Matcha | Russtea's

Review of Azuma Chocolate, Ginger or Yuzu Flavoured Matcha Latte Mixes from Yunomi

26th June 2016

The last few months I’ve been loving flavoured matcha and really excited how it’s blown up in the UK this year, so I’ve been on a mission to find all the flavoured matcha I can and put together a big comparison. I’ll cover these again in my comparison post but I wanted to give them their own post as well as Yunomi were generous enough to send me them.

After posting a photo of my matcha collection on Instagram I was messaged by Yunomi, offering me the chance to try some flavoured matcha latte mixes 😀 obviously I jumped at the chance and I’m really excited to share my experience with you.

Yunomi sent me chocolate, ginger and Yuzu (Japanese Citrus). These mixes are a combination of matcha, sweetener and powdered milk with a couple other ingredients. They basically allow you to make a quick matcha latte like the ones slowly popping up at all the good tea shops at the moment but easily in your own home.

The Review

The parcel from Yunomi arrived which was super exciting, tea all the way from Japan is pretty special 🙂 All three mixes arrived in such beautiful vibrant packaging, the packaging is heat sealed for freshness. You get a good amount in one packet, for around the $10 mark, which is pretty reasonable compared to the price of a matcha latte when out and about in London! 😮

I found all three latte’s had the right amount of sweetener, I did worry if they might be too sweet like they sometimes are in tea shops but they’re not at all. It’s really never been easier to make a matcha latte at home, you simply heat the water, then you add a few teaspoons of the mix and stir. It’s really impressive how milky the latte actually ends up being, without any extra milk being added.

The powder blends well and doesn’t have any lumpy issues or sink to the bottom like a lot of hot chocolate powders do. A little also goes a long way so you’ll get a lot of lattes from each packet.

On to the flavours!

Yuzu (Japanese Citrus)

I hadn’t heard of Yuzu before so I did a little reading and found that Yuzu is a citrus plant originating in east asia. I kind of assumed it would be more of an orange flavour but it’s most similar to a grapefruit taste. It is a little less bitter than grapefruit and not crazily strong in the matcha latte mix but it does have a tart flavour.

I found this was refreshing and I really enjoyed the opportunity to try a flavour I’ve never tried before but I did find the grapefruit-like bitterness slightly too strong but that’s probably just me.

This was a really good breakfast drink, which I guess is kinda like people having grapefruit for breakfast. It’s a refreshing flavour that’s good for an early morning wake up and again the matcha taste is still the dominant flavour, which is definitely a good thing.

Chocolate

I was really excited about the chocolate, two of my top 5 favourite foods combined! 😀 The first thing I noticed when I opened the packet is a smell very similar to powdered hot chocolate but with a matcha hit. When you add the water the smell goes from great to outstanding, literally smells of melting chocolate!

I wondered how well the chocolate and matcha flavours would go together but I have to say I needn’t of worried. The chocolate and matcha are there in equal amounts without one being too strong. The sweetener in the latte helps the flavours to blend, without it the sweet chocolate taste and vegetal matcha flavour might not of been such a good match. This was by far my favourite of the three, I just adore chocolate!

Ginger

This is one I was a little apprehensive about trying but it turned out to be really good. It’s not a sweet gingerbread-like flavour, it’s more of a spicy ginger which goes well with the matcha. I did it slightly too gingery for me but if ginger’s your thing I’m sure you’d love it. Again it’s very economical and made a really good thick milky drink with a lot of froth.

I found this latte smelt really great and the fresh gingery aroma really clears your airwaves when you take a sip. I’m sure if you also found the ginger a little too strong you could sweeten it, especially if you prefer a less natural, sweeter matcha.

