Red Leaf Tea

Today’s latte. The amaretto flavour is accurate and quite strong – it has a bit of throat hit to it. The matcha definitely takes a back seat to the amaretto. Quite delicious.

I ordered this with Distinctive flavour strength, though I think if I were to order it again I would go with less flavouring, to get a better amaretto matcha balance.

This is not on the website anymore, so I am assuming RLT no longer carries it, so no blog post, just a random rambling while I sip it. The aroma is nice and toasty, like roasted buckwheat, grains, and sesame seeds. More of a nutty roasted tea than a sweet roasted tea, which I am ok with, because it is a roasted tea and it has to be terrible before I dislike sniffing it. There is also a faint underlying floral tone to it as well.

The wet leaves and liquid have more of a sweet toasted aroma, still very grainy. The first steep is pretty mild, I actually taste the salmon I just finished eating more so than the tea. But after many swallows to wash the fish out of my mouth I can taste slightly sweet grain and a touch of flowery. Pretty mild, but also pleasant.

Second steep is more grainy and roasted, it is an ok tea, not the best ever, but could be a good everyday roasted tea.

I have never thought of flavored matcha before I got this as a taste test sample from Red Leaf tea. I have had their loose leaf before and have been interested in their matcha since.

I love the combination of rich, sweet caramel flavor blending with the greeness and vegetal flavor of the matcha. I made two bowls of this the good olé fashioned way, with two chasen scoops blended with my bamboo whisk in my Chawan. MMM!

I have read the rave reviews of this tea iced, so I think I will make it that way next time!

Backlog:

For anyone who is familiar with my ‘favorite’ type of teas, you are aware that I love jasmine. I absolutely adore it. So long as it’s done right … unfortunately, this one wasn’t done right. Just no.

It’s way too floral and tastes perfume-y. It tastes like it was flavored with jasmine oil, not scented with jasmine blossoms.

The green tea – beneath the strong floral notes – is a soft, buttery, silky tea and I think it would be great if it hadn’t been done so wrong with the jasmine.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/11/28/jasmine-supreme-green-tea-from-red-leaf-tea/

Tried it again using a full tablespoon. Ugh, it was even worst. It was so bitter, and not in a good matcha kind of way. I don’t understand how most of the review are so positive. Never again.

This smells amazing, but the taste leaves little to be desired.

I used 1 teaspoon to 2 oz of water, then added steamed milk to make a latte. This had no flavor whatsoever.

This was a free sample I got from the company and the packet I received actually said to use 1/2 a teaspoon. When I looked on their website later, it calls for 1 Tablespoon.

Maybe I’ll try again using a full tablespoon to see if that makes a difference.

Thank you again Sil for sharing some Red Leaf with me a while back.

I saved my last serving of this for a day like today, because out of all the flavours I was able to try, this was the one that felt like a cup of hugs and smiles. A liquid teddy bear of sorts.

I tossed some fresh goat’s milk (that I got from a friend yesterday) in the microwave to warm up, put a light froth to it with my electic frothing wand, added the matcha and a pinch of brown sugar, and frothed til it was green and foamy. It’s sweet and very much irish creamy, the goat’s milk has just enough tang to cut the thickness that teeny bit so it doesn’t simply coat my tongue, but not so tangy that it overpowers the sweet creaminess either.

So thank you again Sil for the cup of comfort on a really uncomfortable day. <3

I’ve been seeing so many awesome reviews for Red Leaf flavoured matchas, so I was very excited to get this sample in the mail. It unfortunately did no fare very well in the postal system, and so rather than being contained to the sample packet, the matcha had exploded and coated everything in the envelope. I managed to salvage a good amount of it, but probably only enough for one large cup.

It smells and tastes delicious – very intensely caramel. I did this up as a hot latte – matcha, sugar, milk and some hot water, all into the blender for a few seconds. Everything is a soft, frothy, yellow green that reminds me of spring.

Caramel is the dominant flavour, but there’s definitely matcha notes in there too, toning it down and giving it complexity. I get a hit of the bitter, grassy aspect of matcha in the back of my throat towards the end of the sip. All in all well balanced.

I love how strong this smells – I really feel like I’m sitting in a confectionery, with hot butter and sugar being cooked into candy. The fragrance fills the room.

This is dangerously easy to drink. Love it. Need to try all the flavours! :P

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-matcha.html

Advent Calendar day 19

I did this one gongfu. Very nice. Roasty and flavorful.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s available anymore, or I’d probably have ordered it.

http://instagram.com/p/wy8IwHAyWy/

I thought this was a white tea due to its appearance and had it sitting with my white tea samples. According to the vendor’s site, it’s a green tea. I don’t know the story behind this tea and why the needles appear to have been crimped. Is it part of the processing? Does this occur naturally? Is it dragon magic? I can’t be sure.

