Azuma Tea: Matcha Yuzu (Japanese citrus) Mix

Sipdown (130)!

I hadn’t read anything about this ‘tea’ other than the name of it prior to making it this afternoon and the whole packet is in Japanese so I couldn’t take much usual information from the packaging. I expected to be drinking a Yuzu flavoured matcha that was just premeasured so I pulled out my chawan. Imagine my surprise when I cut the package open and saw what’s essentially powdered/crystal juice mix…

Other than being taken aback by what I’m actually drinking and not what I thought I’d be drinking, my biggest problem with this is honestly just the amount of sugar to “other” ingredients. I say other because while I fully taste very sweet orangey citrus type flavour (yuzu) I’m incredibly skeptical about the matcha in this. It’s got to be a very, very small amount; visually what was in the package was pretty much pale yellow powder or finally crushed sugar – nothing green. I don’t taste green tea/matcha either – just intensely sweet ‘instant lemonade’ sort of citrus notes.

I should probably also point out I drank this hot and in just water since apparently this is a matcha ‘latte’ mix (from what I’m seeing from other reviews). I completely endorse making this in water over milk though; based on my experience today I think that would be a very, very bad idea. But ultimately if I had gone into this knowing this is what I was going to be drinking I think I’d have probably liked it; I certainly didn’t find it bitter like other people did – more than anything it was too sweet.

I made this at work on break thinking I was about to have a matcha break… I have no idea what I ended up having.
Being in Japan earlier this year, I have a good understanding of what yuzu and matcha taste like separately. I don’t believe this tea provides either of those experiences.

YUNOMI is the best place to get sourced Japanese teas, but this just was not something I can say I would want to drink again.

Interestingly, in Japanese stores you can pick up yuzu sencha drink mix sticks that are better.

I’m okay with the flavor, but too much powder or too hot water will make this extremely bitter and taste like pith. My only negative here is that there is sugar already in this mix and I don’t know how much.. The site lists “granulated sugar” in the ingredient list before “matcha” – at least in the US, the ingredients that are listed first are more abundant in the product than those listed later. I don’t want to think this is all sugar.
Oh, and definitely don’t use the full recommended amount of matcha – that’s a recipe for bitter tea.

Uhh. Hmm… no.

I was hoping for bright sweet citrus, not pithy bitter citrus.

Anyone interested in trying this? It’s a matcha “latte” mix.