So that’s my review of these fantastic matcha latte mixes from Yunomi, I really hope you enjoyed reading it and that you choose to try the chocolate, ginger or Yuzu matcha latte mixes for yourself 🙂

A big thanks to Yunomi for sending me these products to review, it’s such an honour to be sent products all the way from Japan so I really appreciate it 😀

As always, please share if you know anyone that will enjoy this review, join my mailing list below and find me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Bye for now xXx

0 Comments

Matcha Tea Reviews

Ethicoco Matcha Flavoured Vegan Chocolate

20th June 2016

A few weeks ago me and my boyfriend took a trip to Bristol for Vegfest, we figured the London and Brighton ones are awesome so we decided to check out Bristol’s too and it didn’t disappoint! I did hope there’d be some tea companies there but sadly there wasn’t, luckily I was able to at least get my matcha fix in the form of matcha flavoured chocolate from ethicoco. The first thing I wanted to do after trying it was write a review, so here it is! 😊

One minor annoyance was the chocolate actually got left in my boyfriends glovebox which is refrigerated but it turns out that’s only when the car’s moving so the chocolate got melted. Thankfully it did set again and didn’t seem to look any different so hopefully it was still tasted in its full glory!

The Texture
The first thing I noticed is the chocolate is really creamy, often I find vegan chocolate is a bit watery and as I’m not actually vegan I tend to like my chocolate more with milk in it. Every time my boyfriend mentions me going vegan I always say chocolate and ice cream would be the things I couldn’t live without so my challenge has always been to find vegan chocolate that I enjoy as much as non vegan chocolate. Ethicoco’s matcha chocolate really does have that enjoyable melting chocolate quality to it, which I haven’t found in much other vegan chocolate, apart from Vego.

The Taste

The other issue I always have with vegan chocolate is it often tastes like cooking chocolate tastes. This is another one of Ethicoco’s strong points, it does have a nice chocolate flavour and the strength of matcha in their matcha chocolate is perfect. You know the matcha’s there, with the slight dryness it adds but without it being bitter or vegetal. It’s also got enough matcha in it to be blatantly green which is pretty exciting and the matcha kick is really addictive!

Conclusion

I’m pretty pleased with Ethicoco’s matcha chocolate all round, it’s great tasting with a consistency that’s very very close to milk based chocolate. I’m interested to try their other flavours at some point and see how the milk chocolate compares to regular milk chocolate so I’ll add to this review when I get the chance to try them! 😊

0 Comments

Matcha Tea Reviews Teaphernalia

Review of NEW Adagio Teas Chocolate Matcha & Raspberry Matcha

13th June 2016

A little while ago I decided to start working on a post comparing flavoured matcha from different brands. Adagio Teas were awesome enough to send me a couple of theirs to try so I figured I’d write a review dedicated to the Adagio Teas flavoured matcha and add them to the comparison as well (which I’ll be publishing soon!).

Adagio sent me a 57g tin of their new raspberry flavoured matcha as well as a 57g tin of their new chocolate flavoured matcha.

The first thing I noticed was how incredible they smell, they really do smell beyond words. I also love the tins, they’re really decorative and a really beautiful touch if the pictures on the inside of the lids, raspberries on one and a chocolatey brown design on the other. A small issue I had with the tins is the matcha had managed to escape a bit and the outside of the tins were a bit covered, this could quite easily just be a one off though.

What’s really good about these flavoured matchas is they’re really good value for money, for just £14 in the UK and $29 in the USA you get a 57g tin of matcha, this is especially cheap and the matcha is still really high quality. Both flavours are a beautiful vivid green colour that’s always nice to see and they froth up really excellently too.

Still loving my perfect serving matcha spoon!

Raspberry Flavoured Matcha

I decided to try the raspberry flavoured matcha first as it was more similar to other flavours I’d tried, which were all fruity, so I felt I’d be able to compare them better. As soon as the matcha hit the water the smell erupted in to the kitchen, what surprised me is the smell is so fresh and doesn’t smell artificial in any way.

The flavour is equally as amazing as the scent, the raspberry flavour is very definitely there but without overpowering the matcha flavour. I love unflavoured matcha so I always want my flavoured matcha to still be primarily matcha flavoured and not sweetened in any way so this is perfect on both fronts. The fresh raspberry flavour compliments the drier flavours of the matcha perfectly and the smell as you inhale with each sip is heavenly!

Chocolate Flavoured Matcha

Chocolate is probably my favourite food in the world, I literally adore it! So chocolate was the flavour I was most excited about trying, all the other flavoured matchas I have are all fruit flavours so this one really stood out for me. Upon opening the tin or even as you pick it up before you open it, you can smell this sweet chocolate smell, it kinda smells just like Nesquik milkshake powder!

