Matcha Matsu (Organic)

haha sounds like a productive use of your time. I still suck at the froth part of whisking matcha.

DId you end up making a Red Leaf order? I’m almost finished my Caramel, but if you still want to try it, I can always leave some. :)

Did you sift? Your water is too hot as well. I usually prepare mine around 70 C.

OK! I have the sifting, temperature, and whisking mostly down now, but I’m still working on the water to powder ratio. I think this is becoming one of my favourite beverages despite my sad attempts!

I ended up placing an order at Red Leaf and picked up “5+2 free” with 50% off (I couldn’t resist). I think I chose a few that are off the beaten track but I felt like this was a good time to order things I wouldn’t otherwise. I’m still up for sharing teas though, Incendiare; I’ve too much tea to possibly finish before it goes stale.

Ha! Well, I’m happy that you made an order. And I know what you mean. I have so much to finish and can’t justify getting more (says the person who just made her first Verdant order earlier tonight, ugh) yet I still want to try more.

I keep telling myself I won’t order anymore tea online and then Verdant releases something new or gives me a deal. I’m not doing very will with my goals.

I’m the same way. I wont say out loud that I wont order anymore, just in case there’s a really good deal! lol

oh dear, that doesn’t sound like fun :/
Hope your feeling better

I love the teavana set! The whisk is amazing, and be sure to check out matchasource for a whole bunch of recipes (anything from lattes, smoothies, and even matcha cupcakes with matcha buttercream frosting) all of which are too delicious to be believed!

I’m getting more and more curious which DT you visit, since it sounds like they don’t make many of their drinks well in-house. And that is a sad sad thing!

Indigo, I felt much, much better after I ate XD. I was warned about an energy boost, and I knew drinking it on an empty stomach was a bad idea, I just didn’t have a lot of options.

tea – I hope it gets here soon, but I won’t be ordering from Teavana ever again. But I am crazy excited for matcha smoothies…I’m a smoothie slut XD.

Tina – Well, I’m picky as heck about how I like my tea, and it seems to be an issue with Davids everywhere that their made-in-store teas are subpar. But hey, I still love them! And there are some teas that just cannot be messed up, so I tend to stick to those. I’d rather work around the corner from a Davids (Sherway Gardens, by the way. Love the employees there!) and occasionally deal with a bad brew than a Tim’s where the tea is just plain awful XD.

Oh God, yeah Tim Hortons needs to just stop selling it, or at least stop ruining the name of tea.

If you’re ever in the area, pop into the Brampton DT. I’ve found that they make it better than any of the GTA locations I’ve been in. (Although they’re sold out of matcha right now, which makes me sad!)

My mother in law drives me up the wall. “Want tea?” “Oooh, yes!” “Okay!” pulls into a Tim’s. “….” booooo. Not tea. Rocket fuel.

My job does have an office in Brampton, so I may find myself in the area, who knows! If I do, I will definitely stop in!

I had a great tea latte at the Scarborough David’s Tea on Monday.

Okay, there are enough of us local people on this thread I’m tempted to ask if people want to do a meetup!

a meet up would be fun!! count me in :)

I wish I lived closer. We were in Pickering to babysit my neice and nephew for the weekend. I almost made it to the First Canadian Place store on the Friday night too. But we had to go back to the car to get a doll to take to the Raptors game.
But if you do a meet up let me know just in case we are visiting that weekend.

I added 1/2 a teaspoon to my smoothie and got the most intense “buzz” from it and I ate it with a solid meal! I totally feel ya on that weird feeling I think I will add less to my smoothie next time and slowly ease myself into more.

I totally understand the tin thing. I really like to have my teas in their own tins all tucked away in the cupboard immediately.

I’m actually usually ok with the baggies, but for this one, since it’s so powdery, I just hate it being in a bag and poofing all over the place :D

Hehe, poofing reminds me of when I tried to make vanilla sugar. I found a recipe that said just put sugar and vanilla bean into a coffee grinder. So I grind away and then I lift the lid to inhale sugar power. Great experiment. I’ll never do it that way again….

Hahahahahaha, bet your lungs appreciated that one!

