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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

Matcha Top Down

 

Matcha Powder

 

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!

Matcha, Chasen, Powder

 

 

 

AZUMA: Matcha Latte Mix

Matcha LatteI 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

Hojicha Web Ready

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!

 

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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:

Matcha and Flour

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

 

 

Creamed Butter Sugar and Salt

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!)

 

Dough Wrapped in Cling Film

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.

 

 

Ready for the Oven

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

 

wire racked7. 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

top down

view from the left

Close up

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

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Green Tea Matcha Recipes

Matcha Green Tea Coconut Ice Cream Recipe

4th August 2015
Close Up

Last week I joined The Hectic Vegan and his ice cream makers and made my Matcha Green Tea Coconut Ice Cream. This ice cream is really easy to make, tastes amazing and is 100% vegan which is also a massive bonus.

After perfecting the recipe I decided I’d write it up as a guest post which you can read here. If you make it I’d love to hear how it went in the comments below! 🙂

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Green Tea Iced Tea Reviews Tea Reviews

Do I LOVE Tg Green Teas Iced Tea & Pyramid Teabags?

7th July 2015

Recently Tg Green Teas asked me if I’d like to try some of their products, obviously I jumped at the chance and was sent a selection of items. These included 3 flavours of Bottled iced tea and 3 packs of green tea teabags. Keep reading to get the low down on these teas from Tg Green Teas!

All 6 products are green tea, the bottles all have ginseng added alongside a choice of mandarin, jujube or standard green tea.

Iced Green Teas

Cold Bottles

The iced green teas are ready made and bottled so they’re always ready to go, the bottles are a comfortable shape with a bullet proof non leaking lid. They contain less than 30 calories each and have just enough sweetener, no less, no more. I love the taste of good quality natural green tea that these iced teas have and the sweetness is perfected with great precision, often bottled iced tea is LOADED with sugar but not these beauties!

Mandarin & Ginseng

I adore this iced tea (good thing I received 2!), the mandarin fragrance explodes from the bottle as you remove the lid and the flavour doesn’t disappoint. The mandarin is very clearly there sitting happily alongside the green tea but it doesn’t overpower it, I’ve had orangey iced tea from other companies that literally tastes like Fanta (eew!). The mandarin flavour is also sweet rather than sharp and all this with only 30 calories!

There also isn’t too much of a dry green flavour to the drink, I expect because the mandarin is so expertly blended with the green tea in precisely the right quantity.

 

Classic Green Tea & Ginseng

I shamefully expected this to be the least exciting but in all honesty it is by far my favourite Tg product, truly gorgeous. It’s so refreshing chilled and really invigorating to drink during the hot weather we’ve had recently. With just the right amount of sweetness, this is an extremely well rounded iced tea that I’ll be sure to be coming back to again and again. The only downside is I finished the bottle in a matter of minutes, and was a tad devastated when I realised!

If you only try one of Tg’s products this is the one. I’ve tried to recreate something even remotely similar myself using iced loose leaf green tea and agave nectar but it just can’t be done! Buy a couple of bottles of this classic green iced tea and pop them in your backpack next time you’re out for the day, bliss!

 

Jujube & Ginseng

Finally I tried the Jujube & Ginseng, the most noticeable difference to the mandarin flavour is that the flavour’s stronger. The Jujube takes more of a centre stage position in this iced tea, again the sweetness is perfect and there’s none of that sugar coated teeth that other iced teas leave you with (I’m looking at you Lipton!). It was so hot the day I drunk this so I got my favourite glass out, poured the pinky tinted liquid, added ice and kicked back with my laptop and got through a sweltering afternoon of work.

The Jujube really sits alongside the green tea flavour perfectly, neither flavour is over the top and both complement each other wonderfully. This iced tea was the only one that ended with a slightly dry taste, but this was a real positive quality on a boiling hot day! 🙂

 

Teabags

 

Next up is the teabags! The teabags are pyramid teabags which is great to see, pyramid teabags improve flavour by giving the leaf more room to expand and move around. I found I could easily get two mugs out of a single teabag which makes these incredibly good value at £4.15 for 15 teabags. The leaf across all 3 flavours is of good quality and much larger than you would usually see in teabags, none of that dust filling that a lot of teabags have!

All 3 flavours taste great, the green tea tastes really pure and is delicate and not too vegetal, the flavours are also just the right strength. I found these teas were better with a sweetener, Tg suggest sugar or honey but I used agave nectar to sweeten mine which made it fantastic! The expiry dates of the packets I received are all 18 months away, and the packets reseal fantastically so your tea will stay fresh for a long time. The matte black packaging features vibrant colouring, which I find really alluring as the colours pop out on my tea shelf, against a backdrop of the usual brown tea packaging.  Keep reading for my thoughts on each flavour 🙂

Ginger & Lemon Zest

Upon opening the packet I was pleased to find that the lemony fragrance wasn’t overpowering, I often find blends featuring lemon to be overly zingy. Alongside the refreshing lemon fragrance I could detect the ginger undertones peeking out.

