Browsing Tag

matcha

Fruit Tea Green Tea Iced Tea Matcha Recipes

Sparkling Matcha Melon & Mango Lemonade Cocktail

24th May 2018

Hey guys!

Whittard of Chelsea asked me if I’d like to make a recipe for my readers using some of their products, I jumped at the chance and decided I’d like to put together a deliciously refreshing iced tea recipe for the summer!

To make this recipe I’ll be using Whittard of Chelsea’s Mellow Melon alongside their Matcha Mango & Moringa tea. I decided to use Mellow Melon as the base with Matcha Mango & Moringa ice cubes, blended with lemonade for some extra sparkle!

Ingredients

5 teaspoons of Mellow Melon

5 teaspoons of Matcha Mango & Moringa

1 litre of lemonade (diet lemonade or sugar free lemonade is best)

Method

I’m using my cold brew bottle which I highly recommend if you make iced tea on a regular basis but you can also use a normal bottle and strain it at the end.

  1. Add 5 teaspoons of Whittard of Chelsea Mellow Melon to the bottom of your bottle, fill with lemonade and put the lid on. Place the bottle in the fridge and leave overnight to cold brew.
  1. Add 5 teaspoons of Whittard of Chelsea Matcha Mango & Moringa to a tea strainer and top with just enough boiling water to cover the tea and leave to steep for 5 to 10 minutes, this will make a superstrong concentrated tea for the ice cubes.
  1. Leave the Matcha Mango & Moringa concentrated tea to cool and pour into your ice cube mould. Place your ice cube mould into the freezer and leave overnight.
  1. The next day simply add the ice cubes to the cold brewed Mellow Melon and either pour directly from the bottle if using a cold brew bottle or strain if using a normal bottle. Find some sun and enjoy!

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe and had fun making it, it really is the perfect iced tea for the summer months ahead and is super easy to make!

The products used in this recipe are Matcha Mango & Moringa, Mellow Melon and either a cold brew bottle or any tea strainer/infuser but I recommend Whittard of Chelsea’s Mug Infuser or a simple sieve to strain the tea and an infuser to steep the tea.

A huge thanks to Whittard of Chelsea for sending me the tea to make this recipe and thanks to all of my readers!

Bye for Now! xXx

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Fruit Tea Iced Tea Matcha Recipes

Christmas Matcha Mojito Non-Alcoholic Tea Cocktail

25th November 2017
Christmas Matcha Mojito Non-Alcoholic Tea Cocktail

This is my recipe for an amazing non-alcoholic matcha mojito tea cocktail that is perfect if you want an exciting cocktail with a little kick for this festive season, without alcohol.

The key ingredient is the Bloom Mojito matcha which gives an amazing flavour to the cocktail alongside the matcha vibes. You could probably use unflavoured matcha but the mojito matcha really does bring a special something to this cocktail and is one of the best flavoured matchas I’ve tried (see my matcha comparison post).

Ingredients

Half a chopped lime
6 mint leaves
3 teaspoons of sugar
Crushed ice
1 gram of Bloom Mojito matcha sieved and whisked in water
Soda water

Method

Cut the lime into segments and crush with mint leaves and sugar. Add crushed ice on top to stop the mint from floating to the top when you drink. Sieve and whisk the mojito matcha in a little water and add over the ice, top with soda water.

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Matcha Reviews Tea Reviews Top 10's

Ultimate Flavoured Matcha Comparison, Find Out Which Are The Best!

4th May 2017

I love matcha! it’s the best breakfast boost I’ve ever found, there’s nothing better to get you through that groggy morning feeling.
I’ve noticed flavoured matcha popping up more and more, my collection keeps on growingso I thought I’d do a flavoured matcha comparison post!

I won’t actually rank them or anything, don’t wanna be mean! 😛  I’ll just give you a general run down of my thoughts about each one and they’ll be in no particular order.

I made sure I used my matcha measuring spoon to ensure all the flavours were made with an equal amount of matcha. I really recommend it if you want to enjoy your matcha at it’s best, it’s really good quality and still looks great after a couple of years use!