The chocolate flavour is quite subtle and not overpowering, which I feel is a positive thing. After trying it and thinking about it, I thought that a strong chocolate flavour wouldn’t actually be that great with the vegetal flavours of matcha so it’s subtlety is probably it’s strong point. It’s very obviously matcha but that slightly naughty chocolate flavour is noticeable alongside it, which is a pretty heavenly combo!

So if you’d be wanting this to be crazily chocolatey this probably isn’t for you but I kinda feel that crazily chocolatey isn’t really what you want from your matcha, give me matcha with a chocolatey undertone instead any day! 🙂 It’s really great to be able to enjoy something so healthy and get a chocolate hit at the same time!

Final words

The new flavoured matcha range from Adagio is really exciting and well worth checking out if you like matcha and want something a bit different. These matchas are flavoured to just the right amount, while still retaining the flavour matcha lovers adore.

You can check out the new flavoured matcha’s from Adagio Teas here, other flavours in the range are Cinnamon Apple, Mocha and Peach. I’ll probably end up buying the Cinnamon Apple and Peach as well as I love matcha from Adagio Teas and the chocolate and raspberry didn’t disappoint at all!

Adagio also included some of their tea for me to review as well which I’ll be doing in a separate post so keep a look out for that if you love tea as well! 🙂

Thanks to Adagio for sending me these new flavoured matchas to review, I’m so grateful!

A while back I reviewed Adagio’s IngenuiTEA gravity tea infuser which will seriously change the way you drink tea! You can find the review here.

Thanks for reading! Bye for now 🙂 xXx

0 Comments

Matcha Tea Reviews Teaphernalia

Matchæologist Misaki Matcha, Glass Chawan & Chasen Review

24th April 2016

Recently I was contacted by Anthony from Matchæologist, he asked me to review their Matcha. He also sent me one of the most in depth emails I’ve ever received about matcha, I’ll try and include some of his knowledge in this review for you guys 🙂

Anthony sent me their Misaki matcha which is their highest grade of matcha. As well as the matcha he was incredibly generous in sending me a handblown double walled glass chawan (matcha bowl) and a bamboo full hand chasen (matcha whisk).

The quality of the chawan in beyond words, it’s stunning seductive curves are a work of art, my matcha drinking just got an upgrade! 😉 I’ll definitely have it on show in my study between uses as it’s way too pretty to keep in a cupboard! The double walls mean that your matcha stays hot for longer and that the outer wall is comfortable to the touch. Being glass means it looks incredible in photos, with the deep bright green of Matchæologist Misaki matcha shining through!

The Chasen is also beautiful, it has a longer handle and smaller prongs than the one I have been using, which is awesome because I can gain more movement and control when I’m preparing matcha in smaller vessels. The chawan and chasen combine magically, making matcha preparation effortless.

What Makes Matchæologist Misaki Matcha Different?

Before I go on to review the Misaki matcha I’ll share some info about what makes it so special. Matchæologist only sells artisanal grade matcha, the kind that’s been used throughout history in tea ceremonies, by buddhist monks and even samurai warriors! Matcha of this quality is achieved exclusively by hand; the tea buds are picked, rolled, roasted and even stone ground completely by hand.

The key difference with this matcha when compared to other matcha is the vivid green colouring and blue hues, this matcha is GREEN in a way I’ve never seen before. This colouring is achieved by using only the top buds of shade-grown tea trees, when tea trees are shade grown they compensate by producing more chlorophyl. The most tender parts of the shoots are picked and any veins or stems are removed. This results in a beautifully roasted fragrant matcha with a pleasant ‘umami’ taste profile that is a little sweet but still has that exquisite savoury flavour that all matcha enthusiasts crave.

Matchæologist’s process outlined above also causes the tea trees to be higher in L-theanine, the amino acid that contributes to the mental clarity that matcha drinkers love, as well as a host of other health benefits.

My Thoughts

The packaging is beautiful, each item came in a cute canvas drawstring bag, a lovely touch. The Misaki matcha comes in a little metal tin and inside is a foil bag that is sealed so the freshness of the matcha is guaranteed. You simply open the packet and carefully tip it in to the tin which screws shut to provide airtight storage.

