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Matcha

Unmatched Love for Matcha Love

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Benjamin Franklin once said that the only certain things in life were death and taxes. I think if he were around today he’d have to add “oh, and at some point today Emily will drink matcha”. When I say I’m obsessed…it’s a big deal. Especially because of my semi-addiction to iced matcha lattes. Put some matcha powder in a shaker and add some form of milk and ice and I’ll forget my own name. BUT, we have a problem, Houston, when the venti iced matcha latte from Starbucks (the only place in my area that makes them and the only size that even comes close to satisfying me) runs over $5. So my daily fix costs me around $35 a week, which *gulp* runs around $140 a month.

Yeah, I can’t be doing that.

Enter the wonderful product above. Each packet can be mixed with milk and thrown over ice and voila, homemade iced matcha latte. Here’s the fun part (what am I saying, it’s green tea, it’s ALL the fun part): I can get a can of 15 packets from Meijer for usually around $10. Thus (do people still say thus? I’m bringing it back.), for the cost of 2 Starbucks lattes, I can make 15 at home.

Now sometimes I’m away from the house all day and need my fix to go. Or sometimes I want to browse Target while getting my fix. And I don’t mind making an exception every now and then. But discovering this delicious and cost-efficient product will *literally* save me hundreds of dollars this year.

And that’s pretty darn precious.

Double Wall Glass Insulated Teacups… Chic and Gorgeous

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These Modern Double Wall Glass Insulated Teacups are absolutely beautiful! I’ve seen a lot of this type of gorgeous double-insulated glasses for coffee-based drinks but it’s rare to find them for tea. I can imagine how stunning and enjoyable matcha will be in these…

I’ll know soon enough because I plan to order several sets.

This set is available for less than $15, making it an ideal Christmas gift for the tea lover on your list AND an ideal addition to your own tea collection.

See Modern Double Wall Glass Insulated Teacups for a closer look and be sure to check Amazon for many other gift ideas for tea lovers.

Seriously, if they don’t have it, no one does.

Great App for Tea Lovers: Beautiful and Eduational

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Screenshot from the Tea App
I was recently sent a beautiful tea app in exchange for telling y’all about it and (now that Christmas has passed) I finally have some free time to do just that!

The Tea App on iTunes is under $2 and any tea lover will love everything about it.

The first thing that stood out to me were the beautiful images. There’s something downright relaxing about the colorful tea pictures and they never fail to leave me craving a cup of tea even more than normal.

Screenshot from the Tea App
I also love the instructional aspect of The Tea App. It can be confusing, sometimes, when it comes to navigating around the many different types of tea. What temperature should the water be? Are there different ways to prepare a tea if you’re having it cold as opposed to hot? Are some teas better hot than cold? What about Matcha – HOW do I go about preparing the best cup of Matcha possible?

There are even extra bits of tea information dispersed throughout the app. For example, do you know which tea is called the “champagne of teas?” It’s one of my favorites!

Different brewing methods are discussed in addition to the different teas.

Screenshot from the Tea App
The Tea App on iTunes
Perhaps best of all, the app includes instructional videos for each tea. The videos take you step-by-step, showing you how to prepare the most delicious cup or pot of tea for each type of tea.  Like the entire app, the videos are perfectly done.

Screenshot from the Tea App
Teas:

  • Green
  • White
  • Sencha
  • Matcha
  • Oolong
  • Red
  • Assam
  • Darjeeling
  • Pu’er

Methods:

Screenshot from the Tea App

Find more information and download the app by clicking the following link: The Tea App on iTunes.  I love this app!


Review: The Healthy Matcha Cookbook

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The Healthy Matcha Cookbook
The Healthy Matcha Cookbook
I was recently sent a copy of a beautiful cookbook, The Healthy Matcha Cookbook by Miryam Quinn-Doblas, MS, RD (creator of EatGood4Life), to review on Crazy Tea Chick. As someone who collects cookbooks, writes tons of cookbook reviews on her food blog, and happens to be obsessed with tea – this book and I are getting along famously.

