3 Leaf Tea

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Recent Tasting Notes

Sipdown!

Served hot in the rocking chairs before bedtime. The chocolate is so good, not strong but enough to mimic the feeling of having a hot cocoa before bed, which I can’t do because the caffeine and sugar would keep me up.

I have already repurchased by request a full pouch of this for Superanna, to whom I had gifted a sampler. I still have some of the plain Hojicha and I was just going to stick with that, but this cuppa tonight is making think I will probably reorder this one. I will try to behave and wait until my cupboard numbers are lower and I have fewer samples and fewer past date teas.

Kaylee

Love the idea of pre-bed rocking chair time!

ashmanra

We love it – especially before the mosquitos come out in droves, which will be soon!

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I made a couple of small lattes last night, served cold not hot. I did sweeten this with a little cane sugar. We had pistachios with it.

I thought it was good, and I think I tasted the hojicha as much or more than the chocolate. What surprised me was how much Ashman liked it. He proclaimed more than once that he liked it a lot, so this might be a repurchase.

The big test for me was…would I be able to sleep? Or would the small amount of caffeine overcome the L-theanine? We had it rather late. We both fell asleep pretty much as usual, so if my body continues to respond this way to hojicha, I see more of it in my future.

I have two pouches of this and will be giving one to Superanna to try to see how she likes it. I am really interested in seeing her review.

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Sipdown!

Finished by adding to a banana smoothie. This was part of the order that was my introduction to powdered hojicha, and I guess to hojicha in general. I think from here on I will probably always try to keep at least one hojicha around for evening sipping or when I want tea but not lots of caffeine.

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June Sipdown Prompt – drink a tea with milk!

I actually had two lattes today – Birthday Cake Matcha in the afternoon and this one as “dessert.” I made a paste of the powder and sugar, divided it between two glasses, added milk and frothed it, and topped it with a little whipped cream and some sprinkles that ChelseaR gave me.

The banana flavor is so mild but really perfect for me. This one is almost gone and I believe it will be a repurchase one day when the cupboard is under control.

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I have never tasted anything that wasn’t an actual banana that tasted so much like an actual banana. Everything banana flavored seems to taste like candy Circus Peanuts or Runts.

The aroma was noticeable but not strong in the dry powder. It was a bit subdued even in the whisked tea. The sip was nutty and roasted and then the aftertaste was exactly as if I had just swallowed a bite of a real banana and was still tasting it. Amazing.

I detected no grittiness in the plain hojicha powder and neither did Superanna. This one did have a touch of texture but it doesn’t put me off from drinking this and I did also prepare it differently. Next time I will use maple syrup as a sweetener and use the Aerolatte to froth it and see if the grittiness goes away.

Cameron B.

I love their banana matcha and hojicha!

ashmanra

I am planning to try the chocolate one tonight!

Cameron B.

I still need to try the cinnamon one, maybe this fall. :)

ashmanra

I have that one, too! Bought the sampler!

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drank Birthday Cake Matcha by 3 Leaf Tea
3226 tasting notes

October Sipdown Prompt – a tea that gets you going

Sipdown!

This is delicious and one I will probably order again someday.

Flavored matcha is almost always a latte for us. This one has rich vanilla and vanilla cake flavor. I topped Ashman’s with whipped cream and sprinkles as a treat because he is repairing a complicated appliance and hit an aggravating point. When I heard the groans, I decided he probably needed energy and something fun, too.

Kelmishka

I hope the latte gave him the boost to finish the repair, groan-free! XD

ashmanra

Sadly, he discovered that there is more wrong than initially believed and more parts must be ordered! But he did enjoy the latte a lot! Now he is off buying new fascia boards and then preparing to paint the back of the house!

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drank Birthday Cake Matcha by 3 Leaf Tea
3226 tasting notes

This made me harken back to days when I had a drawer absolutely full of flavored matcha from Red Leaf Tea. (Now called Matcha Outlet.)

This was delicious. The cake flavor is spot on and the matcha isvery nice with no bitterness. Good color and good froth. Would repurchase for sure.

Cameron B.

Awww I miss Red Leaf, they had so many interesting flavors… :’(

Courtney

They really did!

ashmanra

I think I had ten or fifteen flavors at a time back when you could earn points with reviews. It was soooo good. I still like their D25 matcha and my daughter drinks it. For a while they would occasionally offer one of their flavored teas in a limited edition. I don’t know if they still do.

Kaylee

Even their “basic” flavors like vanilla were delicious, and without having sugar in them!

ashmanra

Kaylee: you are right! We loved caramel, vanilla, bilberry, and there was some sort of custard dessert flavor that I can’t remember the name of that was sooo good. Really they were all good!

ashmanra

Just checked – they do have a pre-sweetened French Vanilla Matcha available now.

Cameron B.

