of “straight” matcha and always makes it as a latte or puts it in a smoothie, to splurge on fancy “ceremonial” matchas over culinary ones. As I don’t trust a lot of the ones readily available on the American market, I did make sure to use a vendor citing their source, and this one comes from a tea farm in Uji, Japan (just leaves further down the stem than ones used in higher-graded matchas).

I did sample a very small bit in plain water (not my preferred way of ever drinking matcha!) and it was very umami; a dark green color with a thick seaweedy/bitter vegetal taste. But that wasn’t how I was going to drink it. I woke today with an intense craving of marshmallows, and had a crazy idea.

I infused two cups of oat milk with Lucky Charms cereal in the fridge this morning (an idea I think I picked up from Roswell doing that with Cinnamon Toast Crunch). After straining a few hours later, the cereal had soaked up a bit of the milk, leaving me with a cup and a half. I brewed half a cup of 175F water and wisked 1 tsp of the Culinary Matcha in it. Then I warmed and frothed the cup and a half of Lucky Charms oat milk, and combined them. From the strained cereal, I took some of the soggy marshmallows and dumped them on the top of the cup to melt into the hot drink before dumping the rest of the cereal. Aaaaaaaaaand…

I’m drinking frothy, sugary-sweet, caffeinated Lucky Charms. And I am happy about it. Every now and then, I get an underlying pop of sweet grassiness. While this isn’t a matcha I could drink plain, I can’t really say that about any straight matcha, and it works great for my purposes (lattes, smoothies, baking, etc.) Always mixes in well and froths up smoothly.

(As a St. Patties’ Day baby, I’ll have to remember this for my birthday! Such a green cuppa, with those Lucky Charms, it is very out of place for this holiday season but would be very appropo then!)

I got some Banana Almond Milk recently to try and I decided to make a matcha latte with it using the Vitamix. (my preferred lazy method for creamy matcha lattes)
It was good but the matcha definitely took over with the banana milk just providing some sweetness and creaminess. I’m gonna have to play around with it to see if I can get a stronger banana flavor by using less matcha or more water next time.

Who knew I could be my own bartender for making matcha tea! It is the best MATCHa for my matcha teas to just add 1/2 Tsp. and water, then shake like a bartender would making a drink and go! Quick,easy, and it stay super cold, or hot, for HOURS!!! It’s great.

The Daily Matcha from Mizuba Tea Co. has found its place in my life, and I am not mad about it! It has literally been the best, and EASIEST “daily” routine I have added into my lifestyle. I just add matcha powder and water into my Mizuba Klean Kanteen (which they also sell), close the lid tight, and then I shake and go. It’s so quick and easy and the taste falls nothing short to how amazingly and quickly I can make and drink my Daily Matcha. It is mellow, smooth, buttery and sweet, altogether, just like it says :)

Now that it is getting warmer I have been feeling the almost inescapable draw of having tea outside. Sure it is really easy to take a mug out with me, or grandpa style, or even Matcha, but with my current tools it is a pain to gongfu outdoors, which is what I really want to do. My next tea purchase has to be a thermos so I can take hot water outside with me. This train of thought actually led me to today’s blog…I wanted to do it yesterday but it was storming or raining almost all day, and I am sure while the photos would have been hilarious they probably would have been awful! I am sad I don’t get to have the alliteration of Matcha Monday though.

The Lazy Literatus of Steep Stories fame (if you are not reading his blog, go do it, you are seriously missing out) recently send me some tea goodies, one of which was Mizuba Tea Co’s Daily Matcha, promised as the good stuff! If you are a long time fan of this blog you will probably know I have had a LOT of Matcha, and a good portion of it was most definitely not the good stuff, so it is safe to say I frequently crave the good stuff and tend to get the bleh stuff. Usually I have found Matcha labeled as Daily is barely about culinary grade, stuff made for people who want to make a latte or smoothie, but not this stuff, this is Matcha for people who want to sit down and whisk themselves up a bowl everyday without making themselves poor in the process, keep the really high end ceremonial stuff for special occasions. The aroma of the powdered leaves is yummy, notes of sweet butter, almost tropical fruit (it comes of as a combo of vanilla, papaya, and bananas to me) and of course green cut grass, chlorophyll heavy algae, and moss. Ok specifically I am thinking of a moss ball from my fish tank, a marimo which is actually algae but never smells like it, they smell more green and less like lake. And yes I have stuck my nose in a marimo, I was curious! This is a sweet Matcha, one that smells less like a lawnmower and more like growing things and fruit.

Whisking this tea up while sitting outside was awesome, definitely need to do more of that before the chiggers really start ruining all my fun. The aroma wafting out of the foamy storm I am whisking up is lovely, very fresh and green, like broken leaves, grass, hay, and of course buttery sweet tropical fruit. Once the tea is whisked the sweetness is diminished some, taken over by the green, but it is still strong.

The taste is lovely, nature is reflected in my bowl of Matcha, I can taste the green growing things, the slightly mineral algae notes and slightly bitter broken vegetation notes upon first sip. This then moves to gently growing sweetness of papaya and vanilla with an astoundingly buttery mouthfeel. I think this might be the smoothest Matcha I have had. It can take a bit of warmth too, using slightly hotter than usual water will bring out stronger vegetal notes and touches of fresh sea air, however it does not ramp up the bitterness like happens with a lot of Japanese greens exposed to hot water. If you want an everyday Matcha that can actually be drunk in a chawan and is delicious then I seriously recommend this one. I really want to try some of their other Matcha now, especially their Kichoen since it is suitable for Koicha and the description looks drool worthy!

For blog and photos (oooh I am using natural lighting for once!) http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/05/mizuba-tea-co-daily-matcha-tea-review.html