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Kristal drank Matcha Matsu (Organic) by DAVIDsTEA

415 tasting notes

Ah matcha, how popular you are! I can see why this is so. This tea is a real pick-me-up with a crazy dark green colour. Instead of steeping, you whisk the powder in warm water. You have to be careful with the temperature of your water, however, or else it’s bitter and gross.

Overall I enjoy this tea-its nice and earthy. One negative about it though is that I don’t have the matcha whisk or strainer, so the last sip is undrinkable because of the settled matcha powder. I usually use a little less than 1/2 a teaspoon when whisking to try and combat this problem.

EDIT-if you are whisk-less like me, I discovered that if you put 1/2 a teaspoon in a draw-string teabag and bob it up and down in warm-hot (72 degree) water for just under a minute, the matcha will dissolve into the water through the filter and you will have a nice cup of matcha without the settled powder at the bottom. It might not be as strong as if you were to whisk it straight in, but it is still darker in colour than almost all “regular” green teas I’ve tried. :)

Preparation

165 °F / 73 °C 0 min, 45 sec

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I used to drink coffee, but it started to hurt my stomach so I switched to tea. A friend of mine introduced me to DAVID’s TEA and I couldn’t stop after that! I’ve now been expanding my scope beyond DAVIDs away from “candy-like teas” into more natural teas or flavourings. Current favourite stores include International House of Tea (iHOT) and Verdant Tea.

When it comes to tea ratings, I usually only ever rate them once. I know a lot of people on steepster do many tasting notes for the same teas depending on their mood, but I prefer to rate once and if my opinion changes, I will delete the old note and rate again. How I rate teas goes as following:

1-49: Teas I won’t buy again. Either the taste is disgusting to me, or it’s too bland, etc. I’m most likely not even going to finish the tin/bag.

50-59: Teas I wouldn’t buy again; I have to force myself to drink the whole cup to not waste it.

60-69: I’ll finish the cup and even the bag/tin, but I wouldn’t buy these teas again. Teas of this rating are “lacking something”.

70-79:Teas that are pretty good and ones I might buy again. Usually these teas are ones I have to be “in the mood for” and drink occasionally.

80-89: Great teas! Ones I will drink several times a week and often have in my stash :).

90-100: Favourite must-have teas!

My favourite types of tea are green tea and different types of “natural” herbal tea (different herbs, natural flavourings, etc). I cannot drink black or oolong teas due a sensitive stomach. I don’t really go for white tea due to its cost and the fact that it has just a little caffeine (if I want caffeine I’ll just go for a green tea and if I don’t I’ll go for a herbal-no sense on just having a little caffeine). I also like to do iced teas in the summer time, and then I’ll gravitate towards herbal fruit blends that are bagged to cut costs and convenience (it’s easier to throw out bags than clean a filter). Flavours I don’t care for include anything too tart, bitter, artificial, overly spicy or overly sweet.
Also, when I have time (usually when I’m not working much) I like to make tea lattes out of different rooibos blends.

My everyday green tea is Gunpowder since it is strong and not sensitive to temperatures or steeping time which is something I cannot be bothered with when I’m getting ready for work. Other greens I enjoy are dragonwell, sencha, and different Chinese greens. I’m not the biggest fan of yunnan greens since they are so finicky (although I do like gyokuro)

On a day to day basis I usually have 2-3 cups of green tea and several more cups of different herbal blends.

Besides tea I also work at a couple libraries (I am finishing my library tech diploma),am in my early 20s and got married in Oct 2014.