I miss graham cracker! I’m definitely thankful for 3 Leaf, but I hope they continue to add new flavors. Why is there no vanilla or strawberry?!?! :(

beerandbeancurd

Had no idea flavored matcha was a thing! I really wanted to get into matcha, long ago, but never quite fell under its spell like I expected to. What would your first recommendation be for a flavored matcha?

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drank Hojicha Powder by 3 Leaf Tea
3226 tasting notes

Sipdown

This was the hojicha that made me get interested in hojicha. I finished it today in a smoothie. For smoothies, I especially love the banana flavor hojicha and that is the one I would be mostly likely to re-order someday. Good stuff! I still have some of the honey lemon flavor left from this company as well as an unopened pack from Den’s Tea of plain powdered hojicha, PLUS a bag of whole leaf that derk sent that is our go-to for evening cups of hojicha – i.e. not in a smoothie.

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drank Hojicha Powder by 3 Leaf Tea
3226 tasting notes

Earthy, nutty, smokey, burnt aroma and flavor that is usually burnt popcorn-like that seems to be common for Japanese tea like genmaicha.

Superanna said it tasted like mud if mud tastes good and she likened it to “next to chocolate” in flavor.

I like it. I have the sampler and will decide which to repurchase after trying the flavors, but I would say this is a re-purchase, especially if it turns out to have the reputed mood boosting effects.

Cameron B.

Mmmmm chocolate mud… XDDD

ashmanra

But she really really liked it! Ha ha! When I give people shu puerh for the first time I tell them that it really smells like all the aspects of a barn they can think of but in the best way possible.

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80
drank Mint Matcha by 3 Leaf Tea
3986 tasting notes

Sipdown! (35 | 35)

Finished off as an iced oat latte with maple syrup.

This is a lovely matcha, I find the amount of mint to be just right. Sometimes mint-flavored things can be over the top for me, and then they just remind me of toothpaste or Altoids. But this has a nice amount of mint that’s somewhere in the peppermint or mint chocolate chip ice cream realm. And with oat milk added, it does remind me of ice cream.

That being said, I’m not sure whether I’ll reorder it just because I find mint to be more of a situational flavor for me. With the fruity flavors, I can drink them every day, but I’m not always in the mood for a mint latte if that makes sense. However, this does pair very well with a bit of chocolate syrup (as you would expect) and also with lemonade for a refreshing summer drink. Definitely recommend it!

Flavors: Candy, Creamy, Grassy, Mint, Peppermint, Smooth, Sweet

Preparation
Iced 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
ashmanra

Oh, I just bought this one for Superanna but she hasn’t tried it yet! I am glad to hear you enjoyed it. I bought three flavor matchas and a hojicha for her after seeing the reviews on here and she really liked the hojicha.

She is going to Japan in 2024. Any must see places to see or thins to do? Anyone who has been, I would love to hear from you!

ashmanra

Also, the chocolate syrup is such an amazing idea. I will pass that on. I chose this one, cardamom, and cinnamon for her because she doesn’t love fruity flavors.

Cameron B.

The birthday cake is a good one too! I’ll have to think about the Japan recommendations…

ashmanra

I have been eyeing the birthday cake one since I got the coupon in my email for the third anniversary sale. Good to have a recommendation for it!

Michelle

Ashmanra – I really enjoyed the Tokyo art museum. A shinto shrine is a must, the bigger the better. All the food is great, but the small crepe shops can’t be beat or a sit down Yakitori noodle place where they cook it right in front of you. Oh, and Japanese karaoke is an ‘experience’ gotta do that too.

ashmanra

Sounds awesome! I will pass it on!

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82
drank Blueberry Matcha by 3 Leaf Tea
3986 tasting notes

Sipdown! (31 | 31)

So I haven’t been craving matcha much lately, not sure if it’s because of the cooler weather or what. But I don’t want to let my matcha languish into sad brown blandness, so I’m going to make an effort to have some every day or two until I sip through everything.

This pouch was my first time trying this one from 3 Leaf, and I really enjoyed it. To be honest though, I’ve enjoyed all of their flavors so I wasn’t surprised. I always prepare my matcha as an iced oat milk “latte” (although it’s not foamed), and this flavor has a really nice blueberry oatmeal or muffin sort of vibe that way, especially since I sweetened it with maple syrup. The blueberry here is definitely more of a dried blueberry flavor IMO, like you might find in blueberry instant oatmeal or Blueberry Morning cereal. So it has more of a concentrated, sweet flavor rather than a tart, fresh one.

Very tasty! I think the raspberry is still my favorite of their fruity flavors, but they’re all good. I probably won’t order again for a while since I’m not really drinking a lot of matcha at the moment, but I would buy this one again.

