Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Lucuma powder comes from South America and especially the country of Peru. It has been used by the ancient civilizations of South America; in particular it has been a staple for the ancient Incas. The cream colored powder has a luxurious taste that borders on maple and makes it a fine treat for the whole family especially young children who have a love for all things sweet.
To add to the sweet taste of Lucuma, Matcha lends its velvety appeal. The resulting Lucuma Matcha makes an unforgettable beverage that can be taken with meals or in between meals as a delectable treat.
Learn more about this flavored matcha here.
Taster’s Review:
Pic from Wikipedia, click on the pic to go there.
Yum! To my knowledge, I’ve never tasted lucuma fruit or lucuma powder. Prior to ordering this tea from Red Leaf Tea, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a “lucuma.” But now that I’m tasting this Lucuma Flavored Matcha Green Tea … I wish that I knew how to get my hands on some lucuma. This is tasty!
It’s very sweet. As the description above suggests, there are maple-y tones to this. It’s a mellow tasting fruit, at least, it is in Matcha form! Here I taste light, fruity notes with a maple sweet undertone. It is quite pleasant to sip.
I prepared this Matcha traditionally. First, I scooped out the Matcha and sifted it into my chawan. (By the way, Red Leaf Tea flavors their Matcha to order, and they sift each Matcha before they package it up and ship it out to their customers. I sift mine again, mostly out of habit. It’s not a habit I want to slip out of because not all vendors sift their Matcha!) Then I added the hot water (170°F), and whisked until the Matcha was completely incorporated and the surface of the Matcha was covered with a soft froth.
My specifications for this Matcha are my “usual” – a distinctive level of flavoring for the classic grade of green Matcha. The powder is dark green, and the liquid produced when the tea powder is whisked into water is a deep, dark green with a light, seafoam green froth on top. This Matcha frothed up pretty nicely, but the foam disappeared pretty quickly.
The flavor is very smooth and sweet. It’s a very gentle flavor. I think that my specifications were right on target for this particular flavor: I can still taste the sweet, buttery, creamy taste of the Matcha but I can also taste the notes of the unusual maple-sweet fruit. Because the lucuma fruit has such a mild flavor, you might want to bump the flavor level up to “Robust,” but I like this the way it is. I experience a lot of fruity notes dancing on my palate in the aftertaste. It’s really difficult to describe the flavor of the aftertaste in a way that would compare them to other fruits, because this aftertaste simply tastes “fruity.”
What I am also enjoying about this particular Matcha flavor is that I’m not experiencing any of that chemical-y taste that I sometimes notice with other flavored Matcha. Bonus! Overall, this is a very mild tasting Matcha – even the Matcha itself tastes mellower than Matcha usually tastes. This might be a good starter “flavored” Matcha for someone who is new to Matcha.