In addition to outstanding recipes, which we’ll get to in a moment, the author includes a lot of wonderful information, including:

  • The history of Green Tea.
  • Matcha health benefits.
  • Matcha basics and “grades.”
  • Menu Plans
  • Resources
  • Ingredients that pair beautifully with matcha. There’s even a section on gluten free flours which, as someone who has to eat gluten free, I really appreciate.

The section on which ingredients pair best with matcha is as fascinating as it is extensive.

From the Inside Cover:

A Beautiful Collection of Recipes Featuring One of the World’s Most Popular and Powerful Superfoods

In The Healthy Matcha Cookbook, food blogger and registered dietitian Miryam Quinn-Doblas explores the various ways matcha powder—a main component of green tea—can be incorporated into everyday recipes to give your immune system the boost it needs to keep you healthy.

The health benefits of matcha powder far exceed those of green tea in drink form. The more than sixty recipes in this cookbook are easy to prepare and feature fresh, high-quality ingredients that aim to incorporate matcha powder, a powerful antioxidant, into the diet.

If you want to feel better, have more energy, and decrease the amount of toxins in your body, The Healthy Matcha Cookbook is a great resource that will help you restore and strengthen your mental and physical health. This is a beautiful guide that offers home cooks of all levels the chance to transform meals into satisfying, wholesome, healthy food using one of the world’s most popular superfoods.

Recipes Include:

  • Granola
  • Overnight Oats
  • Green Smoothie Bowl
  • Cream Cheese Spread (the picture in the cookbook has this beauty spread on bagels and it looks delicious!)
  • No Bake Breakfast Bars
  • Energy Bars
  • Quinoa Burgers with Matcha Habanero Mayo
  • Oven-Roasted Chicken Fajitas
  • Mac and Cheese
  • Spinach Mushroom Pasta
  • Tofu Stir Fry
  • Blueberry Crisp
  • Flourless Brownies (gluten free!)
  • Frozen Popsicles
  • No-Bake Cashew Banana Pie (gluten free!)
  • White Chocolate Mousse
  • And many more that’ll blow your mind!

I love the recipes to distraction, the information is priceless, and the book, itself, is gorgeous.  What I love most may be the fact that the author took the extra time to label her recipes “gluten free, dairy-free, and vegan.”  When you either choose to or have to follow a particular diet, you come to LOVE cookbook authors who go out of their way to help you in an area that, quite frankly, can be pretty tough.

Throughout the cookbook, gluten free options and tips are provided and, again, I greatly appreciate it a lot.

Make no mistake about it, however, you will love The Healthy Matcha Cookbook whether you have to follow a specific diet or not. These are off the chart healthy and delicious recipes and the book is a must have for all foodies and tea lovers.

The Healthy Matcha Cookbook would make a perfect gift idea for any and all tea lovers in your life – just be sure to grab a copy for yourself.  You’re going to love this cookbook!

If you order from Amazon soon, you can have copies of the book before Christmas. Click any of the links above or the image below!

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Reviews of Other Tea Books I Love:

Top 10 Gift Ideas for Tea Lovers

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Rachael Ray Orange Tea Kettle

Rachael Ray Orange Whistling Tea Kettle

I love the tea lovers in my life. Not only do they show remarkably good taste in their favorite drink, they’re incredibly easy to shop for. Whether it’s Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, anniversaries, or birthdays, you always know the way to a tea lover’s heart – through their tea cup!

Below are the Top 10 Gift Ideas for Tea Lovers, according to The Crazy Tea Chick.  You simply cannot go wrong with any of these.

 

1. The Bonavita Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle. (pictured above) This beauty takes the guesswork out of brewing the best tea you ever had in your life. Easy to use, handsome to look at, and (quite frankly), one of the things in my kitchen I value the most. You can read my Bonavita Digital Kettle Review or simply click here to see it on Amazon.

2. Gorgeous! The Bormioli Rocco Murano Cobalt Blue Glasses (pictured above) are some of the most beautiful tea glasses I’ve ever laid my tea loving peepers on. They’re sold in a set of 4 and would make a perfect gift idea.

