Raspberry Truffle Matcha

As I was considering which flavored matcha I would try next from Red Leaf Tea, I was stumped. There are so many amazing flavors! However, this Raspberry Truffle matcha caught my eye fairly quickly and I knew that I had to give it a try. I am a sucker for all things chocolate, particularly super rich truffles of all flavors. I had very high expectations for this matcha and I have to say that it more than exceeded my expectations! You can find out more about this matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/raspberry-truffle-matcha.html.

Once again, I was very pleased by the intense aroma as I opened the package. I could have sworn that somebody just opened a very expensive box of raspberry truffles somewhere in my kitchen. The matcha was a very bright green color despite being flavored. I first tried this traditionally as a hot bowl of matcha in my chawan. Initially, the slight bitterness of the matcha hits your palate, but it is followed by an intense and slightly sweet raspberry flavor with the chocolate aspect occurring more in the aftertaste. I love how the aftertaste lingers several minutes after your last sip and I also appreciate that the matcha was very easy to whisk with no noticeable clumps. While this is a super awesome way to drink this matcha, I just had to try it as a cold latte since it is so unbelievably hot here in Texas.

For the cold latte I added a healthy scoop of this Raspberry Truffle matcha and milk into a blender bottle and shook it all up. Once again the matcha blended beautifully without any clump which is something I’ve noticed in other matchas when preparing them with a cold liquid. Although I didn’t add any sweetener, the matcha seems a little sweeter now, but not by any means overly so. I also think that the flavor profile is a bit more balanced at this temperature. The bitter edge of the matcha is almost non-existent and the raspberry and chocolate flavors are more unified as a raspberry truffle would be. It is quite refreshing on this hot day and I was impressed that it didn’t settle out even after being left on the counter for 10+ minutes.

Overall, this is another big success from Red Leaf Tea! Not only is the tea quite tasty, their customer service is amazing. My order arrived within 2 business days! If you haven’t tried anything from this company, you are missing out!

This tea was gifted to me by my daughter. She was unsure if I would even drink a “green” drink. She left this with me with the instructions of how to mix with hot water and top off with milk. I felt assured that I could manage these directions. My first attempt at whipping up this matcha left me wondering, “What part of her instructions did I forget?” The taste was not as creamy as I remembered. As I was finishing off the last of my cup, I remembered that I had failed to add the half packet of raw sugar. Ah, the missing ingredient needed to really bring out the full raspberry freshness. I shared my mishap with her and she could not believe that I had actually drunk it without any sweetener added! I have pondered over her comment many times since that day. I drank it, I liked it. The quality of the matchas from Red Leaf Teas is top notch. This Raspberry Truffle matcha reminds me of a summer day picking ripe berries from the vine. Read more about this matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/raspberry-truffle-matcha.html
The chocolate and matcha provide a rich backdrop to the ripe raspberries. I have been drinking tea for four years now. My tea drinking routine has greatly changed since I discovered Red Leaf Tea matchas. I went from drinking primarily black Ceylon teas to an almost exclusive daily matcha habit. Thank you Red Leaf Teas for opening the matcha door!

I finally got my first order from Red Leaf Tea last week! I have been able to try all of them now, but I am going to start by logging the one that I had as a latte this morning.

I have been drinking matcha with half almond milk/half water. I got this one as basic grade/robust flavour. The raspberry is tart and the chocolate is sweet, but this is probably my least favorite of the four I ordered. I wish the flavours came out more, I found they got lost in how I prepared it.

Thank you VariaTEA – you know I’m always up to try a new flavour of matcha.

You can definitely tell, just from the smell, that this is robust flavouring; if you focus hard enough you can actually pick up on the scent of the raspberry before even opening the resealable bag it comes in. And once it has been opened, you’re going to be flooded with the sweet smell of a confectionery-like raspberry with a dark chocolate backdrop – it’s 100% Raspberry Truffle in scent.

As I was whisking this one, it frothed up a great deal more than the average matcha and that thicker, frothy texture didn’t let up easily; for the first half of the chawan I probably could have consumed it with a spoon. It was that frothy! Considering how strong the smell is before being prepared, the flavour is actually surprisingly light – but there are some things about it that tip me off that it’s robust flavouring. I’ve noticed with other robustly flavoured matcha that some flavours tend to get a sort of chalky note; one that reminds me of children’s chewable vitamins or Tums. It seems particularly bad with flavours with fruit in them. This certainly isn’t the worst offender I’ve encountered (I think Orange probably wins that spot, or Boysenberry) but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed it at all.