Straight away I’ve gotta say that this matcha is phenomenal, as soon as I opened the Misaki matcha I couldn’t believe the colour, it’s so unbelievably green and the smell is fantastic. It froths up beautifully, it almost reminds me of bubble bath with a thick layer of froth in every batch, once prepared it’s a bold deep green colour.

The first thing I noticed is there’s no bitterness, a lot of matcha has a bitter taste to it which I believe is what puts some people off. This has the savoury roasted flavour that matcha lovers crave but the noticeable difference is a succulent sweet aftertaste that I’ve never experienced before. It offers an addictively complex flavour with the perfect sweet/savoury balance, leaving you looking forward to each and every sip.

The mental clarity and alertness experienced after drinking Matchæologist’s Misaki matcha is also noticeably improved compared to regular lesser matcha. It’s awesome to get a good hit of it just before a study session or to get the creative juices flowing!

So that’s my review of the wonderful experience of Matchæologist Misaki matcha and the jaw-droppingly beautiful chawan and full hand chasen. It’s been fantastic and I strongly recommend you check Matchæologist out. I’d like to say a massive thank you to Anthony for being so generous and sending me such amazing products!

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, if you did you can subscribe to my newsletter below. I have a pretty fantastic competition in the works that you’ll definitely want to enter! 😉

Bye for now! xXx

3 Comments

Matcha

Matcha Halloween Zombie Cake Pops Recipe

27th October 2015

I wanted to make something horrific for halloween and I decided cake pops would be perfect. You can eat them yourselves, make them with your family or even give them to trick or treaters!

I made white chocolate chip vanilla cake and covered them in matcha white chocolate, matcha is a fantastic natural alternative to green food colouring and tastes divine. I use Kiss Me Organics Culinary Grade Matcha, as it has a great taste and is also really green and it gives the brightest green colouring I’ve found, it’s also cheap for over 100g!

You’ll also need a cake pop mould, I used this Sweetly Does It mould.

Originally the plan was to use orange food colouring to make orange chocolate and decorate them as jack o lanterns but the food colouring I bought was awful and wouldn’t make the white chocolate anywhere near the orange I wanted.

I also decided I wanted to get some matcha involved somehow and while watching the Walking Dead premiere I decided that the perfect combo would be matcha green cake pops with zombie jack o lanterns! I had one white chocolate cake pop that I made before adding the matcha, so I had an idea to have the white chocolate one as a human. The finished result is the display of the women running from the zombies. It might not be that good (I’d never written with icing before) but they tastes fantastic which is the main thing! 🙂

So here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, room temperature

150g unrefined caster sugar

4 tbsp of milk, also room temperature

180g of self raising flower

1 bag of white chocolate chips

Culinary grade matcha, to taste

Method:

1. First thing you’ll want to do is cream the sugar and butter in a bowl

2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat gently with an electric whisk and add the vanilla extract

3. Sieve the flour and baking powder in to a bowl and combine

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix thoroughly

5. Add the milk and stir until the batter mixture is smooth and your desired amount of white chocolate chips.

6. Grease your cake pops mould thoroughly in all the holes and spoon the mixture in to the holes, add the lid of the mould. You can use a cocktail stick to prod the cake pops through the hole in the mould, to check if they’re cooked.

7. Place the mould on a tray to stabilise the cake pops while they cook and cook for 15-20 mins

8. Remove the cake pops when they’re ready and leave on a wire rack to cool. Take the top of the mould off and you should have perfect cake pops!

9. Last step is to melt some white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, add the amount of matcha you like. Dip the cake pop sticks in the white chocolate and leave them to set slightly, this will help to secure the cake pop in place on the stick (you can see my fallen cake pops as zombie heads in the background lol).

