Green Apple Matcha

Attempted a caramel apple matcha latte this evening, and way overdid it on the apple, so much so that I couldn’t taste the caramel at all! Even when I added an additional teaspoon of it. I also may have made the latte extremely strong, so it was a little bit bitter and in need of agave. So, next time I’ll be trying it with a pinch of apple matcha and a load of caramel!

Granny Smith is my favourite kind of apple! I love how in a candy apple, it peeks out and holds its own with a juicy tartness! The flesh is refreshing and never mushy as with some unnamed Red/yellow varieties. Second only to the Granny Smith is the Crab Apple! Ohhh Crab Apple trees of my past, how I miss you! How is it that each of these flavoured matchas reminds me of my childhood in some way? Haha way to be Matcha, way to be.

When I opened up my matcha package I was greeted with the strong scent of apple! I knew my only challenge with this tea would be making it tart instead of just sweet. It’s easy to sweeten a tea – just add sweetener! Has anyone tried the Hibiscus Matcha from RLT? I am really curious to see if it is tart – because it would be the PERFECT addition to this apple tea!

I used my usual 175 degree water – ah, perfectly smooth, vibrant green and SO much frothy foam. Of course I’m not surprised by this – I’ve come to expect this level of quality with my Red Leaf Tea orders and, as usual, am not disappointed. The scent is strong (I went with the normal amount of flavouring) and very apple-y. It is akin to an apple candy, but not super sweet like you would expect it to be. Actually, it’s more in between a Granny Smith apple and an apple candy (minus the tartness). I added a bit of sugar and drank it down – my matcha cup is always empty before I can blink it seems!

I would be lying if I said I didn’t buy this solely to mix with the Caramel Matcha. Inspired by the infamous aisling of tea who came before me, the Caramel and Apple matchas were meant to be together. Now Red Leaf Tea has a great system where you can order your own mix of flavours! I’m tempted to make an order of Coca Cola and Cherry – it may just make my summer matcha list ;) That said, I probably still would have ordered these two teas separately. I like the option of playing with my own ratios and finding the perfect combo! I definitely have enough of these teas to play to my heart’s desire. Now if only I could find an easy way to add a tartness to this matcha – that would add the perfect 3rd dimension to the caramel apple matcha mix! You can find this Green Apple matcha here at Red Leaf Tea: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/green-apple-matcha.html

One last note about this tea – as I’ve said before, I’m collecting fruit matchas for all of my smoothie needs. I’ve tried this one in a few different combos. So far it goes really well with both Blueberry and Mango. I can’t wait for my next order, where I will most certainly try out some tropical matchas and find my paradise gateway matcha. Hello vacation in a glass, momma’s coming for you.

Just to remind myself how awesome regular matcha is, I made a cup of this even though it is now 10:30. And I’m exhausted. And I have to work tomorrow. That’s matcha love my friends.

I just love this so much. Green matcha, the original, so tasty. This green apple flavor is pretty alright too. :) I got this matcha for a couple of different reasons. 1) Someone (I forget who) on Steepster had the awesome idea for caramel apple matcha and I totally wanted to try some. 2) My sister loves green apple flavored things. I hung onto to this packet for a while without opening it because I know that matcha can deteriorate quickly once exposed to air and I didn’t have a suitable tin to store this matcha in. I just waited and waited until one day I realized I could use these little plastic containers that Azzrian had actually given to me so that I could send her matcha. We later decided that some other containers were better so I was told to keep these since she never used them anyway. Yeah! Thanks Azzrian! It’s not really the best storage for matcha because the lid doesn’t fit all that snug, but matcha! Best reason for everything. So anyway, I’m trying this matcha now!

The color is a bit dark, like olive green and the powder isn’t a bit gritty like the red matcha. yaay! I can’t have much now. I’m going to chill it for tomorrow morning when matcha makes sense, but I just had to have some before bed.

The green apple flavoring here has something that reminds me of that mango matcha that I really didn’t care for. Something weird like play dough and flowers. But it is not as prominent as it was in the mango. The green apple flavor here is quite nice too. It’s somehow like the candy version of green apple, but the freshness and greenness of matcha makes it less sweet and cloying and more like real apple. If only it weren’t for that odd playdough flavor… It’s pretty good.