3. Back to back tea glasses? Why the heck not? The one pictured above is also sold in a set of four and is the very definition of eye-catching. These are the Bormioli Rocco Sorgente Double Old Fashioned Glasses and I’m obsessed with everything about them.

4. The Bamboo Matcha Tea Set, pictured above, is a best seller on Amazon – making me one of MANY who use it daily. Packaged along with some great matcha (see below!), this would be a gift your tea lover will use for years.

5. Matcha! Whether you gift it along with a set of beautiful mugs, a Bamboo Matcha Tea Set, a teapot, or all by itself, DoMatcha Organic Matcha is as good as it gets for making outstanding matcha at home.

6. I don’t have my review of the Hario Chacha Kyusu Maru Tea Pot on Crazy Tea Chick yet, but I wouldn’t take anything for mine. It’s beautiful and insanely useful for making fresh brewed tea. It comes in a sturdy box, perfect for gift wrapping and any tea lover will cherish it as much as I do mine.

 7.  If you’ve ever read my food blog (or walked into my kitchen), you’d know one thing for certain – I’m pretty infatuated with all things Rachael Ray. Cookbooks, pans, dishes, kitchen gadgets – the works. There’s something about the fun, upbeat, vibe all Rachael Ray products put off that resonate with me. So, basically I surround myself with them and resonate away. Naturally I have one of her Whistling Teakettles – I mean, how could I not? Mine is orange (like the one shown at the top of the post) and it’s used so frequently, it has a permanent resting place on the stove. This perfect whistling tea kettle is also available in Blue and Red.

 8. The Ozeri Serafino Double Wall Insulated Glasses, pictured above, are perfect for tea and/or coffee lovers. As someone who answers immediately to both, I’m more than a little crazy about them. The beauties are sold in sets of four and are just gorgeous.

9. Fun Tea Kettles (like the zebra shown above) make great gift ideas for the tea lover in your life. Other tea kettles with tons of personality are shown on the side — they include a rooster, bee hive, giraffe, and cow. So cute.

Firepot Nomadic Teas
10. There’s a such thing as saving the best for last and that’s what we have here – because what better gift for a tea lover than the very thing they’re in love with… tea, itself?!?!  When a tea lover is introduced to great new tea companies, it’s like a kid walking through the gates at Disneyland.

A whole new world opens up!

Whether you add a few boxes to a gift bag, use them as the basis for a gift box, or stuff some into a stocking, great quality loose leaf tea is THE perfect gift for tea lovers in your life.

I 110 percent recommend that you visit the two tea companies below and do a little shopping. I’ve had dealings with each and promise you that you’ll be blown away. I’ve written tea reviews for several of their teas on Crazy Tea Chick and have quite a few more scheduled to publish in the coming days.  Everything they offer is perfection. When you place your order….  be sure to order some for yourself. Trust me.

  1. Firepot Nomadic Teas (if you have chai tea lovers on your list, you’ll definitely want to order their Masala Chai Tea Concentrate – it makes wonderful chai tea lattes)
  2. Pahadi Tea (according to their website, there’s currently a free shipping deal going on!)

BONUS Tea Gift Idea:

Tea Time by Francis Amalfi

Tea Time is a perfect book for tea lovers. Read my Tea Time Review or simply hurry over to Amazon to buy the book. Filled with tea facts, history, legends, tales, and countless tea recipes – any tea drinker will love this beautiful book.

BONUS Gift Idea for Tea and Coffee Lovers:

When it comes to making Chai Tea Lattes, London Fogs (latte made with Earl Grey tea), and coffee-based lattes, the Breville Milk Café Milk Frother is essential – as in, it’d be nuts to try to live the latte life without one. Click through the link for more information.

Matcha Bowl and Whisk Set: Beautiful Gift Idea

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Matcha Bowl and Whisk Set

The beautiful Tea Ceremony Set Bowl and Whisk Green/Brown, pictured above, makes a perfect gift set.