 

T2 Tea Cinnamon Matcha

T2’s unflavoured matcha is really good, I find T2 products always deliver! I was excited to find that they’d made flavoured matcha and I reached out to them to see if they would like to be included in my comparison. First impressions were good, amazingly presented and smells awesome. The flavour was just as good as the smell, with a perfect blend of matcha and lusciously sweet cinnamon. Also incredibly frothy which is something I always enjoy in my matcha! Read my full review of T2’s Cinnamon Matcha. Can’t wait to try some of their other flavours and add them to this comparison! 😀

 

 

Bluebird Tea Co. Orange Matcha
The first thing I noticed upon opening the tin is the smell, it’s mind-blowing, like freshly squeezed orange juice. This must be because it actually has orange peal and orange oil in it, which gives it an intensely refreshing zesty flavour. It’s good because it’s not over flavoured, you still know it’s matcha but it just has the lush addition of the orange flavour.

It’s really really frothy, I mainly use an electric milk frother rather than a traditional whisk and the froth is wonderful. It’s very reasonably priced at £15 for 30g (at the time of writing), making it one of the cheaper options and you do get a lot of drinking for that £15.
It’s a good choice for anybody that wants the health benefits of matcha (you must of heard about them by now!), but aren’t fond of the natural taste of it.

 

 

Tea Shop Strawberry Matcha

I found this while travelling when I stumbled in to a tea shop we randomly found in Barcelona. It has a really nice strawberry flavour that is just right, it’s not so sweet that it overpowers the matcha flavour but it’s definitely strawberry flavoured. It has a bit of a pink hue to the froth, which I assume is from whatever they use to flavour it. This is possibly the one that still has the natural matcha flavour the most which could be a good or bad thing depending on your preference.

It’s got a slightly powdery feeling to it, I’m not really sure why, it possibly doesn’t blend as easily as others.  Tea Shop make pineapple, cherry and caramel as well as a couple others that are included below!

 

 

Adagio Teas Raspberry Matcha

Adagio were awesome enough to send me their raspberry matcha and their chocolate matcha (more on the chocolate further down! ;). This is the first Raspberry flavoured matcha I’ve found and I sure was glad to find it! It smells amazing and the tins Adagio use for their flavoured matchas are stunning.
The raspberry scent explodes from the tin before the lid is even removed and multiplies as you fully open it. What I liked most is that the raspberry flavour doesn’t taste artificial at all, it’s really impressive how genuine the succulent raspberry flavour has been captured in this matcha’s dry powder form. Full review here.

 

 

Yunomi – Azuma Chocolate Flavoured Matcha Latte

This isn’t technically flavoured matcha, it’s a flavoured instant matcha latte mix. I love matcha lattes but I find them hard to get when I’m out and about and I’m a bit too lazy to make them at home much. This is where these matcha latte mixes from Yunomi come in, simply add water and you have a matcha latte!

I’ve been a fan of the unflavoured matcha latte mix that Yunomi have for a while now so I was super excited to try the flavoured ones. The chocolate one is definitely my favourite, it smells simply amazing and really does add a nice milk chocolate sweetness to the latte and the convenience of these mixes is amazing! Full review of chocolate, ginger and yuzu matcha latte mixes here.

 

 

Pure Chimp Lemon Matcha

This is one of the most reasonably priced flavoured matchas I found as you get 50g which is more than most others. The smell is crazy strong, I was expecting a zingy lemon scent but it’s actually a really nice sweet lemon fragrance.

The flavour is also very sweet lemon and the matcha flavour is lost quite a bit as a result, the reason for the sweetness is Pure Chimp’s lemon matcha contains stevia to sweeten it. I’m a bit undecided about the stevia that’s been added, it does make the lemon flavour sweet and very different to the other flavoured matchas.
Personally I’d prefer it to not contain any sweetener so I could add it if I wanted, plus I LOVE the flavour of matcha which is lost a bit. The addition of stevia makes this the perfect matcha for people who aren’t accustomed to the natural taste of matcha, a great way to get the health benefits in a sweeter form. This matcha is insanely frothy, one of the frothiest I’ve found and blends really quickly which is always good.

Pure Chimp donate 5% of all profit to charity which is absolutely fantastic and really admirable. So if you prefer your matcha sweetened, love it frothy and would like to donate to charity this is the one for you. You can buy a jar here or a smaller pouch to try.

