In the last wave of summer weather, I brewed up a cup of matcha from ZenTei. It was an easy choice, after my eye caught a glimpse of its beautiful packaging on my tea shelf. This matcha is a hand-ground, organic green tea.
The powdered tea is smooth and green, though a bit muted in color. Matcha is best at its freshest and greenest, and I should note that I’m tasting this sample after a friend, so it’s possible my sample was just a little past its prime.
In the warm weather, I tried this iced, unsweetened and without milk. The matcha is very vegetal, leafy, and grassy. This is a culinary grade matcha, so it’s best when paired with other flavors in baking, or when mixed with juice smoothies, or in a foamy milk latte.
I definitely preferred this tea as an iced latte with vanilla almond milk. The sweet, nutty, frothy milk helped add more dimension to the grassy matcha, and added a touch of much-needed sweetness.
This is a versatile tea. Mix it in your next batch of cookies, prepare it in a traditional whisk and bowl, or shake it up in a milkshake bottle. Just don’t shake up a hot latte or you’ll be dealing with a matcha bomb; cold water matcha-shakes only. Perfect for a high-caffeine, iced latte, pick-me-up on a hot summer morning.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Matcha
Where to Buy: ZenTei
Description:
Culinary-Grade Matcha has a stronger tea flavor than a traditional Ceremonial-Grade and allows the Matcha flavor to shine through even if mixed with other ingredients. Traditionally whisked into a frothy beverage, Matcha can be blended into smoothies, green tea lattes or green tea lemonade. Matcha is also perfect sprinkled over fruit or yogurt, added to salt to create a savory seasoning, mixed into baked goods recipes or added to ice cream.
