The Special Sunday Tea Edition
All about matcha.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we read the tea leaves, or rather drink them all ground up lol. Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.
Hibiki-An House Matcha Stick Packs on-the-go
You must order online -- shipped internationally.
Listen up y’all. This is not, and will never be, a coffee-negative space. I love coffee, and always will – from a minty shaken espresso to La Colombe in a can. Don’t ever come for me and my poop beverage. That being said, every so often, maybe once a year or so, I wake up and find it hard to drink coffee! I know. It’s wild. But sometimes the flavor just feels too strong, or too acidic, or too something or the other. The good thing is I also really love tea. The bad thing is that I mostly only love very expensive tea, aka matcha, which can actually cost more than making espresso. Thankfully, I was recently gifted a whole bag and then some of matcha, because it turns out that, very conveniently, some people aren’t really suited for the matcha lifestyle, and they find out after buying it! Long time followers of the ‘letter will know I am a stan for Ippodo (RIP the Grand Central location), but I am warming up to the Hibiki-An I was gifted. Especially being a frugal queen, I found out that they actually have affordable to-go stick packs of matcha (they come out to less than a dollar each!). Usually “house” versions of matcha are absolute shit, but this one is pretty great, verdant green (very important, just toss that dusty-ass shit straight into the trash otherwise), and drinkably vegetal.
A brief interlude: My favorite way of preparing matcha at home or on-the-go
Some people don’t like matcha because they find it a hassle to prepare. I really don’t want to prove them otherwise because I want people to continue giving me their matcha they don’t want, lol. However, it’s secretly super simple to prepare matcha if you, like me, prefer all beverages iced. This is my default way of making matcha, unless I want to spend some time romanticizing my life by whisking it in a handmade porcelain bowl. All you have to do is put 2g (approx ½ tsp) matcha in a 16oz Nalgene bottle*, fill it with ice, and about 4-6oz water depending on how thick you like it. Screw on the lid and shake, shake, shake. You’re all set! Pour it into a pretty glass or just drink it on-the-go.
*I used to do this in a Mason jar but it shattered from the ice once :(
Maeda-en Ceremonial Quality Matcha at home
It’s pretty widely available in Asian grocery stores and online.
Maeda-en is a very widespread brand. I’ve seen it at almost every Asian grocery store and generally have not been very impressed by it. It’s a good matcha for baking, in a pinch. However, I’ve never tried their Ceremonial Quality before and it’s pretty decent, green and grassy. It definitely lacks the nuance and umami of Ippodo tea at the same price range (the Ceremonial Quality Maeda-En is probably a mid-range Ippodo), but it’s really not bad. For this matcha, I prepared it traditionally with a bamboo whisk (2g with 4oz water just off the boil – you don’t want it too hot), and once again poured it over ice. I still ended up using this mostly for baking (see below), as I truly DO NOT BELIEVE IN CONSUMING CULINARY GRADE MATCHA (lol sorry to your wallet).
UCC Assam Milk Tea at Various Asian Marts
Sunrise Mart, H-Mart, etc.
This is not matcha, and tbh I don’t even know how much tea is actually in the can, but I really love the UCC Assam Milk Tea. It comes in the tall white can with the blue label and I’ve seen it at almost every Asian mart or mini mart in the city, possibly all five boroughs. Is it sacrilegious to say that I even like it better than milk tea you get at a boba place? It’s just very nice and floral and sweet. It’s also pretty pricey per can, but again, less than Starbucks or a boba place for sure.
Fudgy brown butter matcha brownies at home
Recipe from Cooking Therapy.
Matcha is one of my favorite dessert flavors (see this showstopper Green Tea-ramisu) – it pairs really, really well with both vanilla and dairy cream. However, I rarely bake with it, because as I said above, I really really don’t believe in culinary grade matcha, which is basically ground green rock dust. Therefore, whenever I bake with matcha and throw in a whole two tablespoons I can literally feel the dollars leaving my wallet. But honestly it’s probably still less than $10 so I should get over it and bake with matcha more, because it’s seriously delicious. These fudgy matcha brownies have the perfect crackle-y on the outside, gooey butter on the inside texture. I probably underbaked them, because I have only been using my toaster oven since my “big” one is electric and I do not understand it. But in this case, it’s perfect. The butter and grassy green flavor go together like two best friends.
Enjoy your Sunday,
Soph