Matcha Green Tea
Recently I had been hearing about matcha and wondered what it was.
Matcha is a green tea (sencha) which is grown in the shade for part of its season, originally a ceremonial tea, is currently being promoted as a health drink and food additive.
A quick visit to Pinterest yielded gorgeous photos of a wide range of recipes and uses for matcha:
- Starbucks lattes
- donuts
- cheesecake
- bread
- pretzels
- smoothies
- popsicles
- ice creams and yoghurts
- macarons
- shortbread
- brownies
- almond matcha cookies
- dark chocolate macha layer cake
- cream puffs
- truffles
- cupcakes
- fudge
- flan
- crepes
- souffles
- matcha mint juleps
- energy balls
- a face mask
- matchamisu (versus tiramisu)
- the list goes on and on
Instead, I found matcha in the loose tea section to try. It is expensive — $21.99/lb –so I just bought a little bit.
Here is what the green tea (sencha) looks like compared to matcha I bought.
Since matcha is made from green tea leaves grown partly in shade, Per wikipedia, “this slows down growth, stimulates an increase in chlorophyll levels, turns the leaves a darker shade of green, and causes the production of amino acids, in particular L-Theanine.”
Glad I only bought a little because I didn’t really like it.
To me, it tastes a little like perfumed spinach. But it did perk me up.
When I made it again today, I made it less strong and I liked it better.
I am so curious to find out what it tastes like as a powder that I will buy it when it is in stock at Wegman’s again and try it in one of the recipes I found in Pinterest.
If you’ve tried it, I am interested in your thoughts.
B
