Mango Matcha

Sip down!

Another mango smoothie this morning to finish up the last of my matcha. I have two unopened packages of other flavours in my cupobard so i’m itching to sip down a bit more of the ones i have so that I can open them to try them and then of course, place another order to restock my cupboard with my favourites!

Really enjoyed this one while i had it.

Had a taste, and it’s still just as good!
Looking at the other reviews, I think I got really lucky with my mango flavouring – it’s not chemical tasting at all, but it’s almost gone and maybe I’ll keep it that way.

There’s so many other flavours to try!

This sample came to me courtesy of Mercuryhime who didn’t really care for it. First off, I had some this morning in a smoothie with banana, frozen mango, chia seeds and soy milk and it is so incredibly good this way! yum! I feel like I am eating a decadent mango dessert, but that doesn’t say a whole lot for the matcha since there are so many other things mixed in with it.

So then I decided to mix it in with some water the traditional way to see what would happen. The color is a brownish-green and is not that attractive. The flavor is swampy and gross – mango swampwater?! lol. This is just dandy mixed in a smoothie but quite disgusting on its own in my opinion. Oh well! I will enjoy it in my fruit!

Mangoes are my favorite fruit. Or at least, I think they are! My opinions seem to be divided, and watermelon (any melon, really) and pomegranate are close contenders. Man, you know what would be amazing? Honeydew Matcha. I could see that ripe melon taste going SO well with a grassy green base. Oh man, I am drooling at the thought. Not, uh, literally drooling, but I might if honeydew matcha was a real thing! Ummm back to the matter at hand. Mangoes! I love ’em! Especially when they reach that perfect peak of ripeness and are fall-apart juicy but still with a great texture.

Of course I had to try mango matcha. I especially got it to mix with my coconut and rose (separately!), but regular old mango has to be tried first. I got a small with green matcha and distinctive flavor—my preferred for fruity matchas. The smell in the bag seemed particularly strong/artificial, but I’ve found that’s usual for matcha and it doesn’t reflect the taste.

I have to say, this really isn’t a straight mango flavor. The mango aspect is quite interesting—it’s not juicy mango flesh, but more like… you know, when you’re cutting a mango and there’s some flesh left after you peel it so you scrape your teeth on the rind to get it all? You get mango flesh, but also some rind-y goodness as well that adds a woodsy, almost tangy taste. Well, that’s what the mango is like here! Rind-y. It’s kind of nice, quite different from other mango teas I’ve tried.

But… and sadly, there is a but. This tastes like lemon! Not a hint, a little whiff of citrus. It’s really lemony! I would guess this was Mango Lemon if I didn’t know better. Another review mentions citrus too (I didn’t read them first, just perusing to see if I was way off-base), so I guess it’s just how the mango flavoring is? Now that I know it, it won’t be such a surprise when I make it next and I think I could really get to like it. You can find it here:

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

Okay, I’m finally getting to some of my new matchas! I really have too much tea. I don’t even know what I have anymore. Samples everywhere!

anyways, this tea. In my last order, I got some matchas that I thought would be good for making smoothies. I also happen to love mangoes. The Champagne mango is the queen of all mangoes, but alas, she knows her worth. It is every so pricy to feed my mango habit. There’s nothing like a sweet creamy mango. yumm. Even my dogs love it. They sit at my feet and give me puppy dog eyes until I give them a nibble. So cute. so anyway, this mango matcha (http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/mango-matcha.html) seemed like the perfect thing for me!

The appearance of this tea is a slightly brownish green powder. As usual, there’s a little specks of white stuff in there that I’m guessing is the flavoring agent. It’s a bit clumpy but I’ve definitely seen worse.

For preparation, I added a bit of cold water to make a paste, then hot water to make the tea!

Well, sad to say, I’m a little disappointed. The smell reminds me of plastic. Like sweet peach and plastic. The taste is similar to the smell, except I’m also getting the grassy mineral flavor of the matcha. This is just so artificial and not like mango at all! I’ve loved all the other matchas from this company so I have no idea what happened here, but this flavor is not for me. At least, not as a hot tea. I think I’ll chill this and see if it gets better cold.

Later:
Okay, cold, this is a lot better. Still not good though. It tastes oddly floral and perfumey. I can still taste the matcha base, and that is as good as always but please find another mango flavoring. :( I can’t finish this. I’m sorry.

After seeing some of the glowing reviews for this matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/mango-matcha.html), I had to try it. Trying Mango Diablo from DavidsTea recently has brought back to mind my love of mangos and real mango flavor. I had forgotten it in the face of so much fake-tasting mango flavored tea and candy out there. But I used to beg my mom to let me buy a mango. There are few things better than slicing into a perfectly ripe mango. Makes a royal mess to eat it (at least, the way I did it), but it was so, so worth it. Still, I hate messy food, so if I can find that mango flavor without the mess, I am all for it! It was a bit worried about this tea after the strange bitterness of the Peach and Lemon flavors, but what’s life without a few risks? Mango makes me think of summer and tropical smoothies and everything delicious in life.

