Tea Blog Menu

Matcha is a type of green tea used mainly in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies; pale green with a nice, if weak smell. I heard the taste is bitter, but strangely pleasant. As a lover of all sorts of green tea, I've always wanted to try it, so imagine my joy when I found it at the local grocery store I shop at. Having run out of black tea and dried cranberries earlier in the week, I decided to go shopping earlier than unusual. I could live without black tea by drinking the remaining green teas, but I needed the cranberries.

AS I browsed the tea aisle, I passed the green and flavored teas to look for standard black tea, when I looked up on the top shelf and ta-da! There it was in all its very expensive glory. $30 for tea is far more than any college student could afford, and I still needed my cranberries. I poked around and eventually found a matcha and green tea blend that fit within my budget. I took it home and proceeded to make a cup of tea.

I heated up a cup of water and dropped a circular bag into my mug, the label on the container telling me to let it soak for three or four minutes. When I took the tea bag out, a cloud of green fog hovered in the middle of my cup before settling to the bottom. The rest of it was a pale greenish-brown color like regular green tea.

It tasted like it looked, but as I drank the dregs, the bitter flavor it's touted for hit my taste buds like a wave. After recovering from my initial shock, I found the normal green tea flavor balanced the bitter flavor very well. It reminded me of summer-time and freshly cut grass.

Matcha is merely green tea leaves ground up very finely, providing all the health benefits that regular green tea does.

I would not recommend dropping a tea bag into your cup directly, rather, making a pot of tea and drinking it slowly while relaxing after work. It’s a calming tea, the flavor and smell making it a good drink for the end of a hard day or watching a storm while curled up with a good book.