The Matcha set features utensils used for a traditional tea ceremony: Tea bowl, tea whisk and tea scoop.

Click through for more information. This is gorgeous!

Want to know how to make traditional Japanese Matcha? Click the link for a video from DoMatcha.

Video: How to Make Traditional Japanese Matcha

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I have recently fallen head over heels in love with tea-related videos. I’ve always been MAD about cooking videos but the obsession with tea videos is a fairly recent thing. Look for a lot more tea videos to be added to the tea blog because I’m pretty sure you’ll become as hooked as I am.

The video below is from DoMatcha (makers of extraordinary Matcha). In this video, DoMatcha host Calli O’Brien shows how to whisk up a traditional matcha.

Find DoMatcha and Matcha Bowls, Whisks, and Sets on Amazon!

Matcha Whisk Holder (similar to the one she uses in the video above):


Blue Matcha Whisk Holder

Matcha Accessories (Bowls, Whisks, Sets):

Moroccan Tea Mints – With Matcha, Peppermint, and Spearmint

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Moroccan Tea Mints
The delicious Teavana Moroccan Mint Green Tea Breath Mints, pictured above, are blended with real matcha tea.  The peppermint and spearmint oils leave you with minty breath that smells as good as the mints taste.

These mints are exclusive to Teavana and come in a beautiful container sporting the wonderful Teavana logo.

Click through for more information!

Green PolkaDot Box

DoMatcha Review: You Won’t Know How You Ever Lived Without DoMatcha

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DoMatcha Review

DoMatcha Organic Matcha (Outstanding!)

I am a huge, huge, huge fan of green tea. Hot green tea, iced green tea, green tea frappes, green tea lattes, green tea with lemon, green tea with honey… If it’s green tea, odds are I’m going to be wild about it.  Given my love of green tea, I wasn’t surprised that as soon as I tried matcha green tea I was completely hooked.  I fully expected to love it.

What I didn’t expect was the reaction my youngest daughter had.  The only tea she has ever been a fan of is black tea – as long as it is as sweet as it can possibly be. She doesn’t care for green tea whatsoever (silly girl!).  Given her strong, relentless feelings toward green tea, I was hesitant to offer her any matcha green tea – after all, it’s green tea in its truest, strongest form.  There’s no way she could possibly like it.

Wrong!

I fixed her a mug of hot matcha tea one afternoon and, by the time evening rolled around, she was ready for another.  Oddly enough, she’s as wild about the taste of matcha tea as I am.  Even more surprisingly, she doesn’t even want it to be very sweet – this from a girl who adds sugar to her iced tea not with a spoon but with a measuring cup.

Just mark it all up to the magic of matcha – or to be more specific, the magic of GOOD, high quality matcha: DoMatcha Green Tea, Organic Matcha.

DoMatcha

DoMatcha Description:

  • Net weight 2.8-ounces (approximately 70 servings)
  • Ideal for blended matcha beverages
  • Ancient Japanese green tea
  • USDA organic

Domatcha organic 2nd harvest matcha is 100% authentic Japanese matcha, directly from the uji region in japan where matcha originated 800 years ago. The organic 2nd harvest matcha is harvested in august each year. The leaves are shade-grown and only the finest top leaves are chosen. Compared to the leaves picked in the first flush of spring these leaves are more ‘mature’ and have a slightly more astringent flavor. Organic 2nd harvest matcha is ideal for lattes, blender drinks, frappes and smoothies. .The DoMatcha organic 2nd harvest is very high in catechins especially those extremely powerful antioxidants, egcgs. Use one half to one teaspoon per serving.

There are many Matcha powders on the market, but make no mistake about it – they are not all equal.  Buying organic, authentic Japanese Matcha isn’t just the smartest approach, it’s the only one you should even consider.  My own personal experience tells me that DoMatcha is an excellent choice.

One of my favorite things about DoMatcha (besides the excellent quality) is the fact that they have a very informative website (DoMatcha.com) with instructions, information, videos, and step by step tutorials. The website is as beneficial for those of us who have been enjoying Matcha for years as it is for those who are new to the Matcha experience.