 

 

Bloom Teas Tropical Matcha
The first thing I noticed about the tropical matcha from Bloom is how nicely presented it is. A glass pot and a little mini spatula attached to the side are a welcome addition. This matcha smells heavenly, it’s like fresh cut mango, I love it! It seems to have little tiny white balls in it which I assume is flavouring, they dissolve completely and I only noticed them because I sieve my matcha so no biggy. Overall this is definitely in my top three, it might even be my favourite, I’m on my third jar now so it must be good, you really won’t be disappointed with this one! 😀

 

 

Adagio Teas Peach Matcha

I’m not really that much of a fan of peach as a flavour but it does seem to be a flavour that blends well with tea and the other Adagio flavoured matchas are so good I decided to give it a try. The smell explodes from the tin before you even open it (largely because the tins leak a bit in the post :p), it’s a mouthwatering sweet peachy fragrance that I really enjoy waking up to. Adagio’s matcha is always a bright vivid green and this is true for all of the flavours of theirs that I’ve tried.

On to preparation! It froths up really well and the smell gets stronger when water is added, I found myself excited about a flavour I usually don’t enjoy all that much which has to be a good sign! I have to say it really does taste fantastic, it has a stronger flavour than a lot of the matcha I’ve featured here but it works really well with the green tea flavour. This is definitely one to try if you like peach and/or prefer your matcha to be more strongly flavoured 🙂

 

 

Bluebird Tea Co. Blueberry Super Matcha

Next up is Bluebird’s super matcha, I heard so many good things about this so I had to give it a try. It’s a little bit more expensive than the orange matcha from Bluebird but you do get the added health benefits of Blueberry and Acai, which add even more antioxidants to the mix!

It’s a beautiful bright green colour and is clearly very good quality. It’s just so fruity and tastes fantastic hot or cold so will definitely be enjoying this all summer!

 

 

Adagio Teas Chocolate Matcha

Chocolate is without a doubt my favourite food and matcha is easily one of my favourite drinks so I was overjoyed to find that the amazing people at Adagio Teas have combined the two! I must admit I did wonder at first how the two flavours would be blended together and which flavour would take centre stage, so I was thrilled when I found that the two flavours happily share the stage!

This blend isn’t too chocolatey and is still clearly matcha but the chocolate flavour floats alongside the vegetal matcha goodness! Full review here 🙂

 

 

Tea Shop Mango Matcha

This is another flavour I found in Barcelona along with the strawberry flavour above. I loved the strawberry matcha but its downfall was it didn’t blend very well and tasted slightly powdery. Luckily their mango matcha isn’t powdery at all and is really addictive!

The mango flavour isn’t as strong in this matcha as the Bloom tropical matcha so I have to say I prefer the Bloom matcha but if you like a more natural flavour in your matcha this is for you.

 

 

Bluebird Tea Co. Cocoa Matcha

One of my more most exciting finds is Bluebird’s cocoa matcha, I loved Adagio’s chocolate matcha so I was excited to see how Bluebird’s compared. I have to say it’s really awesome! Although the chocolatey flavour in Bliebird’s cocoa matcha isn’t as sweet as in the Adagio chocolate matcha it does have more of a natural flavour to it, which is equally as enjoyable.Bluebird’s is flavoured with raw cocoa powder so it does have a brown tint to it, like anything chocolate should! 😀

I really love both approaches to chocolate matcha so it really depends whether you’re more in to a natural approach to flavouring or a sweeter flavour. Chocolate has to be my favourite food so I’ll definitely be devouring this Bluebird cocoa matcha!

 

Thanks for reading!

I’ll add to this post as I find more flavoured matcha, I have a few lined up and have had a few companies contact me so this post will surely grow! 😀

Comment below with any flavoured matcha I’ve missed or email me if you’d like your flavoured matcha included in the list, I’d love to add it!

Bye for now! xXx

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Fruit Tea Matcha Recipes

Huel Review, Including How to Flavour with Matcha & Tea

17th December 2016

A while back I became interested in finding some kind of meal replacement that’s super easy and good for me at the same time. I found Huel, a nutritionally complete food that I can make in minutes and not feel guilty about it’s effect on my body, I may even lose a little weight too!

Huel has received rave reviews and been featured in numerous newspapers but I wanted to try it for myself and have some fun experimenting. It contains all of the necessary proteins, carbs, fats and essential vitamins and minerals. Huel is also vegan which was one of my other requirements 🙂

The main reason for this post is to do a quick review of my experience with Huel as well as some recipes to get you started, they’re tea related of course! I wanted to see if I could use matcha and tea to add flavours and some extra health benefits to Huel

Review

When I stumbled upon Huel while researching fast healthy meals I thought it seemed like a great idea but was a bit sceptical if it would fill me up and how it would taste. I ordered a little to try and was pleasantly surprised, so I reached out to Huel and they were awesome enough to send me some more Huel to experiment with for you guys.