So when I opened it, it had that same smell the Peach and Lemon flavors had, a faint hint of bitterness, and I got worried. Still, never let it be said that I’m afraid to try new things. I made a cup of this to take to work with me, and thank goodness I did, it was a hellish day and I desperately needed the energy from it. But…it wasn’t that great. It tasted like decent mango flavor with a back hint of chemicals. I don’t know what it is, but I think I just need to stay away from the citrus group of flavored matchas. The Peach redeemed itself when iced, so maybe the mango will do the same. I’m hoping it does. My feelings may also be skewed a bit, I’ve been spoiled by the delicious goodness of the Mango Diablo from Davids, so my opinions on the mango flavor might have been different if I hadn’t been drinking tons of the Mango Diablo lately. That’s my new standard for mango flavor and this just doesn’t match up to it.

Still, it will be no great hardship to finish this off, especially in smoothies over the coming summer months. It’s not horrible, it’s just not for me. But maybe a lower temperature will help or finding another way to drink it. Or maybe one of my friends will try it and like it and then it will have a good home!

I’ll start off by saying that I’ve managed to have only good experiences with matcha, despite being pretty skeptical at the beginning. When I heard that Red Leaf Tea had flavoured matchas, I was so excited! I knew right away that I was going to order mango matcha- http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/mango-matcha.html – my favourite fruit (possibly my favourite food). The hard part was deciding what else I would order! I waited impatiently for my order to arrive (which it did, quite a long time ago…I have not been good at keeping up with my postings!) and as soon as they arrived I ripped open the mango pouch!

My one disappointment was that the pouch that the matcha came in was sealed at the very top, unlike the pouches that I’ve had from Davids Tea, which have about a half inch of extra pouch at the top of the seal. This sounds like a strange thing to be disappointed with, but I definitely struggled to smell the contents without getting the powder all over the place! Needless to say, I very quickly transferred the contents to a tin.

The smell of this tea is wonderful. It smells like fresh mango juice. I would describe it as a very clean and refreshing smell, which is how I feel about most matchas. I will also say that I had no issues with clumps. I have been very careful to check the temperature of my water before adding it to the tea, and so far have not had any bitter disasters. The mango matcha has a grassy sweetness that definitely keeps the mango taste. The actual flavour isn’t as strong as the smell, but I think that it would be overpowering if it was. I love this both hot and iced, which a slight edge going to the iced version. I haven’t tried it yet in a smoothie, but I am thinking it would be fantastic. I did try adding a bit to some yogurt, and it was almost perfect – this was the only time I had clumps, but I also wasn’t very patient trying to mix it all together. I’m sure it would be good with other types of foods too – I keep seeing recipes for cookies and cheesecakes and such, but for me that defeats the purpose a bit of trying to drink healthy teas. I wonder though what mango matcha ice cream would be like….I am thinking very refreshing! That might have to happen.

I’ve been using my frother to whisk my matchas for the last few months (they actually work pretty great), but I felt like I was cheating. I looked at DavidsTea and on amazon for whisks, but the price was enough for an awful lot of tea…so the frother stayed. The mango matcha is only the third kind I’ve tried, so I really don’t have much skill whisking anyway, but I am happy to say that I was able to get what looks like exactly the same whisk as at DT this weekend for only $4! I was amazed but very happy. You know what that means…more matcha is in my future!

I don’t think today is/has been a good tea day for me – I woke up just slightly nauseous and it’s only gotten worse every time I’ve drank or eaten something new today. It started with a morning latte, but more on that later…

This was what I drank over lunch today – hot, with some added in coconut agave. I accidentally made it REALLY strong because I started measuring out the tea with a matcha scoop the same way that I do for DT’s flavoured matchas and I was three scoops into measuring before I remembered that this is an unsweetened matcha and definitely doesn’t require that much matcha per cup. Oops!

As such, this was harsh on the stomach – especially so since I was already feeling queasy before hand. The mango note was also especially pine-y and really leaned very hard into the artificial and chemical note that this tea can sometimes take on. It was just a bit of a bad cup in general; a combination of bad preparation and not super awesome matcha (kind of because of age, kind of because flavouring…) made worse by feeling shitty already.

One big clusterfuck.

Thanks to Anlina for the sample, but this is definitely my least favourite of the lot. I’m finding it really bitter and chemical-tasting, and making it into a latte with milk and sugar didn’t really help. Probably 1tsp of “robust”-flavoured matcha was too much for a 12oz latte, but still. Oh well, can’t win ’em all. :)

Tasty but a little more candy or dried mango tasting than fresh, juicy mango, which is what I was hoping for.

I’ll still finish this, but I wouldn’t rebuy this flavour.