10. Stab your first cake pop with the stick and dip the cake pop in to the white chocolate, I used a fork to help lift the cake pop out, which greatly reduced the amount of cake pops falling off their stick. Put the cake pop in the holder and allow to set before decorating, repeat this for the rest of the cake pops and you’re done! 😀

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a fantastic Halloween! 😀

If you try these I’d love to hear how you get on 🙂

xXx

0 Comments

Matcha Recipes

Matcha Halloween Zombie, Sugar Skull & Pumpkin Chocolates & Lollies

17th October 2015

With Halloween approaching I decided I’d do some Halloween themed cooking with matcha. Matcha makes the perfect green colour when added to white chocolate which is convenient for zombies and it’s much healthier than food colouring!

I love sugar skulls and zombies, ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ & the return of ‘The Walking Dead’ has made me even more zombie obsessed recently which inspired these chocolates.

There’s not really much of a recipe to be honest, basically just melt some white chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan full of water and then add matcha until the chocolate is the right colour and taste. I’m actually really quite pleased with the results, only downside is some of the matcha chocolate is dotty, not sure why :/

Here’s the finished matcha chocolates and lollies:

The two colour chocolates were made by pouring the matcha chocolate in first and leaving it to firm up (but not totally set) and then pouring the milk chocolate on top.

I also made some normal white chocolates and orange white chocolate, in a selection of more child friendly shapes:

Anyway that’s the first of my Halloween creations, I have matcha cake pops and doughnuts coming up, both with a Halloween twist! 😉

I used Kiss Me Organics Culinary Grade Matcha which I highly recommend for taste and also to produce vivid green colours in your cooking. We used Dr. Oetker food colouring gel for the pumpkins which was worthless, we used an entire tube in the chocolate for two lollies and it was nowhere near the colour we wanted 🙁

The moulds used are these Sugar Skulls and these Zombie moulds. You can get the lolly sticks from loads of places but I recently found these Halloween Coloured Lolly Sticks which I kinda wish I found before I made these!

Thanks so much for reading, I’d love to hear from anyone who makes these and if you have any questions just hit me up!

Subscribe for more recipes, reviews, tea fun and matcha madness!

0 Comments

Matcha Recipes

Carrot Cake With Matcha Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

3rd October 2015

Bluebird Tea Co. recently launched Matcha Honey, what could be better than the combination of Bluebird’s matcha and local Brighton honey?! 😀

They sent me a jar to experiment with and it’s a really fantastic product, the honey is incredible and the sweetness of it blends perfectly with the matcha. It’s great on toast, crumpets or added to tea but it’s also great in frosting! 😉

I thought this cream cheese frosting would be paired perfectly with the subtle spiciness of moist carrot cake and this recipe was born!

After some taste testing I struck the perfect balance, which is roughly 3 teaspoons of matcha honey. It depends largely on how strong you want the matcha flavour to be, I wanted it to be definitely matcha flavoured but without bitterness and without the honey flavour becoming sickly but feel free to alter the quantity to your taste. I also wanted to keep the traditional colouring of carrot cake, with beautiful cream frosting! 😀

Cake Ingredients

3 eggs

300g soft light brown sugar

300g plain flour

300ml sunflower oil

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (plus extra to decorate)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3/4 teaspoon of ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

300g grated carrots

Matcha Honey Cream Cheese Ingredients

2 1/2 – 3 teaspoons Bluebird Tea Co. Matcha Honey

300g icing sugar

125g cream cheese, refrigerated

50g unsalted butter, room temperature

I used 3 x 7″ cake tins but you can vary this a bit depending if you want thicker or thinner layers 🙂

Method

Cake:

Beat sugar, eggs and oil with a handheld electric whisk or mixer until well incorporated.

Slowly add bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, flour, salt and vanilla, continue to beat until mixed.

Stir in the carrot and transfer the mixture to 3 cake tins, with greaseproof paper on the base. Smooth the mixture over with a palette knife or by tapping the trays on the work surface.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let the trays cool a little bit and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Frosting:

Beat butter and icing sugar together with an electric whisk on a slow speed until combined. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat gently until incorporated. Turn the mixer up to a high speed and continue beating until light and fluffy, approximately 3 -4 minutes. Be careful not to overdo it to avoid the frosting becoming too sloppy. Finally add the matcha honey and whisk in on a slow speed, your best bet is to add it gradually and keep tasting it to get the flavour to your desired strength.