The best thing about Huel is how easy it is to prepare, it really does only need a few minutes, making it perfect for busy schedules! You can make it using just the Huel shaker bottle or a blender of some kind. I found it did take quite a bit of shaking so I moved on to using my Breville Blend Active, this guarantees almost instant lump free Huel and doesn’t leave you with a messy blender to clean afterwards.

I’ve only tasted the vanilla flavoured Huel, I figured vanilla is a pretty enjoyable flavour and would be easy to add other flavours to. The flavour is overall very pleasant, the vanilla flavour is sweet and enjoyable, there is a little bit of an unusual taste behind the vanilla but it’s so easy to add other flavours that this really isn’t an issue. The consistency is good and it does blend well, it reminds me a bit of a really runny porridge but it’s definitely a positive experience.

I found I could use 2 scoops of Huel (76g) and that would be enough to fill me up, the most surprising thing is it really does fill you up.  Two scoops works out to be 304 calories, so I was quite amazed I could replace a main meal with Huel and still be full. Huel works out to be only £1.33 for 500 calories so its also pretty good value and it lasts for over 1 year so you’ll never waste any by it going out of date.

Flavouring with matcha

As soon as I tried Huel I was anxious to try and flavour it with matcha! I always start the day with matcha and didn’t want to have to prepare my matcha and then make Huel as well and then drink both and the vanilla flavouring of the Huel really lends itself to matcha. I found that the correct amount for my personal taste was half a teaspoon of matcha per scoop of Huel, this was enough to still leave it tasting of vanilla but add a nice hit of matcha alongside it, and with no bitterness.

I use matcha from Kiss Me Organics for all my recipes, it’s good enough quality to taste amazing but priced low enough to not be crippling when a recipe requires large or regular amounts of matcha.

Flavouring with fruit tea

Next up I wanted to try and use fruit tea to add fruit flavours to Huel. You can just cut fruit up and blend it with Huel but I felt that adds an extra level of preparation to the process.

To flavour Huel with tea simply steep 2 teaspoons of fruit tea in 200ml of boiling water per scoop of Huel. Adding a teaspoon extra of tea for every scoop of Huel you’re using.

Any fruit tea you have will work, preferably loose not teabags. My favourites were Vanilla Slice from T2 & Strawberry Serenade from Whittard of Chelsea but have fun experimenting with any tea you have and let me know what your favourite is in the comments below!

 

Huel Matcha Grape Smoothie

While experimenting with matcha I found that I wanted some way to add a little more sweetness, without using a sweetener or sugar. I tried different fruit but found that grapes were perfect alongside the matcha and added a little extra excitement to Huel. These were the amounts I found perfect for me but you can test it out and adjust accordingly.

It was a little late in the day and the light was fading so the photo doesn’t really do it justice, it tastes amazing though! 😛

Add the following to your blender:

3 scoops of Huel

550ml water

1 – 2 teaspoons of matcha

10-15 grapes

Then blend throughly.

To keep things quick and hassle free I really recommend using the Breville Blend Active to prepare your Huel, it’s great for smoothies too so well worth buying:)

 

Final Thoughts 

I’ve really enjoyed my time with Huel as it fits perfectly in to my lifestyle, has helped me lose a little weight and is also amazingly convenient. It works as a meal replacement and really does fill you up, I’ve been having Huel a couple of times a week at dinner time but you can really have it as often as you like.

You can find the full range available from Huel here and a super helpful guide for using Huel here.

I’d like to say a massive thank you to the guys at Huel for sending me these products to review and experiment with. Also a huge thanks to my readers, I hope you’ve found this post useful 🙂

Bye for now! xXx

 

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Top 20's

Top 20 Gifts for Tea Lovers

18th November 2016

Whenever I have a birthday coming up and someone wants to know what to get me I always just say “anything tea related is cool please”. Then it occurred to me that my friends and family that aren’t in to tea still don’t really know what tea related gift to go for.

So I decided to write a gift post, listing the top 20 gifts at various prices that are perfect for tea lovers.