Otherwise, the flavour is pretty good. I’m a touch surprised that the raspberry is coming off a lot stronger than the chocolate though; when I think of truffles I absolutely picture the over the top, dark, rich, fudgey chocolate notes with the ‘extra’ flavour kind of infused in as more of an aftertaste or undercurrent. You could say the opposite is true here! The raspberry doesn’t have any tartness or tang to it; more so it’s a bit of a sweet and confectionery type of raspberry; like what you’d have in a raspberry danish for example. The chocolate is obviously creamy from the milk but has a distinct ‘dark chocolate’ taste to it. It’s maybe a touch fudgey. The notes from the matcha itself are still present, though quite lightly. But that’s to be expected given the flavour level.

Overall; I’m quite happy with this one! It’s gonna do wonders for satisfying those late night sugar cravings and I’m already picturing how well this would taste lightly sprinkled over top cereal or popcorn. If I had to really emphasize anything to potential buyers though it’d probably just be to expect that the raspberry is going to taste stronger than the chocolate.

Thank you Cavocorax for the chance to try this matcha! I had it last night mixed with a glass of cashew milk and it was delicious. The cashew milk is what stood out most tbh but the matcha imparted a nice chocolate richness to the drink and left my mouth with the smooth taste of raspberry. It was really quite lovely :)

Delicious, though the matcha is less present than the other flavours. A wonderful hot latte.

A small baggie of this came to me courtesy of the Great Canadian Travelling Teabox. It was great because I’ve tried a few of Red Leaf Tea’s matchas before but with shipping they’re a bit pricy for my budget so I don’t get the opportunity to try all the flavours I want.

This marks the first time ever making my own matcha latté. I got a milk frother for Christmas this year and I was eager to put it to use. This one was very much trial and error and uber unprofessional – I started with about 2 of those bamboo scoops of matcha sifted and whisked into an oz or so of 75ºC water. Then I added 8 oz of skim milk, heated in the microwave and frothed. The flavour wasn’t quite strong enough so I added another scoop and a half (-ish) of matcha and a drizzle of agave nectar. The end result wasn’t half bad – not coffee-shop quality by a long shot – but certainly drinkable. I found that I mostly got raspberry flavour from the matcha and very little chocolate, but that might be the barista’s fault. ;)

So how do the rest of you make your DYI lattés?

This is just okay. Got it at Robust level flavoring, and while it’s definitely raspberry, it’s chemical-tasting and smelling. There’s a depth to it that I assume is chocolate, however it’s just not enough for me to say… truffle.

Having as a cold latte today. Two chasaku scoops dissolved in 175F water, added 8oz of cold light soy milk and shook it like a madwoman.

I’m unsure about this kind of preparation. The matcha taste is dimmed down by the coldness of the milk, but the raspberry is almost amplified. Interesting.

I actually received a sample of this from both KittyLovesTea and adagio breeze. Thanks ladies!

This one smelled really good, very much like raspberry truffle. I added 1 tsp to my 12-16 oz DAVIDsTEA to go mug and topped it off with milk. The first few sips were great! It tasted like raspberry truffle. It brought back good memories of their mint chocolate matcha I loved so much. The flavour level was distinctive, but it was just too much so that it became nauseating after the first few sips. The chocolate was detectable but just barely so. The raspberry flavour turned into more of a licorice, floral, perfumey flavour.

I was thinking it might be better if I cut it with plain matcha, so I will try that, but my hopes aren’t high because I don’t think the flavour will change, it will just be lighter. I am soooo glad I was able to try this as it was at the top of my list and I would not want to purchase a whole bag of this now.

Sadly, out of the 4 Red Leaf matchas I’ve tried, I’ve only liked the mint chocolate matcha. The others were always good the first few sips, but the flavours were just so strong and artificial that I become sick of them very quiclly. I have a sample of caramel matcha sitting in my fridge, that will be next. I really want to find another one that I like because I loved the chocolate mint and would like to make an order.