Matcha Green Tea

Matcha --- Antioxidant rich 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

The recipes use powdered matcha--  which is currently sold out at Wegman's so I am going to have to wait to bake and cook with it.  

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.

Common green tea (sencha) on left, matcha on the right

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