Ready to find that perfect gift?

£10 or Less

pug-infuserPug Tea Infuser – £5.99

 

vahdam-tea-sticks

Darjeeling Tea Sticks from Vahdam Teas – £9.95

 

glass-teapot-warmerBredemeijer Glass Tea Warmer – £9.95

 

teacups

Bedazzle Chatenier Matte Black and Gold or Silver Teaglass – £10

 

tea-timerTwo Time Tea Timer – £10.00

 

 

£10 – £25

dk-tea-bookDK Tea Book – £13.48

tea-discovery-boxWhittard of Chelsea Tea Discovery Collection – £20

 

miu-colourMIU COLOR Tea Infusing Bottle – £20.99– My Full Review

white-tea-blending-kit-overheadWhite & Green Tea Blending Kit – £25.00

 

 

full

Adagio IngenuiTEA – £18-£26 available in regular or XL –  My Full Review

 

 

 

£25 – £50

tea-lady-for-one
Tea for One Japanese Kokeshi Tea Pot and Tea Cup Set – £29.60

 

tea-set-japaneseUfengke Japanese Tea Service Set – £32.44

 

 

t2-big-chillT2 Tea Big Chill – £38

 

tea-soul-set

TEA SOUL Porcelain Portable White Tea Set with Bamboo Tray – £48.67

 

 

maoci-chawan-set

MAOCI Chawan Matcha Gift Set – £49.20

 

£50 or More

matchaeologist-new-packaging

 

Matchæologist Matcha Brewing Kit – £50.00  My Review

travel-set-pink

ZENS Tall Chinese Travel Tea Set – £54.99

bosch-kettle

Bosch Multi-Temperature Kettle – £56.45  My Review

 

dragon-teapot

 

MAOCI Cast Iron Dragon Teapot, available in 3 colours – £56.50


and one last one: Weimar ‘World Voyage’ Hand Made Teaset – £750 (we can all dream, right? :p )

weimer

 

So that brings me to the end of my Gift Guide for Tea Lovers. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it and have found a gift for that special someone 🙂

Bye for Now! xXx

 

P.s let me know what gift you’re buying the tea lover in your life in the comments below!

Join my newsletter for more tea fun

 

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Green Tea Matcha Tea Reviews

Review of PureChimp Ceremonial Grade Matcha

10th November 2016

Hey!

Today I’ll be reviewing PureChimp’s ceremonial grade matcha, which they were awesome enough to send me. I’m always on the look out for new matcha to try, so I was thrilled to receive this a couple of weeks ago! 🙂 Now I’ve spent some time with it and tried it extensively I think it’s time to get my thoughts written up for you guys!

The first thing I noticed about their matcha is that the price is really reasonable at only £6.95 for a 30g pouch at the time of writing, this is especially impressive given the quality of the matcha. There’s also a 50g pouch and a 100g pouch that are equally well priced.

It’s a nice bright green colour, a quality I always like to see from my matcha, with a clean crisp smell. I feel that it definitely deserves it’s ceremonial grade, which isn’t always the case with some other brands.

from-above

Another quality I’m always keen to judge is how frothy the matcha is once prepared and also how well the matcha blends. Purechimp’s ceremonial grade match is insanely frothy, I tested it with my chasen and a mini electric whisk and both were able to whip up a nice amount of foam! It also blends well so I didn’t have that overly powdery last mouthful that settles at the bottom with lesser quality matcha.

Before I tried their ceremonial grade matcha I purchased their lemon flavoured matcha and although I enjoyed the lemon flavour I was a bit disappointed that PureChimp chose to add stevia to sweeten it, so I was really glad that they didn’t go down that route with this as well. I found that their ceremonial grade matcha has a really nice natural sweetness to it with an enjoyable aftertaste, which made me I wonder if the stevia was added to the lemon flavoured matcha to counteract the sourness of the lemon.

Another thing I always judge a matcha on is how easy it is on the throat, I was pleased to find very little bitterness with PureChimp’s ceremonial grade matcha and a pleasant smoothness.

pile

Overall I’ve really enjoyed my time with PureChimp’s matcha as my ‘go to’ matcha the last couple of weeks. It comes highly recommended on Amazon and I have to agree that it’s a really good option for ceremonial matcha at a really reasonable price point.

