Vibe industrial waste bins across their shop front. Not good.
Lunchtime, excellent espresso and iced matcha latte. The espresso , the flavour notes exploded in my brain.
I returned later, tried their Christmas special, matcha chocolate tart together with a cappuccino.
No milk with which to make iced matcha latte.
Adaptation from Jamie Oliver Eat Yourself Healthy. Book and Channel 4 series of the same name.
I was there for matcha. I stayed for lunch.
An excellent introduction to matcha .
I would not dream of drinking coffee let alone matcha in Starbuck’s or any other corporate chain.
Matcha has become trendy, everywhere serving poor quality matcha.
Matcha was introduced to Japan several hundred years ago.
Matcha is green tea. The plants are shaded to increase the chlorophyll. The best leaves are picked, briefly steamed, dried, stone ground by hand for ten hours to produce a very fine powder of the constituency of talcum powder. The production is very labour intensive, hence the high price.
Matcha is high in (similar to coffee)
May have the same health benefits as coffee, but to date no long term epidemiological studies or randomised clinical trials to draw any hard conclusions.
Matcha contains an amino acid l-theamine which counters the effect of caffeine.
Two coffee shops I recommend for matcha
Vibe, matcha cheesecake to die for.
Recommended matcha powder.
iced matcha latte
When I visited Beyond Coffee a couple of days ago, it was busy, queuing out of the door from a nearby law firm. Not today, deserted, as I found on Saturday last week.
When I visited Beyond Coffee a few days ago, I would have liked to have tried matcha, but thought no, try another day.
Today was the day.
The matcha used, the colour, I do not know. Would not say when questioned.
Would I like syrup? Er, no thanks. The row of syrups signals bad coffee.
Iced matcha latte, mediocre, not great.
I sat outside. Heavily polluted.
Later, I made an iced matcha latte . I did not use the best matcha. Nevertheless, it was marginally better.
Q
Tuesday lunchtime an order placed with Tea Lab for matcha and a ceramic mixing bowl.
An e-fmail confirmed my order.
Within an hour or so a second e-mail to confirm the order had been despatched.
1030 Wednesday morning a parcel sitting on the back doorstep.
Now that’s what I call service.
The contents of the box well protected by tiny strips of concerted paper.
Inside the box
.
Matcha has become a trend, which is unfortunate, as a lot of poor matcha is being sold, which is giving matcha a bad name.
Look at the colour. Light anemic green, or even worse, dirty muddy brown, is poor quality matcha. The latter most probably culinary grade.
Claims ceremonial grade meaningless. This is comparable with coffee, barista quality, artisan coffee, or even worse cafe quality.
Coffee is graded. Q grade 80 above is specialty coffee. Less than 80 commodity coffee , poor quality coffee supplied to the corporate chains and greasy spoon cafes.
Award winning should set alarm bells ringing. Paid for? One of the worst, Great Taste Award.
Spurious claims of health benefits. Where is the evidence? There are no long term randomised clinical trials, or epidemiology studies to support the health claims for matcha.
Matcha has comparable levels of phytochemicals and fibre to coffee. Therefore a reasonable assumption may have similar health benefits, but not the same as hard evidence.
Matcha contains L-theanine, an amino acid which counters the effect of caffeine.
Avoid matcha bulked out with other teas, and anything else.
Quality matcha will be a dark vibrant green. Never settle for anything less.
Two coffee shops highly recommended for an iced matcha latte.
More on matcha
Hints, tips and a recipe
Matcha is shade grown tea, introduced to Japan 900 years ago. The leaves steamed, dried, then ground into a very fine powder.
iced matcha latte
– 3g matcha
– 25ml water c 75C
– one large ice cube
– 110ml milk
Add matcha powder to the hot water. Whisk with a bamboo whisk.
In a glass, add the ice cube, pour in the milk, add the whisked matcha.
A sieve is not necessary. The matcha powder should not be lumpy. If lumpy, either poor quality matcha or exposed to humidity.
Try matcha powder first, adding the water.
Buy quality matcha.
Avoid the coffee chains.
Highly recommended
– Lè Speciality – Fossgate – York
– Vibe – Hounds Gate -Nottingham
The health benefits claimed for matcha are hype. There are no long term epidemiology studies to draw upon.
What we can say, matcha contains similar phytochemicals and fibre to coffee. We can therefore extrapolate and say matcha may have similar health benefits to coffee.
The precense of l-theanine counters the effect of caffeine.
Personally I find matcha has no effect, but then neither does coffee. But this is very much a personal experience, and will vary from one person to the next.
With coffee, meaningless terms, barista quality, cafe quality. The only one with knowing is the q grade. Below 80, commodity coffee. 80 and above, specialty coffee.
With matcha, ceremonial more or less meaningless, as all is described as ceremonial.
Look at the colour. Light green, anemic looking, poor quality matcha. Dark vibrant green, high quality matcha.
#matcha
Lunchtime matcha iced latte.
Afternoon matcha cheesecake and cappuccino.
I fancied an espresso, but decided I’d try iced matcha latte.
Water added first, then add matcha powder, whisk with bamboo whisk.
Noticeably different to any matcha I’d tried before. Very creamy.
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