The infusion this tea created is very pale, almost colorless, with the slightest yellow. I’m still not convinced this isn’t a white tea. Okay… the smell and taste have convinced me. It has the sort of nutty and grassy smell of a chinese green tea. Taking a sip, it’s a really mellow and nutty kind of green flavor, with hints of green bean or sweet peas. It’s sweet and non-offensive, really easy to drink. I found myself drinking it very quickly because of this. It has a really smooth and juicy mouthfeel and a lingering taste. The flavor’s a little light.

Still almost colorless on a second infusion, there’s a lot less flavor this time. I’m tasting a hint of metallic flavor that I think is just a quality of the water I’m using when heated. There’s hardly anything there to taste at this point, so I’ll end my review here.

I don’t know what to think about this tea overall. The flavor was really nice, but nothing terribly unique. There’s a hint of a peach taste lingering in my mouth and the feeling after drinking this tea is very clean and fresh. It’s a really delicate and easy to enjoy tea, but so delicate that it seemed really lacking in flavor by the second infusion. I guess I’m a little underwhelmed since the appearance was so interesting! I had hoped the flavor would be as unique. Still, it wasn’t a bad tea.

Amazing. Oh is that tasty. It doesn’t need it but next time I’m going to try it with my amaretto honey. Used almond milk. 8oz milk and 1/2 tsbp matcha. This is my favorite thus far.

This is an expected combination Earl Grey. The Puerh adds a depth of smoky mushroom element to the body and tail notes. I was surprised to find that this combination really goes well together. There was not a point where the two strong flavors were fighting each other. Too bad this tea has been discontinued, even if I would not have bought this tea again, it was nice to know that offbeat blends like this existed.

I am not particularly wowed by this tea. There was a lot more raspberry than I had anticipated. There is a distinct presence of flavorings added to this tea that may have turned me off to it. I know, I know, it is supposed to be and “infused” tea, but it becomes almost artificial in it’s quality. The one time that I over brewed the tea, I got a Grape Fanta flavor. After that I am careful to watch the steeping time, cause I don’t want to taste that again. Alone it is good without sweetener, for it is naturally sweet. When I am in the mood for a fruity light tea, this is what I go for. An interesting concept, but I don’t think I would buy it again. Red Leaf Teas are better for flavored matcha anyway.

This shouldn’t be this good… I didn’t expect it to be this good preparing it the traditional way matcha is prepared in a chawan with hwhisk (say it, HWHISK! haha), two chashaku scoops of matcha and about 2.5 ounces of water.

The caramel flavor is rich and thick, it blends well with the really rich and vegetal matcha. The color looks like greenish mud. The sweet caramel flavor lingers on your tongue long after you’ve finished drinking it. I imagine this stuff is more intended to be used in lattes or the kitchen, but I quite enjoyed it this way. There are some tiny whitish rectangular pieces in the matcha that were left in the sifter, though some made it through. I don’t know what these are. At first I thought they were pieces of stem but there were no coarse pieces in the drink after mixing, so I must assume they were sugar crystals or some other solidified form of flavoring that dissolves in the tea.

While this matcha is definitely not my thing, I can’t help but give it a high rating. It isn’t something I’ll purchase, but I do enjoy the sample I have quite a bit. I would say this might be a good matcha to use if trying to get into preparing matcha with a whisk but you don’t like the taste of matcha much. It could be a good gateway, if it weren’t for the fact that it simply doesn’t hold a froth. The bubbles dissipate very quickly and the foam is very thin and unstable. Ah well. The flavor is what counts with this one, I imagine.

I may have to bring this one back home from work and try it where I can control the temperature more accurately more maybe cold brew it or just properly make it to ice. I LOVE passionfruit so I was really disappointed with how much I hated this.

I had it hot at work, I don’t think it was the base that was really the problem, it was the passionfruit flavor. It just tasted odd to me, I don’t know if it was a combination of the tea and the flavor or that it just tasted really fake.

After a few sips I completely gave up on it as a hot tea, so I left it and poured it over ice at lunch. Even then, I still couldn’t get myself to finish it. Having it cold made it a bit better but it was still very offputting.

Then I come here and see people who I think have similar tastes to mine liked it quite a bit, so I really want to give it a second try before I probably swap it. That’s another thing I’m trying to do, rather than just sell stuff, switch it out for things I might like better since I’m trying to drink tea a lot more than I have been.

I really wish in the morning I could just have tea in a mug but unfortunately they have us in this classroom that I mentioned prior, I use a travel mug since I don’t want to spill all over my laptop or someone else’s as we are so close together! And we will have class like this for another YEAR! I guess there is always just using it in the afternoon but then again I already have both the travel mug AND a cold tumbler for water so I don’t want to add a third thing when I can just keep using the travel mug.

I really hate making tea at work too. They have one of these Flavia machines and it basically only fits shorter cups. So I always have to waste a waxy paper cup to get water in the first place. But they’re such flimsy cups, the water is so hot it burns. Before I was bringing in the travel mug, I would have to double cup to not hurt myself! And I came from a job where it was normally to me to be pouring 190-200 degree water and coffee before even putting a sleeve around it.