If you’d like to try PureChimp matcha for yourself you can find it in 30g, 50g or 100g pack sizes, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed! There’s also a really nice PureChimp gift set which includes three 50g jars with mint, lemon and their original matcha which would make the perfect gift someone special or a starter set if you’re new to the wonderful world of matcha.

That pretty much covers my thoughts on this awesome ceremonial grade matcha. Thanks for reading my review, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and it’s helped your buying decision. Also a huge thanks to PureChimp for sending me their matcha to review!

Bye for now! xXx

 

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Matcha Rooibos Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. New Flavoured Matchas Reviewed!

25th October 2016

Hey guys!

Recently Bluebird Tea Co. released an amazing collection of Autumn products and they sent me a load of them to review 😀  it was an exciting surprise when it turned up at my house, even if they did slightly hint on Twitter that something might be on it’s way to me! 😉

I reviewed their new teas first which included an amazing Rooibos blend, chocolate blend and chai tea, you can check that review out here.

Alongside the tea Bluebird also unveiled three amazing new flavoured matchas as part of their Autumn lineup, there’s Cocoa Matcha, Golden Matcha and Gingernut Matcha AND they sent me all three! :O

After a long summer break from my studies it’s time to begin them again, one last time! Matcha always keeps me sane when I’ve got a heavy work load so these couldn’t of come at a better time 😃

On to the review!

 

ginger-matcha

Gingernut Matcha

This matcha is limited edition and the flavour is inspired by the well known gingernut biscuits. I bought a ginger matcha from another company a couple of months ago and it was shockingly bad, we’re talking burning throat, coughing profusely bad (I won’t name names!). Needless to say I was slightly hesitant to try another ginger matcha but I was pretty confident that Bluebird would pull it off, and they really did!

The other ginger matcha I tried was spicy, herby and almost medicinal but Bluebird’s is completely different, it’s the kind of ginger flavouring that reminds me of gingerbread men and of course, gingernut biscuits.

The matcha is good quality with nice bright green colouring and froths amazingly. You can feel a slight spice from the ginger but it’s overall sweet and actually is biscuity, as you’d hope for in a Gingernut Matcha.

 

golden-matcha

ginger-matcha-close-up
Golden Matcha

Bluebird’s golden matcha is a twist on their decaffeinated rooibos matcha with some added ingredients.

Alongside the decaf rooibos base is cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and the main ingredient; turmeric! The health benefits of turmeric have been celebrated for thousands of years, it’s believed that turmeric could be good for digestion, depression, pain, diabetes, arthritis and more! It’s not really an ingredient that I could imagine myself easily being able to work in to my everyday diet so Bluebird’s Golden Matcha is a great way to do this.

Bluebird’s recipe for making ‘Golden Milk’ is to add a teaspoon of Golden Matcha to a mug of coconut milk (I use rice milk) and a teaspoon of honey. I actually found that the sweeter taste of the rice milk meant I didn’t need to add any sweetener and I find the flavour more enjoyable without the coconut element.

I initially thought that drinking one of the main ingredients of curry with rice milk would be worth it for the health benefits but not for the taste but I’m actually amazed how incredible it tastes! It has a definite spicyness to it which gives it a chai-like vibe but the milkyness and sweetness of the rooibos really make it a unique and delicious drink!

As this is decaf I was thrilled to finally have a matcha I can drink at night, I often struggle to get to sleep so a hit of matcha isn’t what I’m looking for but this is perfect and really has a cuddly feel to it 😊

 

Cocoa Matcha

Last up is Bluebird’s cocoa matcha! I say fairly often in my reviews that I love chocolate more than any food, there’s nothing better! So when Bluebird announced cocoa matcha I was thrilled, I have one other chocolate matcha which I adore so I had high hopes for Bluebird’s and it didn’t disappoint.

I could smell the cocoa before I even opened it! Upon opening the tin the first thing I noticed is this matcha is a browny colour, which is because it literally has cocoa powder in it, no icky fake flavourings here! When you add the water it takes on a new fragrant drinking chocolate style smell that I knew was gonna taste good.

The matcha element of the mix tastes good and high quality. I enjoy that this matcha is genuinely chocolatey and the flavour isn’t drowned out by the matcha, perfect if you’re a chocolate addict! If you enjoy chocolate (who doesn’t?) and you like matcha, then this definitely needs to be added to your shopping list 🙂

 

top-down

That’s my round up of the new flavoured matchas from Bluebird Tea Co., they were the first to develop flavoured matcha in the UK and these are awesome additions to their line up. If you’d like to try their flavoured matcha you can find it here.