Pick the layer with the most even dome to be the top of your cake, then use a bread knife to slowly take a layer off the top of the other two layers to flatten them out. This will make frosting easier, make the cake more stable and also look better when the cake is cut.

All you have to do now is spread frosting on the bottom layer, add the middle layer and do the same to add the top. Then spread remaining frosting on top of the cake and work it down the sides. You can either try for a flat smooth look with an offset spatula or keep it rough and fluffy like mine.

That’s it! You have the best carrot cake in the world 😉

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe, I adored making it and I was thrilled with the results. It’s the perfect cake to share, I divided mine up and gave some to my mum and my boyfriend’s parents and they loved it!

Definitely check out the matcha honey from Bluebird Tea Co., it’s such an easy way to get more matcha in to your diet and tastes amazing!

Bye for now! xXx

0 Comments

Green Tea Matcha Reviews Tea Reviews

Yunomi Matcha, Matcha Latte Mix & Hojicha Review

25th September 2015

Recently I was lucky enough to be sent some fantastic Japanese tea from Yunomi to taste test and review. I received 30 grams of Yunomi Factory Direct G3 Matcha, 50 grams of Azuma Tea Matcha latte mix (which I adore!!) and some Hojicha.

Keep reading to find out what I thought of Yunomi’s tea!

Matcha Factory Direct G3

This is what I was most excited about trying and it didn’t disappoint at all! I’m totally addicted to matcha, I love to cook with it, make lattes, drink it hot or iced.

The first thing I noticed with this matcha is the colour, it is BRIGHT green, like the colour of grass! It also has a slightly more moist look to it, unlike nearly all of the matcha I’ve purchased in the UK, which is always dusty and powdery. This matcha is just so fresh smelling and the freshness is even more pronounced once it’s prepared. There’s no bitterness at all which often accompanies UK matcha, instead all you taste is a healthy flavour with a silky consistency.

The packet I received has proven to be incredibly economical, because it’s such good quality I’ve been able to use less than I would with UK sourced matcha.

Overall I’m so thrilled with this matcha, I definitely won’t be buying my matcha from anywhere else. This is the best matcha you will find, sourced straight from Japan and it’s simply fantastic!

AZUMA: Matcha Latte Mix

I was so excited to find this on Yunomi’s store, I absolutely love a good matcha latte but very rarely have them due to the time it takes to make one and them being basically unavailable in UK coffee chains.

This latte mix just needs water and quick stir, then it’s ready to go, it has sugar and powdered milk already added. The result is a perfect matcha latte in seconds, and it really is as good as the ones I’ve made myself and even the lattes I’ve bought in London! I found I did have to use quite a lot for the latte to have that thick, milky consistency but it still costs a fraction of the price of lattes on the highstreet. The back of the packaging suggests using milk instead of water, which would provide the milky consistency while using less of the matcha latte mix.

I developed the beginnings of a cold randomly for a day or so during the time I was testing these products. I dived straight in to my matcha vitamin C boosting routine (the perfect excuse for constant matcha lattes) and the cold never progressed, which I largely thank this latte mix for!

One other thing I did really like is the packaging, it’s stylishly presented, feels super traditional and the resealing strip is really functional.

Roasted Hojicha Instant Tea

This was something new for me so I was eager to try it and I wasn’t disappointed! It has a similar fragrance to matcha but with a roasted, slightly smoked hint. I added it to 80° water and waited in anticipation, a deep almost coffee-like smell began to drift up to my nose.

Once prepared, it’s taste is also similar to matcha but with a more intense nutty flavour, which is really comforting now the weather is plummeting in the UK! It feels sort of chalky in consistency which is surprisingly enjoyable and the vegetal taste gives an overall healthy feel. I love the roasted aftertaste, it’s so warm and really addictive!

Final Words

I’ve love these Yunomi products sooo much! The matcha is hands down the best matcha I’ve ever had, the flavour is deep, not bitter at all and just blows UK bought matcha out of the water. If you’ve never tried Japanese matcha I urge you to make an order with Yunomi and try REAL matcha, you won’t regret it! Take a look at Yunomi’s website!

Finally I’d like to say a huge thank you to Yunomi for sending me these products to review, I’ve had a ton of fun tasting them and taking the photos!

