Product Information:
MatchaBooster is a ready-to-use matcha-based powder. It mixes easily in your favorite drink and can used as a cooking ingredient.
Boost up your lifestyle with Maeda-en MatchaBooster♪
Where to Buy: Maeda-en
Description:
Yuzu is a tart yellow citrus fruit that goes surprisingly well with matcha. Try the combination yourself and see!
Learn more about this MatchaBooster here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! This is good. Just as I enjoyed the other MatchaBooster varieties from Maeda-En, I find myself enjoying this Yuzu flavored MatchaBooster.
For the purposes of this review, I first prepared it using 8 ounces of cold water and adding 1 level tablespoon of MatchaBooster powder. I poured the water into a glass and then added the MatchaBooster and gave it a vigorous stir. (I seem to have lost my favorite water bottle and haven’t had a chance to replace it!) There was no froth to speak of with this particular preparation.
While I do find this to be a tasty drink, it is quite sweet. If I were to change one thing about that, that’s what I’d change, I’d either want it to go lighter on the sugar or to cut the sugar all together and just have the Matcha, Maltodextrin and Yuzu Citrus Powder.
That said and trying to allow myself to see past the sweetness of this, I find this to be very tasty. The citrus flavor is strong, and it tastes a lot like orange to me. Maybe a slightly tarter orange, perhaps orange with a hint of lemon. The sugar does cut through some of the tarter notes, though, I’m sure!
Because it is very sweet, it’s difficult to taste much of the Matcha, and this tastes a lot to me like they’re trying to ‘mask’ the flavor of the Matcha for the people who don’t like Matcha but want the health benefits of it.
Personally, I like the flavor of Matcha and I find myself missing it. So for my next preparation (read: experiment), I used 16 ounces of water and used 1 tablespoon of this Yuzu MatchaBooster and 1/2 teaspoon of the Unflavored MatchaBooster.
Now, this is more my speed. With the sugar cut in half, I can taste the Matcha. The Yuzu is obviously a softer flavor too, but it still comes through nicely. I really prefer this product prepared this way.
Another great way to prepare it would be with 16 ounces of coconut water, 1 tablespoon of Yuzu MatchaBooster and 1/2 teaspoon of Unflavored MatchaBooster. The coconut and Yuzu taste so good together!
The Great 52Teas Take Over!
Please visit out Kickstarter Campaign here and help us take over 52Teas!
So it’s been no big secret that I am a big fan of 52Teas! If you’ve read many of my reviews, you know that they’re part of my tea collection – a big part of it!
Recently, I was approached by Frank of 52Teas (he’s the Chief Zoomdweebie of 52Teas and Southern Boy Teas) and he told me that he wants to narrow his focus to the iced tea business, that his passion is iced teas. So, he has been trying to get things going for his iced teas so that he can take Southern Boy Teas to bigger and better things.
Please consider helping Frank raise funds to accomplish this by contributing to his Indiegogo Campaign.
But there’s still 52Teas. So, he asked me if I wanted to take over the 52Teas brand.
Wow!
What an opportunity!
Actually, what Frank said was:
Unless we take over the 52Teas brand that after March 2015, the five plus year mission to create a new tea every week will end.
I don’t want to see 52Teas come to an end. I’ve really enjoyed many of those teas. And there were some that yeah, I thought I could improve on – well, this opportunity gives me the ability to do that too!
My passion for tea is pretty obvious at this point, at least to those of you who have read my ramblings for any amount of time. I love tea. So, this is an outrageously amazing opportunity for me.
I was a little worried though, because I did try the tea thing once before as LiberTEAS. That’s how I got my moniker, I used to blend and flavor my own line of teas and sell them online. I closed that business because while I loved creating the teas, I didn’t love the business end of things. I didn’t love paperwork and making sure that my inventory was accounted for and filing taxes and stuff like that. Hated it!
So, I thought long and hard about this decision. Then I thought about it some more. Then I turned to my oldest daughter for advice. I went into the discussion hoping that she’d either tell me: Yes! You should do this … or NO! You shouldn’t even think about it.
What I didn’t anticipate is that she’d ask me: “Can I do this with you?”
And so, our partnership was born. Amethyst is a very focused, organized type of person that is just the kind of person I need to do the stuff that I wasn’t fond of doing before: She enjoys paperwork and all that other stuff. With her heading up the business side of things, that frees me up to stay creative and keep working on amazing tea blends. Because that’s what I do best.