Thanks to the amazing girls and guys at the Bluebird HQ for sending me these amazing products to try, it’s very much appreciated!
A big thanks to my readers for checking out this review, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Keep a look out for some awesome new favoured matcha posts I’ve got coming up! 😉

Bye for now! xXx

 

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Matcha Tea Reviews

T2 Cinammon Flavoured Matcha & Teaware Review

11th July 2016

I’ve become obsessed with flavoured matcha over the last few months and watched it go from one or two flavours being available in the UK to a ton of flavours being available.

I decided I’d put together a comparison post for all the flavoured matcha I can find, there’s even a couple from Barcelona thrown in. I haven’t quite finished the comparison yet but in my search I was excited to discover that T2 now do a few flavoured matchas. I reached out to them to see if they fancied being included in my comparison post and they were kind enough to send me their Cinammon matcha and a hella fancy glass mug to go with it.

As they were generous enough to send me these I thought I’d write a post up just about their products to begin with and then add them to the comparison post too. Read on to find out what I thought!

Cinammon Flavoured MatchaPackaging

The first thing I always notice about T2 products is how phenomenally presented they are, if you haven’t been to one of their stores yet I urge you to do so. I particularly like their Regent Street and Tottenham Court Road stores in London, their staff are always more than happy to make up a batch of any of their teas for you to try and they’re super knowledgable. The quality of the packaging is instantly obvious with their flavoured matcha as you can always expect from T2.

Tin with spoon

This is THE spoon to measure perfect matcha servings! http://amzn.to/29O56ZY

It comes in beautiful black tins with vibrant colours that are always in pristine condition. Inside the lid of the canister there’s a second lid that really helps to keep the matcha fresh, not that it’ll hang around for long once you’ve tasted it 😉 Inside the canister you’ll find a totally sealed foil packet so you know your matcha is perfect from day one.

Straight away I was impressed with the bright vivid green of T2’s matcha and the cinnamon fragrance explosion that took place as soon as I snipped the top of the packet. I did wonder if the cinnamon would be too spicy and overpower the matcha but I could tell from the sweet cinnamony scent that this wouldn’t be the case.

T2’s cinnamon matcha blends amazingly with the water and the froth it produces is really incredible, you literally get about a centermetre of frothy joy on top of each batch. The cinnamon flavour is as the fragrance promised, sweet and puddingy! It reminds me of cinnamon buns but not quite as sweet and the balance of cinnamon and matcha is superb.

Another thing worth mentioning is I recently bought a pack of T2’s unflavoured matcha sachets so I can get a matcha hit while I’m on the move (my matcha addiction has got pretty serious in recent weeks 😛) and I love the vibrant green goodness that bursts out of each sachet. It seems T2’s matcha is top quality whether it’s flavoured or not, some other flavoured matcha I’ve had has clearly been lesser quality matcha hiding behind a flavour but this totally isn’t the case with T2.


T2 Glass Mug

Main

When I opened my much awaited T2 delivery I was thrilled to find that they’d also included one of their glass mugs. Another reason to visit a T2 store is their teaware, it’s simply divine! It is quite expensive but their quality is one of the highest I’ve seen, from their teapots to their glassware, it’s all fantastic.

I’ve always particularly liked their glass teaware, I have a double walled glass of theirs that you may of seen on my Instagram and it’s always been one of my favs. The glass mug I received is clear glass with a black glass handle, it’s super smart and perfect for displaying their matcha in 😃

The black glass handle really works alongside the bright green hues of the matcha. It’s really a joy to use and adds an extra element of sophistication to any matcha session. I’ve really enjoyed my time with T2’s cinnamon matcha and cannot wait to try their other flavours once they’re back in stock in their London stores. If you’d like to buy their flavoured matcha too you can find them on their website, there’s a choice of Cinnamon, Chocolate or Mint.

A massive thank you goes to T2 for being awesome enough to send me their wonderful products to review.

Another huge thanks goes to you guys for reading my review, it means so much to me! 😃 Remember to come find me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, I’m always happy to talk with any fellow matcha lovers!

Bye for now! xXx

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Matcha Tea Reviews

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!

Double wall with flower

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 and packaging

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

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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! 😊

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