You should add sweetener most of the matcha lattes made in stores use some kind of sweetener

I’m looking forward to the rematch! : )

Oh, this is not over, that’s sure…There will be delicious matcha in this house…eventually!

Calling for a rematch…a?

:)

I put agave nectar in mine :)

You might want to try less matcha? I don’t ever use more than about half a teaspoon per 8 oz…and I sweeten mine to hell and back XD

Thanks Bigelow for the tip…I rarely add sugar to anything but I will for sure use less matcha next time, maybe a second attempt during week end? to be followed…

I love this tealog, it reminds me of my first encounter with matcha

Canadianadia, you’ve also encountered matcha misfortune? Lol, had almost forgot about this post, it’s been a while! Matcha is just not a good fit for me I’m afraid…have you had any success with it?

Pure matcha is usually pretty grassy. The only one I’ve tried without strong grassy notes is the KaiMatcha, which is more buttery.

Maybe try tossing some in a smoothie? It’s less intense that way but you can still taste the matcha, so it might help you get used to the flavour.

I tried the matcha at David’s. Couldn’t stomach it. KaiMatcha is amazing, and the flavoured ones from Red Leaf to :)

@Alphakitty and Indigobloom – Buttery is more my thing. I’ll have to give KaiMatcha a try. I’ll have to check out Red Leaf also…once I drink down some of the tea I already have of course ;)

@softrevolution – That’s a good idea. I’ll have to save what I have left for when the smoothie weather returns.

I drink my matcha as a latte, pretty much exclusively. Most of the matcha I have is lower quality though. (1 tsp per 12-16oz almond milk, plus sugar to taste)

I hear you Canadianadia, I feel exactly the same as you do… for some reason, Matcha is the ONLY tea I don’t care for. Wanted to love it for so long but just gave up! My supply of it is strictly used for smoothies. But I enjoy so many other types of greens that it doesn’t seem to matter much :-)

I’m happy you finally tried matcha and enjoyed it! It is a pretty strong tea if you are not careful. My husband will only drink it as a latte or in smoothies so I can understand that it takes getting used to. And even though I like the good stuff prepped the traditional way, I also really like them in soy lattes. :O Now you can get those tasty flavors on Red Leaf!

I love matcha smoothies!

I’ll have to try this sometime…….sounds really good. I love Matcha plain too. :))

your recipe sounds great! gotta try it..

I was a bit worried about ordering so much from Red Leaf but it actually works out really well. I usually only drink it at work. I work 4 days per week. It takes me anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks to go through one small package depending on if I use 1/2 or 1tsp of matcha – it depends on the flavour for how much I use. I just keep the rest in the freezer until I open a package. So if you drink it often, you go through it fairly quickly.

If you like coconut I promise that you’ll LOVE the coconut matcha from red leaf. It is droolworthy! :)

Lala- It’s good to know that someone actually CAN get through those packages . :-)

Stephanie- And yes, do like coconut!

I do have some coconut “matchaccino”. If you would like to try it before you buy it maybe we could do a swap someday :)

I would love to swap. Gotta update my cupboard, but take a look and if there’s anything you like, you can tell me. I’m also in NYC, so I have easy in-store access to Harney & Sons, Kusmi, Davidstea, and a bunch of others and I wouldn’t mind buying in store to send off trade samples.

Cool!! It might be a while till I actually have time to go to the post office…the next two weeks are going to be INSANE for me. I will definitely save some coconut matchaccino for you though and let you know when I am free enough for a post office trip. You can check my cupboard too and see if you want me to save anything else for ya. PM me with a list! :)

I use roughly FOUR times that much matcha haha

Hahaha!!! I know I made it very weak. Just easing my way into it. Will try it stronger and stronger until I find my limit. :)

My only experience up to this point was with plain green tea powder, bought at the bulk herb store. Not knowing how to prepare it, I measured it like it was dry leaf…pfeughhh! I can still taste the nasty thick spinachy mess on my tongue!

Glad you like it!

Glad you like it…Oh, I’ve had baaad sessions with it!! I came to the conclusion that Matcha isn’t for me. (Not a fan of lattes, but I ended up using it in my morning smoothies)