When I started out in the tea business more than ten years ago, I can honestly say that I was very naive and I didn’t really know what I was doing. All I knew is that I wanted to create the best chocolate tea that I could. And I did that. And I also created some other amazing teas too. But I didn’t really have the contacts I needed to push those teas to the next level.
But in the last six years, I’ve been reviewing teas and that has put me in touch with some pretty remarkable resources. I am less naive and I feel like I’m going to be able to take 52Teas to new heights.
I want to be creating teas again! I want to be the person who is creating those unique and yummy flavor combinations like Raspberry Almond Cookie and Coconut Lime Cupcake.
The only obstacle is that we need money to get our project off the ground and that’s where you come in. I recently launched a Kickstarter Campaign and I’m hoping that I can count on your support to make my dream a reality.
I have the passion for tea. My daughter has the business sense and the drive to propel the business. We just need the ‘Kick Start’ to make it all happen.
Please help us make this happen! We can’t do it without you.
You can visit our Kickstarter Campaign here. Please help in any way you can – even five dollars will help us get that much closer to our goal!
Etambagahawila Estate Ceylon OP1 Black Tea from Capital Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Capital Tea Limited
Tea Description:
Well made beautiful even and neat black wiry leaves with good sheen from Sri Lanka’s Galle region. These aromatic leaves produce a medium to strong tasting tea liquor with ample body and prominent sweet flavour and aroma notes reminiscent of sugar candy.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a really flavorful, strong Ceylon! I’m not used to a Ceylon being as full-flavored as this! But it’s a bold, flavorful Ceylon with a really lovely burnt sugar caramel sweetness.
It’s a pleasantly smooth Ceylon too. It has some astringency to it, but it’s more like the tangy-tart qualities of a citrus fruit than a really jarring astringent tone.
There are some notes of malt to this cup too. The way the malt notes meld with the caramel notes is quite lovely and makes for a really enjoyable tea experience.
This has many of the qualities I expect from a Ceylon – a smooth, even flavor, for example. But I like the unexpected qualities that I’m discovering – the rich, bold flavor! It’s an invigorating tea that would take to the additions of milk and honey well if you’re looking to make this your next breakfast tea. This would be a good breakfast tea for those days when you’re looking for that gentle shake awake. It’s got a robust flavor but a non-aggressive attitude.
A really nice tea. I enjoyed about half my cup and then I was distracted from my tea for a while and when I came back to the cup, it was cold (yes, this does happen a lot, that’s the way it works when you’re a mom!) but even as a cold tea, it’s quite delicious!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, January Review (Part 2)
As promised, this is part 2 of my review of January’s Tea Discoveries Club package from Yunomi.
We’re going to start off where we left off last night, moving on to the third tea I tried from January’s collection of teas: Bancha Green Tea from Onocha Tea Factory & Shop. Similarly to the other teas in this collection, this tea is not available for purchase from Yunomi. That’s part of what makes the Discovery Club a MUST for tea lovers. It will expose you to teas that you might never have tried! What a unique and wonderful opportunity!
This is a really pleasant Bancha. It has a crisp, uplifting flavor: fresh, vegetative and clean. There is a nice contrast between sweet and savory. It has a nice, brothy sort of texture and taste. Nutty, sweet, hints of bitter to offset the sweetness. Nicely smooth.
It’s a soothing tea that reminds me a bit of sipping broth. That warm, nourishing sort of feeling that I get when I sip broth, that’s what I get when I sip this Bancha. It’s not too sweet, not too bitter – just really pleasant.
This is the kind of green tea that I like to have on hand for “every day” sort of drinking. It is a great tea to drink with meals because it’s not an aggressive tasting tea – it’s really smooth and satisfying.
The next tea that I tried was the Sencha Suiho. Immediately, I found myself curious as to how it would differ from the other Sencha I enjoyed from this month’s Discovery Club package: Sencha Suiren.
Upon first sip, I got my answer! These are really two very different Sencha teas! This Sencha Suiho is sweet, buttery and smooth. Very little bitterness. Very little astringency. I noticed more bitterness and astringency with the Suiren – and that wasn’t even a really strongly bitter or aggressively astringent tea!
This is beautifully buttery and pleasantly mellow. Nice! The resteep is almost as nice as the first cup – still really beautifully creamy and sweet!
I saved the Hojicha for last as Hojicha is one of my favorite types of Japanese green teas! Hojicha Soybean Blend to be exact. I think of all the teas that I received this month, this was the one I was the most excited about, mostly because I found myself curious about the ‘soybean.’
