Olive Nation
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Since I am trying to learn a lot about matcha, I had my daughter pick up something at Whole Foods called Sweet Matcha by Rishi. We don’t have it around here. It was really good made as a cold latte, but expensive (to me) all though it is cheaper than buying at SBucks. The bag was $10 and it makes 9 or 10 lattes, but only eight ounce ones. I usually make at least sixteen ounces!
I decided to try my hand at an instant latte mix using my Olive Nation matcha. I compared the calories per serving of the mix with calorie count on different types of sugar and came up with what I thought would be a good proportion. I decided on one part matcha powder to five parts sugar to replicate their calorie count and sweetness level. Of course, if you want it less sweet you can add less sugar and then use less than a tablespoon in your drink.
I am rather pleased, though there is one thing I would change. Rishi says they use milled cane sugar. I wasn’t sure what that meant but I went with confectioners sugar thinking it needed to be very fine to dissolve quickly. I think next time I will use my raw cane sugar from Whole Foods, and I may pulse it in my grinder before mixing it in.
It was a fun experiment, pretty successful since I have been enjoying these easy peasy lattes almost every day, and I think I came out way cheaper than buying another Rishi Sweet Matcha!
I have had this twice today, and I am posting a second tasting note for the sake of the WAY I made it, rather than to speak of the taste again.
I read that you can use a cocktail shaker to make matcha lattes and thought it would be a great way to get the whole drink really cold. I always enjoy my latte more when it is really icy cold and as it is now I tend the raise the straw to the level of the crushed ice at first!
I don’t have a cocktail shaker, have never held one, have never used one, but I looked at some online to research before I get one and thought my JoeMo travel mug would work. It has proven itself to be pretty leakproof.
I put a teaspoon of matcha in and didn’t bother to sift it. I added a couple of ounces of water, put the lid on, and shook it like mad! Then I added the rest of the water (about one cup total) and the honey and again put the lid on and shook like mad to get the honey to mix. Next I added a cup of milk and the ice and shook it one more time to get it nice and cold throughout.
I could have left it in my Joemo but I decanted it into my double walled tumbler to enjoy. I think next time around I will shake it after adding the ice but not the milk because there wasn’t much room for the liquid to move around. I may get a cocktail shaker after all, but I can take my time finding one and use this until I get one.
A good, basic matcha for lattes and such, this is pretty affordable at $18 for 2 ounces. It is bitter at all, but it lacks the buttery vegetable flavor of some of the nicest matcha. It is more than adequate for the way I am using, though, and I plan to share it with daughter when she comes to visit so she can her plain lattes at home instead of having to buy them at SBucks.
The jury is still out on this one. I am over matcha’ed today but of course I decided to go ahead and try this done. I bought it because it was a good price, hoping it would knock my socks off. I believe it was $17.99 for two ounces. It came in a ziplock pouch. I buy my vanilla beans from this company and they are the best I have ever seen and unbelievably cheap, so I had high hopes for this matcha.
While it is not the best I have ever had, it is far from the worst. There is no bitterness but it is grassy and earthy. It made a decent latte, which is what I bought it for. This is less vegetal, less smooth and buttery than Kai Matcha Premium. My Nuvola sample was also more buttered veggie flavored than this one.
I will keep experimenting with this and see what happens. I also used raw cane sugar instead of honey this time and used less of it, so that could be a factor in my opinion as well.