Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Butterscotch Matcha lends its creamy velvety taste to many baked products and also different ice creams. Its sweetness is also excellent for many candies and other snacks. It is the perfect choice for those with a compelling sweet tooth who want to make it a worthwhile experience. This makes it an instant favorite with the young who love all things sweet and tasty. For special occasions, Butterscotch Matcha lends its sweet appeal to any palate looking for the ultimate sweetness elixir.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The third from the “Choose Your Own” Matcha sampler!
This one has been on my personal wishlist for a while and I was very excited to get to try it recently. Like the others from the sampler, I made it in cashew milk.
The dry matcha smells very strongly of butterscotch; it reminds me of Butter Ripple Schnapps, which is a favourite drink of mine. It’s a little grassy too from the matcha itself.
This was very delightful; the butterscotch flavor really comes through and creates a sugary sweet drink that reminds me of melted down Butterscotch Ripple ice cream; it’s not nearly as boozy anymore so it’s reminding me less of Butter Ripple Schnapps. The mild nuttiness of the cashew milk compliments the sweetness very well also, and there’s a gentle vegetal note from the matcha itself – it’s not as grassy as the dry leaf smelled but it is present.
This one was very interesting and tasty and I’m really happy I finally got to try it. I imagine it would also work wonderfully in a hot latte as well – butterscotch is a very adaptable flavor. So far, this is my favourite of the matchas from this sampler that I’ve tried
Barista’s Matcha Tea from My Matcha Life
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: My Matcha Life
Tea Description:
Barista’s Matcha tea is a great tasting matcha without the premium price. Perfect for those who enjoy the unique matcha tea flavor and experience but don’t always want to buy a premium ceremonial matcha, especially when mixing with other ingredients. Drink Barista’s Matcha tea on its own as a traditional matcha tea with hot water or, ideally, just add Barista’s Matcha tea to your lattes, smoothies and blender drinks. And enjoy!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s been a day or two since I had a bowl of Matcha so the arrival of this Barista’s Matcha Tea from My Matcha Life was timely! Oh, sure, I have some Matcha on hand (always!) but I’m happy to try something new to me.
For my first sampling of this Matcha, I prepared it hot in my chawan. I scooped out a couple of chashaku scoops of Matcha into my sifter and sifted the Matcha into my chawan. Then I added water heated to 160°F and whisked until the powder was completely incorporated in the liquid.
How much water? I’ve been making Matcha for so long that I just eyeball it, but the amount of hot water should be 2 – 3 ounces to every 1/2 teaspoon of Matcha powder. You can adjust this to your own liking, of course!
And this Matcha is delicious! The dry powder was a bright green. Not quite as bright and vivid as a top-quality ceremonial Matcha would be, but it’s not that drab green either. It’s a nice color.
The tea froths up nicely. Most of the froth disappears pretty quickly, but I still had some frothy bubbles on the surface up until my last sip. Not a lot … but some.
I did notice that the tea didn’t stay sustained in the liquid for very long. Because this is a ‘barista’ Matcha, this is a Matcha that is intended for (and better suited for) smoothies and blended drinks like that. But it is tasty enough to serve as a good everyday Matcha!
It has a smooth, buttery flavor. Even though the Matcha didn’t stay incorporated, after I re-whisked the tea, I didn’t pick up on a gritty or chalky texture and that earns extra points in my book!
It’s a really beautifully sweet Matcha – no bitter tones which I do often experience with some “not ceremonial” quality Matcha so that also earns extra points with me.
For my second tasting of this Matcha, I decided to try it with my new and latest obsession – Maple Water! YUM! Seriously yum. If you haven’t tried maple water + Matcha – you must!
I’ve spent some time perusing the My Matcha Life website and they have just about everything that a Matcha beginner needs to get started in their journey with Matcha! They don’t have a chashaku (this is a bamboo scoop used to scoop out Matcha) but you can use a 1/2 a teaspoon measuring spoon! And this Barista Matcha is a really good Matcha – it is one I’d recommend to those beginners as a starting Matcha!
Ceremonial Gold Class Organic Matcha from Midori Spring
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Midori Spring on Amazon.com
Tea Description:
Midori Spring’s Ceremonial Gold Matcha is rich, smooth and creamy with a hint of sweetness when brewed traditionally. Only the best and darkest tencha are used for Gold Class. Gold Class has a fresh, sweet, green-vegetable-like aroma and the colour is a vibrant emerald green – a trait only high quality Ceremonial Grade Matcha encompass.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
From the moment that I opened the canister of this Ceremonial Gold Class Organic Matcha from Midori Spring – I was excited! I was anxious to try this beautiful powdered tea!
The dry powder is a bright, vivid green color – the color green that Matcha enthusiasts would immediately recognize as top-notch Matcha! This is the color Matcha should be!
I got out my chasen and chawan and scooped out a couple of scoops of Matcha with my chashaku – one scoop using this bamboo scoop is just enough for one serving of Matcha, but I wanted two! Then I placed the Matcha into my sifter (I just use an inexpensive wire mesh strainer for this) and sifted the Matcha into my chawan. I added hot water (160°F) and began whisking. I don’t have a precise measurement for the water – I use the eyeball method and then I taste it after I’ve whisked it. If I need more water, I add some.