Join my newsletter to stay in the loop!

0 Comments

Green Tea Matcha Recipes

Matcha White Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

5th September 2015

Recently I’ve been trying out a few new matcha recipes, including these Matcha White Chocolate Chip Cookies. I wanted their main flavour to be matcha but without any bitterness that sometimes accompanies matcha, I finally perfected the amount of matcha and white chocolate with buttery goodness.

These work well as soft gooey cookies but are also equally divine if you leave them in a tad longer and let them morph in to the best biscuits ever!

I used Culinary Grade Matcha from Kiss Me Organics for this recipe, as it’s fantastic quality at a great price! I found their matcha to be an all round winner, especially at culinary grade prices and it produces a vivid green colour without needing so much matcha that you sacrifice the flavour.

These matcha white chocolate cookies are so incredibly easy to make and don’t take long at all! 🙂

Ingredients

240g of plain flour

130g of caster sugar

2 large egg yolks

pinch of salt

10g of matcha

150g of unsalted butter, left at room temperature to soften

roughly 1/3 of a cup of white chocolate, I just kept on adding until it looked chocolaty enough/the bag was empty 😛

Method:

1. Sift the matcha and flour, matcha lumps is definitely not what you want!

2. Cream the butter sugar and salt until light and fluffy, then add the egg yolks

3. Slowly combine the matcha and flour combo with the wet ingredients

4. Fold in the white chocolate chips (feel free to nibble some at this stage!)

5. Once everything is well mixed you’ll want to roll the dough in to a log shape and wrap it in cling film, then refrigerate for a few hours. Refrigerating firms the dough up and allows you to cut the log in to roughly 8mm thick slices, depending on how thick you like your cookies.

6. Place the cookie dough slices on a tray lined with grease proof paper and bake for 15-18 minutes at 150°C / 300°F

7. Remove the cookies from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

8. All that’s left to do is devour them! :p

Thanks for taking the time to read this recipe and I hope you enjoy making these fantastic tasting matcha cookies! I’d love to hear how you get on, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. If you’re looking for the perfect matcha for these cookies I really recommend culinary grade matcha from Kiss Me Organics.

Have fun! 🙂 xXx

Get more recipes straight to your inbox!

2 Comments

Green Tea Matcha Recipes

Matcha White Chocolate Blondies Recipe

22nd August 2015

I love brownies and their white chocolate sibling more than anything. That fudgy chewy moist centre and the slightly crispy top, add matcha and white chocolate and you’re on to a winner! I’ve fine tuned the amount of white chocolate and matcha and believe this amount is perfect, the matcha is subtle but definitely there and the white chocolate is divine.

The ingredients you’ll need for this recipe are:

240g of white chocolate

2 tsp of matcha (I used Bluebird Tea Co’s matcha)

30g of white chocolate chips

3 eggs

200g sugar

110g butter

80g of plain flour

Method:

1. Put the butter and white chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water, then add the sugar.

2. Add the eggs one at a time.

3. Sift in the flour and matcha.

4. Fold in the white chocolate chips but hold some back to sprinkle on top.

5. Pour the mixture in to a tray lined with greaseproof paper

6. Bake the brownies at 200° C for 5-10 minutes and then remove from the oven, cover with foil and bake for a further 25-30 minutes. I made these at my house and also my partners and I found the cooking time varied between the two so keep an eye on them and test them by dipping a knife in the middle

7. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining white chocolate chips over the top, you’ll find that they soften and melt (heaven!).

That’s it, it’s that easy. The results are mind-blowing and they’re a real crowd-pleaser. I’d love to hear how you get on making these, if you have any questions or issues making them I’d love to help via email or Twitter.

Get more recipes and reviews straight to your inbox!

1 Comments

Older Posts

Newer Posts

Hi there, welcome to my blog about my biggest passion, tea!

My name’s Russell, my lifetime nickname has always been Rusty or Russtea as my friends now call me (my surname even begins with T!).

Not much beats the feeling of taking a moment at the end of a busy day and relaxing with your favourite mug, filled with sweet fruit tea, or waking up with black tea infused with vanilla shortbread.

Why not take a moment now, make your favourite tea and join me as I share my tea related experiences?