Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: Magus Brands
Tea Description:
- ✔ MATCHA WITHOUT THE MESS – Our convenient stickpacks have made enjoying ceremonial grade matcha a breeze!
- ✔ STEEPED IN TRADITION – Enjoy the same Matcha used in traditional tea houses in Japan.
- ✔ ORGANIC QUALITY YOU CAN TRUST – USDA Organic and JAS-KOAA Organic from the oldest tea farm in Kagoshima, Japan Sourced from a Japanese National Tea Competition winning tea farm
- ✔ 100% PURE MATCHA – NO sweeteners, NO colors, NO additives, just 100% pure organic ceremonial grade matcha. Just mix with water for clean green healthy energy to go!
- ✔ ALL NATURAL ALWAYS FRESH – Small batch production to ensure maximum freshness. Brought to you by Magus Brands of Orange County, California.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been on a matcha craze for the last few days. I don’t know why. Matcha isn’t something I typically drink but will admit that I do go thru spells where I crave it. I guess I’m in one of those moods right now. When it comes to matcha, I’m incredibly picky. A lot of matcha to me tastes incredibly bitter and I usually have to add in some honey to pep up the flavor.
When I stumbled upon these matcha sticks on Amazon from Magus Brands, I had to check them out. I love the convenience and idea of a to go version of matcha. I am usually prone to making what I call “matcha messes” in the kitchen when I’m scooping out the fine powder so the fact these are in a one serving pouch already delights me to no end.
To prep the matcha up, I just pour in almond milk in my blender bottle and the contents of one of the pouches, shake it up and I’m set and ready to go. You really can’t get any easier than that. So the convenience factor gets an A+++ from me.
The flavor is exactly what you want from matcha. Slightly sweet with a subtle bitter edge that tastes amazing. The flavor is creamy and is simple yet completely satisfying. This is one of those matchas that makes you want to keep drinking and drinking and drinking it. Froths up nicely and looks gorgeous!
I haven’t tried it yet with water but I’m off to do that now. This is just delicious and perfect for this summer weather! Refreshing and delightful! I’m happy!
Matcha to Go Stick-Packs from Aiya
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Aiya
Tea Description:
Similar to Aiya’s flagship Ceremonial Matcha, Matcha to Go is intended to be used with water exclusively so as to enjoy the pure, smooth tea flavor. Either cold or hot, simply open the single-serve stick, add directly to water and quickly stir – there is no need to sift first or even whisk!
Matcha to Go Sticks are designed to make Matcha drinks as quickly and easily as possible. By blending Matcha with dietary fiber, we have eliminated Matcha clumping, making it easier to mix into hot water with just a spoon. For an Iced-Matcha on the go, just pour the stick into a bottle of water, shake and enjoy!
All of our Matcha is grown and produced in Nishio city in Aichi prefecture, known the world over as the cradle of the finest Matcha for more than 800 years.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have enjoyed many different teas from Aiya, so when they approached me to sample their new Matcha-To-Go sticks, I was excited. They have some of the VERY BEST Matcha that I’ve ever tried so if this new product was anything like the Matcha teas that I’ve sampled in the past, I knew it was going to be really good.
And it is!
The product label states that this Matcha can be enjoyed both hot or cold, and for the purposes of this review, I decided to try this tea both ways. First, I tried it cold. I grabbed my 16.9 ounce water bottle that was chilling in the fridge. Then I added one of the “pixie” stick packs of the Matcha into the bottle, screwed on the cap and gave it a vigorous shake or two.
Mmm! Tasty! I’ve tried quite a few of these convenient “pixie stick” Matcha packs at this point and some are better than others. This one is one of the very best that I’ve tried. I can taste the quality of the Matcha here. This is a really top quality Matcha! It is sweet and it has that silky texture that you expect from a high quality Matcha. No bitterness whatsoever!
This is sweet and buttery. It has a vegetal flavor, of course, with a creamy texture and a buttery flavor to complement the texture.
This is the kind of “instant” tea that I can enthusiastically recommend to those who are looking for the ideal tea while on the go. It is everything that you would expect from a top notch Matcha, but prepared in a water bottle so that you can take it with you.
Then I decided to prepare it hot. After I had prepared it the way I would normally prepare a chawan of Matcha, I wished I had instead gone a less traditional route and tried stirring it in a tea mug or something, like someone who didn’t have the “proper tools” to enjoy Matcha would. But, I didn’t think about that when I started preparing this. I thought: Matcha? OK, I need my chawan. But really, you don’t need a chawan. You can prepare Matcha in a cereal bowl … or as I eluded to above, you could prepare one of these pixies of Matcha in a tea mug or other drinking vessel.
When it came to stirring, I grabbed my chasen (bamboo whisk) and again, I wish I would have thought to grab a spoon instead and tried to stir it the way someone who was less familiar with Matcha might approach their first experience with this tea. Oh well! A spoon would work just fine, although you won’t get very much froth with a spoon.
Then again, with this particular Matcha product, I didn’t get a lot of froth anyway. It does froth up a little bit, but not nearly as much as a traditional ceremonial Matcha would. And the froth disappears really quickly.
But the flavor that I expect from a ceremonial Matcha is there! It tastes great! Sweet with absolutely no bitterness. Smooth and creamy. Buttery notes and hints of cacao that are more noticeable in this hot version than they were in the cold bottle. I don’t notice anything from the fiber except for the possibility of a somewhat thicker texture. It’s barely noticeable and I only noticed it because I was trying to focus on whether or not I was noticing anything from the dietary fiber. So … it could have all been in my head.
Anyway … this is a superb to-go instant tea! One of the best products of it’s kind, if you’re a Matcha lover or just someone who appreciates good tea and wants something of high quality to-go, this product is for you.
