Time for tea and cookies 🍵 🍪
Welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week’s newsletter is short and sweet. If you’re new check out past posts here, and make sure to follow my new Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Ito En matcha green tea, jasmine flavor at Sunrise Mart
2213, 494 Broome St, New York, NY 10013
Come in! Sit down. Let me make you a cup of tea. In general, I prefer strong and smoky black teas (oolong) and what we call “red tea” in Chinese, but this week, I’m really digging the light and floral jasmine matcha green tea from Ito En. It’s called “matcha,” but it’s not a powder like my favorite Ippodo, and nowhere as vegetal and pungent. It’s also a fraction of the cost, at three to four dollars for a box of 20, but that’s like comparing espresso and your morning cup of joe; both are wonderful in their own way. All the varieties in the Ito En matcha green tea line are great — I also love the ginger flavor — and you can find them at your local Asian food mart.
Vegan tahini chocolate chip cookie at Seven Grams Caffé
175 Varick St, New York, NY 10014
In a plot twist, it turns out that the thickest, richest chocolate chip cookie in New York is vegan. That’s right, the scone-sized tahini chocolate chip cookies at Seven Grams Caffé contain no butter and no eggs. What it does contain is a ton of tahini, that savory sesame seed paste, and oversize, melty semisweet chocolate chips. The texture of this jumbo cookie is really on another level: There’s a thick, crunchy outer shell that shatters when you take a big bite to reveal a gooey center that tastes like nutty cookie dough. Easily enough for two or more people, this cookie isn’t a snacc, it’s a whole damn meal.
Black sesame chocolate chip cookies at my apartment
Wherever ovens may be found
If you don’t live in New York, and can’t make it out to Seven Grams Caffé for their ridiculous vegan tahini chocolate chip cookies, do not despair. You can make these smol but thicc cookies right in your own home. They are the puffy, chewy-soft chocolate chip cookies of my dreams, like firm little clouds, all thanks to a secret ingredient — coconut oil — that makes them incredibly easy to assemble. I was skeptical of the lack of butter, but it turns out that coconut oil, which has a higher fat content, makes an even richer cookie. If you don’t like the taste of coconut, simply use refined coconut oil, which has no detectable taste. Follow this recipe from Chef Savvy, but substitute ¼ cup of the white flour for ground black sesame seeds, which you can get at any Chinese grocery store.
Meiji Rich Matcha Biscuits at Sunrise Mart
2213, 494 Broome St, New York, NY 10013
These cookies are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they are absolutely, 110% mine — pun intended. Meiji, the Japanese snack company of Hello Panda and Chocorooms fame, has done it again, with a cookie that I thoroughly enjoy despite not being shaped like a zoo animal or tiny plant. On first glance these rich matcha biscuits, which are packaged in pairs, resemble Oreos, but they have a much more grown-up taste. The thin and dry chocolate wafers are slightly bitter, and so is the dark green matcha filling.
GT's Organic Kombucha, Mystic Mango flavor at the grocery store
Your local health foods store
So I snuck some “health food” onto this newsletter, but I figured with all the cookies, you might need it. I mean, to be fair, kombucha’s just tea and sugar, transformed, and it’s debatable whether or not it’s especially good for you. I personally drink kombucha because it satisfies my weeknight beer cravings sans hangover. GT’s is my favorite brand (#notsponsored), and lately I’ve been loving this mango flavor, which honestly just tastes like fizzy mango nectar.
— Sophie
P.S.: Next week, Five Things I Ate will be in sunny southern California! Because of that, there may or may not be a weekly post. If you have recs for food and/or drink in San Diego and Newport Beach, send them my way.