Strawberry Matcha

This is the other Red Leaf matcha that my friend brought over today for sampling and “matcha lessons.” First I made a fruit smoothie with organic blueberries, bananas, and strawberries, raw cane sugar, and Greek yogurt. I put all that in the blender and then sifted this on top of it. I added crushed ice on that, and turned the blender on until everything was smooth and creamy. It was so good!

Next I made a matcha latte with it. It was the usual method….sift matcha into tall glass, add cold water, whoosh, add honey, whoosh, add milk and crushed ice. Wow! The strawberry was strong! It was good, very good, but you seriously could get the distinctive flavor level instead for this one and not be disappointed.

We watched a movie and split an Otis Spunkmeyer muffin and I slurped on the last bit of water from the ice melting from my last latte. It was still sweetly strawberry flavored, which gave me an additional idea. With our muffin, we had “matcha water.” I got a sport water bottle, sifted some matcha into it, added a tiny bit of water, and shook it like mad. Then I added water almost to the top and crushed ice.

We poured it off into two glasses and drank it with our muffins. There is no sugar added but it is still an enjoyable drink. (We were just discussing how I feel so bad when I add a tablespoon of honey to a large latte and think nothing of downing a Coke, which has more than twice that amount of sugar! If you don’t see it going in, I guess you don’t think about it.) I like this for days when I am working in the yard and it is hot outside, or for a workout drink.

Bottom line, strawberry matcha was going on my order, too, until my friend told me that one of matcha they ordered is for my birthday, which is coming up soon! Squeeee!

My grandma bought me a magic bullet for christmas so I could make matcha smoothies :) I made a strawberry one today with some milk and ice. Gosh it was sooo good. It kinda reminded me of that strawberry sugar syrup you put in milk as a kid. This matcha is one of my favorites its such a delicious strawberry. To me its not a real strawberry taste but its not to fake that I don’t like it. It more of a candy strawberry which is just fine and yummy for me.

Backlogging! I had this yesterday morning with breakfast. And… mixed with white chocolate matcha. I used mostly strawberry with just a touch of the white chocolate and it was awesome! Creamy, fruity, and just a touch of chocolate.

Matcha where have you been all my life! I mentioned in another review of Red Leaf Tea’s Matcha tea that my discovery of tea is a very new adventure for me and that after reading rave reviews on Steepster about Red Leaf’s eclectic selection of flavors, I gave it a try. I wonder now how I got along without it. I got my daughter hooked and recently had my son try it. He immediately ordered some for himself. After tasting it, it is not a question of “do I want to order some”, it is more like “how much and what flavors should I order”! Trust when you look at all the flavors they have to offer, it is extremely hard to decide!
My second order came last week and I could smell the wonderful matcha before I opened the box! First up for testing was the Strawberry flavored matcha which you can find here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/strawberry-matcha.html
Sweet and naturally tasting Strawberry flavor. In an effort to lead a healthier lifestyle, I find Matcha tea to be so versatile. I added a teaspoon of Matcha, a half a cup of plain greek yogurt & a few fresh strawberries, a little almond milk & ice in a blender and I had a delicious healthy smoothie!

Mmmm strawberries. I cannot begin to tell you how much of my life has been spent picking strawberries. As a child, I hated it, but now I remember it fondly…isn’t it weird how that happens? So good…strawberry shortcake is the most delicious thing in this world. Especially made with fresh, sun ripened strawberries. As long as I can remember, my mom has had a row or two of strawberries in her yard. When we lived in Michigan and we had room to garden (and soil that was more than just clay), we had tons of strawberries. Tons! But then we moved to Tennessee, and the soil there was not as habitable, but she still managed to squeeze some delicious berries out of that red clay. So strawberries and strawberry flavored things that actually taste like strawberries always remind me of her and of that gorgeous garden she kept in Michigan. Of course, they also remind me of the time I was about 7 and picking strawberries in the garden when I felt some grass brush over my foot. I looked down to see a snake slithering over my foot. shudders I have never screamed so loud in my life. And thus a lifelong fear of snakes was born.

So the real question here is will this matcha be a snake or a shortcake?

Shortcake. Oh my goodness, shortcake. This smelled amazing when I opened the package, like creamy, sweet strawberries. Like, well, strawberry shortcake, to be honest. Guh, I just want to dive into it. I took it to work with me and my mind was blown by it. I kept getting distracted by how good it was. I love a good tea. I’m trying to figure out which six I want to keep in stock and this is a definite front runner. I think mixing this with a little French Vanilla would be out of this world. I love berries so most of my smoothies are berry smoothies…this will be an amazing addition to that particular mix. Now, it doesn’t have that hint of tartness that fresh strawberries do, but that’s okay. I’m in love anyway. It tastes like strawberry candy, but I know Red Leaf Tea doesn’t use artificial ingredients, so I’m very excited to have this. Next time I’m craving a bag of strawberry puffs, I’m going to reach for this instead. Mmmm…maybe I’ll take some of this to work with me today too! (Found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/strawberry-matcha.html)

Get your Strawberry Matcha here, folks!
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/strawberry-matcha.html

I love my morning matcha smoothies, I feel like I’ve woken up from a wonderful sleep when I finish them. I mix 1 cup of frozen fruit, 1 cup of almond milk, 1 scoop of protein powder, and 1 tsp of matcha. Let me tell you, the Strawberry Matcha with frozen strawberries and chocolate protein powder is to DIE for!! It’s the slightest hint of fruity flavor (delicate flavoring) with the crisp cleansing taste of a high quality matcha.

I haven’t tried this hot yet, or just shaken in cold water but the cold water matcha with the strawberry is my next plan. My original matcha was English Toffee and I liked that with just cold water, so I can’t even imagine how much I will love the Strawberry cold. It’s a great drink to carry with me to meetings during the day because it is refreshing yet energizing and I know that I am doing my body a healthy service by sipping it.

I would highly recommend this to new matcha drinkers because it is a familiar flavor and easy to mix many different ways. Especially if you love a morning smoothie…this is seriously an epic and awesome addition to a fruit smoothie, I imagine it’s even better with some pineapple and banana…yum!

thank you Chuckieroy for this tea. This tea is delicious tasted just like a strawberry smoothie. Another must buy!

Oh, way too bitter for my liking. I made this as a chocolate milk latte and found that it was still very bitter.I’ll have to try it plain or in baking (scones?) next.

It’s likely that this’ll be my matcha at work this week – I got about 5 servings from my first sample pouch, so I reckon this one’ll probably be about the same. I prepared this one as a latte, no surprises there.

It’s good, but maybe not quite as good as last week’s banana matcha. It’s sweet, with a candy strawberry flavour, and just a hint of the grassy matcha coming through. It reminds me of those strawberry haribo sweets quite a bit – it has the same “I’m not really real” strawberry flavour that ultimately leaves you thinking of chemical flavouring. I’m not sure why I feel like this about it, because it isn’t particularly strong or overpowering, just a bit meh. I’m going to say it’s pleasant enough, and drinkable, but just not my favourite.

1/4 tsp, boiling water. Prepared as a latte.

Finished this one off as well. The strawberry flavor is spot on. I love strawberry tea anyway, but this really is a step above most I have tried. Yum.