I think this would be better sweetened, but we will save that for tomorrow. Drinking matcha reminds me of the beginning of my tea journey. The first teas I drank had to have sugar and/or milk or honey. It just wasn’t good without additions. Then I found teas that were better without additions and now I only rarely add anything to my teas. Matcha though, I find I don’t enjoy them as much unless I add sugar or milk or both. Unflavored matcha is something I can enjoy without additions, but when it’s apple or caramel, I find myself reaching for the sugar. This is odd since I had a apple flavored green not to long ago and enjoyed it thoroughly without additions. I suppose the matcha flavor is stronger and more intense. Then again, if I use less matcha, it tastes watery. I’ll work on weaning myself off the desire to sweeten my matchas. I think I’m getting there already since I’m sipping at this matcha and going, “Mmmm, creamy sweet matcha…” :) Small sips!

Enough rambling! Time for bed!

If you want to have some green apple matcha, you know where it’s at!
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/green-apple-matcha.html

Edit Had this chilled this morning. So refreshing! The flavor is still weird to me but I enjoyed it a lot more cold. Didn’t even want to add any sugar! Raising the rating!

So I finally did it. I mixed the caramel with the apple and blew my own mind. It was delicious. Beyond delicious. Now I have to decide between caramel apple and vanilla mint every morning, and that’s a hard decision to make! Trust me, everyone, this is a blend you have to try. You will certainly not regret it. And if you do, you can send the leftover matcha to me ;)

My first matcha experience! Success! Dexter3657 sent some of this my way, thank you!!

I was so excited to try it but was clueless as to how to go about it. I knew I wanted it cold, a la Starbucks green tea frap. Now I don’t like the taste of milk but if you mask it, I’m fine. Those frappuccinos are all milk based and I gobble them up. So I used a small amount of this, less than 1 tsp, for just under a cup of cold milk. I dissolved the matcha in about 2 Tbsp of hot water, and I used one of those cheap frothers, a handheld battery operated one. It says Bayley’s on it, I can just imagine what it’s for. Then I poured the milk into a glass, added the matcha “solution” and sipped. Needed sweetening, tasted milky. I didn’t want to make simple syrup and there was no way any rock sugar or turbinado would have melted so… Maple syrup to the rescue! (Note to self: Really good but need a full tsp of tea next time.)

Oh and this morning I made a smoothie with it, I was thinking about the “mind over matcha” from booster juice, we love that. So I made my own version with banana. Basically dumped matcha, banana and milk in a plastic pitcher and put in the handheld blender I use to blend soups. It was also very good but didn’t taste much green apple. I thought maybe it was because of the banana but tonight I’m also not tasting apple. Matcha yes, apple no.

Red leaf tea order on the horizon. Never bought matcha but from what I’ve been reading here I know it’s expensive and you get a lot of it, almost too much to drink before it goes stale or whatever. I think my milk consumption might go up also. The dairy farmers of Canada I’m sure will be thankful to red leaf tea :)

Backlog:

A yummy Matcha. A bit sweeter than I expected … I expected a tarter apple flavor (like Granny Smith) although there is a crisp tartness to this, it’s much sweeter than I thought it would be. Perhaps it is the combination of the apple notes and the Matcha that soften the tart notes of the apple a bit.

It’s still really delightful. This is good in smoothies (I’ve had a few of them over the last couple of weeks!) and it’s also good mixed with the caramel Matcha! YUM!

So far, I have really enjoyed all the matcha flavors I have tried from Red Leaf Tea. I have liked them most in a smoothie, I like them shaken up in cold water, and I like them warm. The desserty flavors like English Toffee and Caramel have been my favorites in cold water, but I thought I would try this one since fruit flavors make sense as an iced tea.

Not so much, there is something about this flavor that just throws me off. I don’t think it tastes much like apple I suppose, it tastes like some kind of apple flavored candy but for some reason that kind of artificial apple taste mixed with matcha is not settling well on my taste buds. This is the only one of the 5 flavors that I have tried that I didn’t like. I think I will probably appreciate it more in a smoothie because I won’t taste it as much but it will still give me the energy (which is the reason I started drinking matcha).

I would recommend other flavors before this one, but honestly this has really great reviews from tea bloggers that I really trust and purchase based on like DaisyChubb It is quite tangy like it’s description says, I just cannot seem to find a taste for it. However, if you’d like to give it a go based on it’s otherwise fabulous reviews you can get it here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/green-apple-matcha.html

This is my favorite out of the four flavours I ordered. It tastes exactly like a green apple candy, and goes really well with vanilla almond milk. This morning I mixed in 1 tsp of matcha with a half a cup of DavidsTea White Tiger, and then added hot Almond Milk to the top of my glass. Yum! It is sweet and tart at the same time. I tend to prefer fruity flavours so I knew I had to try this one, and I have to say it is a winner :)