Matcha | Russtea's

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

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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

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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

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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!

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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

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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:

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

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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.

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Green Tea Matcha Recipes

Matcha Green Tea Coconut Ice Cream Recipe

4th August 2015

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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Matcha Recipes

Recipe for Matcha White Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake Bars!

28th July 2015

I’ve been perfecting this recipe for a few weeks now and finally feel that it’s perfect. The green tea flavour provides a delicate and refreshing flavour alongside the velvet smooth cream cheese, white chocolate and matcha are a matcha made in heaven (couldn’t resist!). These cheesecake bars are beautiful to have on a warm summer day, with the cool slightly sour cheese flavour bouncing off the super sweet oreo white chocolate base.

I used matcha from Bluebird Tea Co. but if you wanted to keep the cost down you could use culinary grade. I’ve heard fantastic things about Vitalife matcha so this is also a good choice. I used 1 tablespoon in this recipe and I think it’s perfect for sharing with people that aren’t matcha freaks as the hint of tea is quite subtle. If you’re a regular consumer of matcha then you may want to add a little more, up to about 2 teaspoons.

The ingredients are easy to double up which I’ll be doing from now on, these cheesecake bars don’t last long once my family notices them in the fridge, even our cats come running when they smell them!

Preparation: 20 mins | Total 30 mins

Serves: 10

Ingredients:

1 – 2 teaspoons of Matcha

1 packet of white chocolate chips

1 packet of oreos (the standard tube sized pack)

1/2 a cup of chilled heavy whipping cream

80 oz/225g of room temperature cream cheese

3 tablespoons of sugar

Blueberries, for prettyness (optional)

Method

1. Line a 9×9 inch tray with kitchen foil, ensuring the sides are covered.

2. Melt the white chocolate chips in a bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring regularly.

3. Use a food processor to finely grind the Oreos. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted white chocolate and blast it with the food processor again.

4. Firmly press the Oreo chocolate mixture in to the bottom of the foiled tray, use the back of a spoon to cram it in so it stays together as the cheesecake base. Chill the base in the fridge while you make the topping.

5. Stir the matcha powder in to the white chocolate until smooth. I use a little mini sieve to keep lumps to a minimum.

6. Use an electric whisk to beat the whipping cream until peaks form.

7. Use a new bowl to combine the sugar and cream cheese, beat until smooth.

8. Next add the white chocolate matcha combo and slowly fold in the whipped cream.

9. Spread the mixture over the Oreo white chocolate base. I used a spatula held vertically to get the finish as flat as I could.

10. Return the cheesecake to the fridge and allow it to firm up. I left mine overnight, mainly because I was making it at nearly midnight! (gotta love a middle of the night bake off 😉 )

A couple of hours in the fridge is probably fine. Use the sides of the foil to lift the cheesecake out of the tray and then cut it to your desired size. I finished mine off with a few blueberries but they’re not essential 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed my recipe and would love to know how these turn out if you decide to make them. You really won’t be disappointed, these are delicious and are the perfect treat for every occasion!

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You can win matcha and a load of other fantastic tea in my competition to win a luxury tea hamper full of awesome tea! Check it out. Thanks for reading!

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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?