This Matcha whisks up BEAUTIFULLY. The color of the tea in the photo above is quite accurate – that is the same color of the liquid that’s in my chawan right now, although it’s difficult to see it since it’s beneath a thick cap of foamy froth. This tea froths up so well and it maintains the froth for a long time after you’ve finished whisking.
The flavor is outstanding. This is a really top-notch, high quality Matcha. This is the kind of Matcha that is used in Japanese tea ceremony because it’s of the best quality. Sweet! Not a hint of bitterness. Smooth and buttery. No chalkiness or gritty texture. The flavor has hints of berry and cacao in it’s complex layers. It’s vegetal. It’s a bowl of Matcha perfection.
If you’re a fan of Matcha – I highly recommend trying this one the next time you need to stock your cupboard. You’ll be happy you did!
Raspberry Matcha from 3 Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: 3 Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Vegan, Gluten Free
Ingredients: Matcha, natural flavors
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a fairly new company, and one I actually wanted to order from since they’ve got a pretty diverse selection of flavoured matcha and I was interested in seeing how it differed from what Red Leaf Tea offers. Unfortunately they don’t yet ship to Canada, so it was great that my fellow SororiTea Sister TheLastDodo was able to send some for me to try!
Instead of my usual matcha in milk I prepped this cold shaken in a DAVIDsTEA timolino with plain old water. Since this is a new company to me and I’m not familiar with their base matcha I wanted as much of a “plain” taste as I could get.
Visually the matcha is a really bright green colour – exactly what I want to be seeing! It smells really intense, and maybe a little bit artificial? That’s something I don’t want to be getting from this one. Hmm; I kept my expectations really neutral going into this.
I actually liked it a lot; I thought the raspberry was very sweet and natural tasting with just a tease of natural tang to it. It also didn’t seem to eclipse the flavour of the matcha itself which tasted subtly grassy and very, very floral. It had me thinking loosely of both orchids and peonies. The artificial smell I was picking up didn’t cross over into the flavour – hooray! Plus, the flavour and base together worked very well – the floral components absolutely complimented the natural tasting raspberry.
It definitely makes me wish I could try more flavors from this company – in particular I’m curious about the pineapple matcha and the apple matcha. I love the pairing of pineapple and floral flavours like orchid so I can see that working really, really well. Basically, I’m saying people should give this company a little bit more love because hopefully then they’ll be able to expand their shipping into Canada!
Matcha from Chiang Rai Tea House
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Chiang Rai Tea House
Tea Description:
Matcha -green tea powder- is an antioxidant powerhouse (ORAC rating of 1,300 units/gram compared to 105 units/gram for pomegranates) and its list of health benefits goes on and on -fights viruses and bacteria, lowers cholesterol and blood sugar, L-Theanine relaxes and supports concentration, boosts metabolism and burns calories, contains the unique and powerful antioxidant catechin EGCg.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s been a while since I’ve written about Matcha. And even though it’s been a little while since I’ve written about Matcha, that doesn’t mean that it’s been a while since I’ve consumed it. I try to drink a bowl of Matcha (or do a cold-water shake-up of Matcha in my water bottle) at least every other day. Occasionally, I might skip a day or two, but, I do try to drink it regularly – the stuff is magical! It’s not only tasty but it also makes me feel so good after I’ve had it. It’s one of the most revitalizing, energizing and spiritually uplifting teas I know of.
So, I was really intrigued when Chiang Rai Tea House sent me some of their Matcha to try. Traditionally, Matcha is a Japanese tea, but the tea that was ground into this powdered green tea is from Thailand. So, I was interested to find out if it would be different from the traditional Matcha.
The dry powder is not the vivid Apple Green that you’d find with most top quality Matcha teas from Japan. This tea was more like an Army Green color. Kind of drab and dull. This worried me because it’s been my experience that when it comes to Matcha, the color is very telling of what I’ll be tasting.
But, I’m going to try it and see how it goes. I measured out some of the Matcha into my sifter and sifted into my Chawan and added hot water (160°F) and whisked the Matcha with my Chasen. The Matcha incorporated quickly. There was some froth to the prepared Matcha but it disappeared as quickly as it formed.
On their webpage, Chiang Rai Tea House says this about their Matcha:
We are particularly proud of our matcha, which we honestly believe can rival any Japanese matcha. This is a high-grade, 100% pure green tea powder made following strict guidelines. It has a smooth texture, a sweet aftertaste and an intense flavor, without the bitterness characteristic of lesser matchas.
I don’t know if this can rival any Japanese Matcha, but I will say that it’s better than some of the lower quality Japanese Matcha that I’ve tried. It is smooth and sweet. I’m not getting any of the bitterness or even the bitter-sweet notes that I’d taste from a lesser quality Matcha from Japan. I’m actually quite surprised by that – because I expected this to taste a lot like that! I expected this to taste like some of those average or even less-than-average Matcha teas that I’ve tried over the years.
This has a strong flavor that is a lightly buttery and there are pleasant notes of cacao. It’s smooth and even though there were a couple of chalky moments, overall, I find this to be a very tasty Matcha. The powder remained suspended in the liquid and didn’t settle to the bottom which was a big bonus as far as I’m concerned. I liked that the consistency of the tea remained the same from the first sip to the last.
Overall, this was a pleasant Matcha experience. This isn’t the best Matcha that I’ve ever tried, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. If you’re someone who drinks Matcha daily and is looking for a good alternative to the average Matcha, try this. This has a very pleasant flavor that I don’t always find in the average Matcha.