Unfortunately, I’m not able to provide a picture of the tea itself because the battery in my camera thought it was the right time to die. So, I just have a picture of the package. 
The dry leaf looks a lot like … well, it looks like dried, chopped up leaves and stems. The first thought that went through my head when I saw it was “mulch.” I’m hoping it tastes better than I can only imagine mulch tasting. Since I’m not planning on brewing mulch and drinking it any time soon, I’ll have to imagine what it would taste like.
Ah … yeah! Yum! There’s that lovely sweet, nutty flavor that I’ve come to love when it comes to Hojicha. That delicious roasty-toasty flavor that evokes thoughts of autumn.
It has a smooth texture to it and it’s not an astringent tea. It’s not bitter. It’s sweet and a very soothing, calming sort of drink. Really lovely. However, I don’t know that I taste any ‘soybean’ in this tea, I just taste sweet, nutty flavor, very much like I’d experience with a top-quality Hojicha.
Overall, I found this adventure with the Discoveries Club from Yunomi to be really enjoyable. Spectacular teas – I love that these teas are exclusive to the Discovery Club. It’s certainly well worth it to take part in this adventure and discover some amazing Japanese Teas!
Menghai Palace Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea (2008) from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
This Menghai Palace Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2008 comes from the typical production area of Yunnan pu-erh: Menghai, Xishuangbanna.
The extraordinary natural environment here not only makes Menghai a renowned place of producing pu-erh, but also brings the unique tea tree here: the Yunnan large leaf species. Our Menghai Palace Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2008 is made of selected tea leaves from the Yunnan large leaf tea trees on Bulang Mountain.
The large leaf species are excellent material for making teas. Plenty of golden buds can be found in this Palace pu-erh cake, which was made of large leaf species. Thus, in ancient times, pu-erh teas of this high grade were limited-offered as tribute to the imperial. Being renowned from the palace, this kind of pu-erh tea tastes quite mellow and full-bodied. The tea was then given the name as Palace Pu-erh.
With the elegant aroma, soft taste and golden appearance, this 2008 Palace Pu-erh is worth trying.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Nice! Really, really nice!
I’ve mentioned (many times) about my trials and tribulations when it comes to Pu-erh. But the simple fact is that I do appreciate most pu-erh teas that I’ve tried. I’ve liked more than I’ve disliked. Unfortunately, the ones that I disliked, I disliked early in my ‘tea drinking years’ and so the haunting memories remain.
Back then I didn’t know how to prepare pu-erh properly. Now, I know how to prepare it. I don’t know if it’s the proper way to prepare it according to customs or whatever – but I found the way to prepare it that works for me: I grab my gaiwan and for this particular pu-erh, I ‘eyeball’ measured the leaf after breaking apart some of the larger chunks from the cake into smaller bits. If I had to venture a guess as to how much leaf this actually ended up being, I’d say it was about a bamboo scoop of tea.
Then I added enough hot water (heated to 190°F) to cover the leaves and let them infuse for 15 seconds. Then I strained off the liquid and discarded it. Then I filled the gaiwan with more water (190°F) and let it steep for 45 seconds.
The aroma of the first cup is nutty and sweet. The flavor is sweet, like thinned molasses. There is some earthiness to the flavor, but it’s barely there and something that I only pick up on when I slurp the sip to aerate the liquid on my palate. Otherwise, what I’m tasting is very similar to what I’d taste if I were to take the jar of molasses out of my cupboard and heat it up with some water. This tastes like thinned molasses with hints of wildflower honey.
In other words, it’s sweet. Beautifully, deliciously sweet. So delightfully sweet that before I could finish the above review of the first cup, the cup was empty and I needed to go resteep the leaves!
For this infusion, I would normally add 15 seconds onto the steep time (making it 1 minute) but by the time I reached 45 seconds, the liquid was so dark that I decided that I’d stop there. So this second cup was infused just 45 seconds.
This cup is a little bit earthier than the first cup was. It’s still sweet, but the sweetness is a bit more mild this time around. It’s a very mellow and smooth tasting tea with notes of raw cacao! Wow! Nice. I taste hints of flower in there too, but because the flavor of cacao is prevalent, it is difficult to determine what flower I’m tasting.
With later infusions, I found that the tea became increasingly more earthy. The tea is still sweet, but some of those molasses-y flavors are diminishing with each infusion. Still quite cacao-ish, I pick up on notes of leather, wood and mushroom.
Overall, an enjoyable Pu-erh, although I must admit that I preferred those earliest infusions where the tea was more like thinned molasses and very few earthy notes were detected.