So it almost might be better to use a mug because maybe then it would fit under that dumb machine.

Another decent tea from Red Leaf Tea! Their massive selection of flavored matcha is probably the only way to go with this company, but they do make an effort to sell some pretty good whole leaf as well. I wasn’t blown away by the flavor of this tea, but it is a really good tea to have at any meal. It’s bold for a green tea, with big grassy notes and strong tannins after a few brews through my gaiwan. Great for people who dislike delicate flavors, or want to wash down some white rice.

Sipdown! Thanks again to Sil, the super fantastical Sil, for passing some of this down to me! After an entire year, I finally took a deep breath and stopped hoarding this. Nothing like a wonderfully creamy matcha latte on St. Patrick’s Day.

I added some organic sugar and 2% milk to this and it seriously tasted and smelled like an almond cookie. Almond biscotti maybe? I’m going to have to try adding some actual Amaretto to my French Vanilla matcha to see how it would compare, but seriously, this is amazing and totally worth getting even if you already have matcha and Amaretto.

Crazy day. My mom is going to go through yet another round of surgery, so I’ve been frantically running errands, packing, and cleaning the apartment (especially for the inspections that are going to occur whilst I’m gone, ugh) before catching my flight this weekend. Here I am, deciding what I should take and what I should leave behind. I know I know, I’d take it all but there isn’t enough room in my luggage! Hell, I even have to leave my winter boots behind. And I’m going to freaking Alberta. Not a good idea.

I’ve been rationing this like no one’s business. Why? Because this was by far my favourite of the matchas that the gloriously wonderful Sil sent our way to the West Coast. I think this was distinctive level flavouring? Either way, it was one of the more mildly flavoured options and yet it is tremendously flavourful. Pure amaretto. OMG. I’ve been stretching out my sample so I could get four cups out of my share, and I have two to go. I should just suck it up and drink it so I can order more. But but but, I need to finish a bunch of my French Vanilla first. First thing’s first.

Simply put, it’s the most intensely realistic and accurate representation of an amaretto + matcha lovechild. It’s about as close as dumping actual amaretto into your matcha latte, except you don’t get that alcoholic bite.

Thank you, Sil, for Mount Matcha! Onwards with listening to old-school Metallica and cleaning/packing. I randomly got Welcome Home (Sanitarium) in my head whilst I was cleaning last night and now I can’t stop playing these old albums, especially the above mentioned song. Sleep my friend and you will see that dream is my reality.

I got this tea in a swap from Ost. She sent me a huge amount of it, I guess she didn’t like it much. Well, more for me! I’m not really a wine person, but I do like some sparkling wines (the sweet ones). The tea itself is mostly leaves with some silvery buds mixed in along with some thin red flower petals. It smells like candy! Very sweet and slightly tart raspberry with a definite effervescent quality. There’s white grape juice in there as well. I followed the instructions on Red Leaf’s website and did a 4 minute steep at (about) 180 degrees.

The brewed aroma is very similar to the dry but a bit milder. Woo, this tea! The first thing I notice about it is the effervescent champagne quality it has. Very bubbly! The raspberry flavor is still very candy-like in my opinion, but that’s okay. I’m definitely getting that white grape juice flavor that I smelled before. I added sugar to mine, as the tea wasn’t as sweet as I expected plain.

I can see this being fantastic and refreshing iced! Must try that later! :D Thanks Ost!

When I first started seeing fluorescent-green matcha drinks on the internet, I was admittedly quite skeptical. Green tea in general had always ranked lower than my prized Earl Grey, and the sugar-laden matcha latte I tried at starbucks left me perplexed more than anything else.
But the more I read about the health benefits and energy boost matcha could provide, the more I wanted to give it a chance.
Enter Red Leaf Tea.
After seeing all the flavors offered and the fantastic reviews on this very site, I decided to order the much-lauded caramel matcha in the “special blend”.
Order specs:
Size : 30g
Matcha Quality: Classic (Basic Grade)
Matcha Type: Organic
Flavor: Distinctive

Immediately when I opened the packet, the aroma of caramel poured out. I might have stood there sniffing my tea for a good minute, it was so deliciously scented. A promising start.
In a very non-traditional way, I prepared my matcha in my bullet blender, before adding ice to fight the summer heat. The tea foamed nicely, not too much, and the bubbles resided a bit with the addition of ice. And of course, the signature green color!
At the first sip, I was in heaven. How could it be so sweet without any sweetener added? The rich and buttery caramel flavor was like a dessert, and the faint vegetal undertones of the matcha were surprisingly well suited to the caramel flavor. Even my roommate, who is most definitely not a fan of tea, wanted to give it a try, and confessed that she enjoyed it quite a bit!
I will absolutely be buying more. Rather soon, I fear, for that 30g packet, while it has lasted for many cups, is going far faster than I’d anticipated.
I highly recommend this tea!
To buy it for yourself, order here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-matcha.html#.U9iwc4BdXCU