I was easily able to get two infusions from each teabag and actually found the second infusion tasted better as the green tea is a little more subtle and allows the other flavours to take the spotlight. This tea was the one I found most in need of a sweetening, just to lightly soften the ginger flavouring. I really enjoyed just sniffing the mild zingyness of the lemon as I took a sip. This would be a great morning tea to get you feeling refreshed and energised!

 

Jujube & Osmanthus

The jujube & osmanthus teabags have a nice earthy but sweet smell, the kind of smell that makes me think of curling up on the sofa for a Netflix session! 😉 Once brewed I found the flavour was quite savoury but with a sweet fruity smell accompanying the green tea. These teabags also easily do 2 infusions, so what could be better than sharing a teabag and a chat with a friend?

Again the quality is top notch with large leaf, good quality pyramid teabags and none of the dust that you find in inferior teabags. The thing I found really convenient about these teabags is they do offer you loose leaf quality without the hassle. Admittedly, I do find it quite fun to prance around the kitchen preparing my loose leaf tea and getting my gadgets involved but if I’m in a rush these are the first teabags I reach for!

 

Classic Green Tea

Again I left the classic green tea for last, I found the flavoured teabags more compelling to try, but the unflavoured green tea is actually really relaxing and comforting. With all the crazy flavourings of tea I have, I sometimes forget just how nice straight unflavoured tea is. The classic green tea from Tg is LUSH, when you taste it unaltered you can really appreciate the quality of the leaf that goes in to their teabags. The classic green tea has a slightly dry vegetal flavour, with that healthy feel, but it’s also great lightly sweetened.

 

Final Thoughts

I had such fun trying these products and found it especially exciting to try some new iced tea! I’d like to say a massive thanks to Tg Green Teas for sending me such a generous selection of products to try. I strongly suggest you keep an eye out for these teas or even better, buy directly on Tg’s website.

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Black Tea Green Tea Tea Reviews

How Much Do I Love My Blackberry Mallow Forleaves Tea?!

26th May 2015

This week I was lucky enough to receive some samples from Forleaves Tea Company, read on to find out what I think of them!

Forleaves Tea Company is based in Leicestershire. The ethos behind Forleaves Tea Company is to “encourage everyone to take a moment in their day to slow down a little, take time to create something special”, their tea is certainly perfect for this very thing! Forleaves Tea Company is a home based business, which is fantastic and their tea really does have a homely feel to it.

The flavours I received were:

No.27 Blackberry Mallow

No.10 Orange Blossom

No 15 Flower Blossom

No. 10 Lavender White Tea

The package arrived well packed and the presentation of the tea is really smart. Each tea comes in a sealed pouch, which you cut open and then you’re left with a ziplock to seal the freshness in after each infusion. I’m really impressed with the quality of the tea, the leaves are big and they smell fantastic. I decided that these teas are worth a review for each flavour so this will be the first of 4.

 

Tea Info

Tea Loose

The first tea I’ll be reviewing is No.27 Blackberry Mallow. This blend has a base of Assam black tea and China green tea which are entangled perfectly, the sweetness is thanks to the natural Blackberry flavouring. Forleaves Tea Company describe the tea as being “Malty Assam flavour with a blackberry & mallow sweetness”, sounds like a match made in heaven! They rate it as 5 (strong black tea) which I’d say is pretty spot on, I prefer a weaker amber toned tea so a lot goes a long way.

 

The flavour

Prepared Tea

As soon as I opened the teas I got straight in to steeping the Blackberry Mallow and WOW the smell blew me away, just gorgeous. You can smell that wonderfully intoxicating smell of good quality black tea but it’s softened by the blackberry tones, I really couldn’t wait to take my first sip. Immediately I tasted the perfect blackberry flavour. When the tea is made to the optimal strength you can almost forget the malty black tea is there because the blackberry is really strong, which is a magical balance.

Forleaves Tea Company suggest adding milk to a stronger cup. I basically never add milk to tea, mainly because I only drink soya and it’s not great in tea, but I could imagine if you were milk friendly it would taste great in this tea.

 

Overall

I definitely suggest you try this tea, I love black tea and the Assam paired with the blackberry is so comforting to drink, like a big hug in a mug! 🙂 If you prefer a more traditional flavour and aim for unflavoured black tea, you might find the blackberry overpowering but that smooth Assam flavour is wonderful. This tea is a fun tea, with the blackberry mallow it’s sweet and doesn’t take itself too seriously, a quality I like in a tea! 😉

 

I really hope you’ve enjoyed this review, if you’d like more tea joy delivered directly to your inbox you should definitely join my mailing list!

I’d like to give a huge thumbs up to Forleaves Tea Company for providing these teas for me to review, check them out and be sure to come back for the review of the other three flavours!

Tried any interesting teas lately? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below 🙂 xXx