Learn more about DoMatcha DoMatcha Organic 2nd Harvest Matcha, 2.82-Ounce by clicking the link. If you’ve always wanted to try Matcha green tea, here’s your chance to try it at its purest, most delicious form.

If you want to truly enjoy Matcha at home, I highly recommend the following inexpensive products (pictured above):

Chasen (Green Tea Whisk) and Small Scoop for preparing Matcha:

  • This set includes one bamboo Chasen (whisk) and one small bamboo scoop for dishing out Matcha powder
  • The Chasen comes in a clear tube for storage/display.
  • This set will help you whip up the perfect cup of lump free matcha.

OXO Good Grips 3-Inch Mini Strainer:

  • Mini strainer with durable construction and 3-inch diameter
  • Sturdy, stainless-steel mesh bowl and rim with double rod handle
  • Fine mesh for thorough straining of juice, tea, and spiced drinks

Matcha: Great for Hot Tea and Even Green Tea Frappuccinos

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Matcha

I’ve been a tea lover for many years – in fact, there’s little doubt in my mind that I had sweet tea in my “sippy cups” when I was a toddler. It’s the Southern way, you know.  I fell in love with green tea when it hit the scene years ago, too. I prefer mine sweetened with a little honey or Truvia and never object to a little mint in my green tea.

In addition to my favorite teas (black, green, chai..), I’ve made Matcha (think of it as the strongest Japanese Green Tea you ever met) part of my daily life. My afternoon or evening cup of hot Matcha tea with honey is something I very much look forward to each day.

Like a lot of people, I began drinking Matcha because of its AMAZING health benefits but I continue drinking Matcha because I love it.

DoMatcha DoMatcha Organic 2nd Harvest Matcha, 2.82-Ounce (pictured above) is just one of the many Matchas you’ll find on Amazon. DoMatcha Organic 2nd Harvest Matcha is 100% authentic Japanese Matcha, directly from the Uji region in Japan where matcha originated 800 years ago.

Unfortunately, Matcha is really difficult to find in stores (impossible has been my experience). However shopping for it online couldn’t be any easier – especially when you use Amazon.

One suggestion I would make, however, is to buy Matcha in a reusable tin (like the one shown here). You want to keep it as fresh and protected as possible.

To make a cup of hot Matcha tea, simply put 1/2 t- 1 tsp of DoMatcha Organic 2nd Harvest Matcha in a Matcha bowl or cup.  Add 1 oz. of hot water and stir to make a smooth paste. Then add more hot water and whisk to a froth, or add milk for a Matcha Latte!  As I said, I like to add honey to mine, but you may enjoy it without any sweetener at all – OR you may want to go with sugar or Stevia.  If you Do add sweetener to your Matcha, don’t feel like you’ve broken any unwritten code of ethic for tea drinkers. Matcha has, shall we say, a VERY strong personality and distinct disposition.

Frankly, I think it requires a little “softening” with sweetener, but I’ll let you make your own mind up.

How to make a Green Tea Frappucino….

1 tsp Matcha powder
2 tsps. Sugar or 2 pkts Truvia or Stevia (I use 2 pkts of Truvia and LOVE the results)
1 Cup of Milk (whole or 2%)
A little Cool Whip for the top.

Optional: You can add a splash of vanilla syrup (found in most coffee and tea aisles) along with the other ingredients if you want it to be a little sweeter.  I read somewhere that Starbucks (in their HEAVENLY Green Tea frappes) uses a “Melon” syrup. I’ve never seen one in stores… if I ever do, I’ll be buying it by the gallons.

Directions: Put a cup of ice into your blender. In order, add the Matcha powder,  sugar, vanilla syrup (if using), and milk.

*** I’ve made these frappes with sugar, Stevia, and Truvia and… for reasons that I couldn’t even begin to explain… using two packets of Truvia is my favorite way to go.

Green Tea Frappuccino