Flavors: Blueberry, Creamy, Dried Fruit, Freshly Cut Grass, Grassy, Oatmeal, Sweet, Syrupy

Preparation
Iced 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
Jean027

I really like the matcha’s from 3 Leaf. I have tried birthday cake, lemonade and banana. I will have to try blueberry and raspberry. Have you tried their hojicha powders? I definitely want to try theirs.

tea-sipper

I just got this in my inbox from 3 Leaf two days ago, for anyone interested: offering 20% off all matcha and hojicha through Jan 31st – just use coupon code CELEBRATION at checkout. Excludes starter packs, kits and bundles.

tea-sipper

site might help: threeleaftea.com

Cameron B.

@Jean – The peach matcha is really good too! I have tried some of their hojicha powders and the banana is definitely my favorite, but I haven’t tried the cinnamon yet.

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drank Banana Hojicha Powder by 3 Leaf Tea
1711 tasting notes

I’m a HUGE fan of artificial banana flavor. The crunchy Now and Laters in high school are what got me hooked. Or maybe it was the banana Runts in grade school. The origin is debatable, but my love is in full force. This tastes like bananas for sure, but not artificial banana flavor which is based off one variety of banana, so maybe this is some other variety of banana. Either way, this tastes good. I made it with oat milk, honey and some ice and it has more of a nutty banana bread flavor. I ordered it in 3 Leaf’s hojicha variety pack that also came with chocolate and cinnamon. Chocolate cinnamon banana sounds like a winning combo as well and something I am likely to try next. The flavor possibilities are endless!

Cameron B.

Love their banana, both the matcha and the hojicha!

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TTB
I’ve been eyeing powdered flavored hojichas from this company recently, so I’m excited to try this! My brain is all over the place today and after I added a little sweetener to the mix to bring out the honey flavor I forgot that I had done so and added honey so this is extra sweet. Having it as a latte. I taste honey and lemon that brightens it up a bit. I wish I had tried it before adding sweeteners, but brain fail. It’s a delicious cup with that deep hojicha flavor, but I’d like to try it again before adding things to it so I can get a good feel for the flavors present.

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drank Chocolate Matcha by 3 Leaf Tea
6444 tasting notes

Strange VariaTEA TTB: Tea 2

Yesterday I got up at 4:30 am so I could get a ride to work with my brother-in-law. I got to the office at 6:30 am and learned the lights don’t even turn on until 7 am. Thankfully the printer worked and I was able to print my 8+ lb application in the dark. My plan was to get the application out asap and then I could leave at 2:30 pm. Since I was leaving early, I also didn’t bring a lunch because I was going to meet up with a friend. Obviously things didn’t go according to plan and I only left the office at 4:15 pm.

All that is to say I was super grateful for this matcha milk, made with a matcha shared in the TTB by Roswell Strange (thank you!). I didn’t like the matcha. I like sweet matcha milks and that isn’t this. I did like some caffeine. I think me and 3 Leaf Tea aren’t a match. Though this was sorta cocoa flavoured. Cocoa. Grass. No sweetness. Good for some, but not for me.

Courtney

I used to work in an office that didn’t have the lights on until 7a as well haha. Yay for the printer working though!

VariaTEA

Thankfully there were flood lights in the main space so I wasn’t fully in the dark

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drank Coconut Matcha by 3 Leaf Tea
1440 tasting notes

2022 sipdown no. 15

Sad sipdown of this one from the lovely Cameron!

I craved a cup of it nearly every day, but resisted to attempt to enjoy it for as long as possible. I really enjoyed the coconut flavour here and find it adds a lot to the matcha to make it delightfully creamy.

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drank Coconut Matcha by 3 Leaf Tea
1440 tasting notes

Thanks for sharing this one Cameron!

I was happily making this up and thinking to myself “Look at you go, coincidentally making this into a matcha Monday!”…only to then realise it’s Thursday! We booked the last three days off to extend our time off, so it does feel like a Monday.

I whisked 1 tsp of this into a small amount of 160° F water, then topped up my mug with cold soy milk. It’s lovely and creamy with no bitterness, though I don’t get a lot of coconut flavour coming through in the taste. I did get a lovely coconut scent in the dry matcha though. However, this could be because I used my favourite mug, which holds ~13 oz. of liquid. Perhaps next time, I’ll go for 1.5 tsp of matcha.

Preparation
3 g 14 OZ / 414 ML
Cameron B.

That’s so interesting, I found this one to be crazy strong on the flavoring!

DrowningMySorrows

Haha! I’ve been trying to do Matcha Mondays to use up a bunch of older matcha in my collection and I think I’ve only managed to hit Monday maybe twice. I seem to have an “oh yeah, I was gonna drink matcha!” moment around Wednesday or Thursday. At least it still tastes good even if Matcha Thursday isn’t quite as catchy.

Courtney

Very true! I so rarely reach for matcha, but today it was so tasty! Maybe matcha Thursday is the real winner. :)

Evol Ving Ness

Hmm, I think the purpose of matcha mondays is to remind you that you have matcha and to drink matcha sometime soon. #rebelchild

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This is a note a few months late in writing. Don’t let it stop you from trying it bu just note my palate prefers plain hojicha when reading. This one would be great while sick. Honey and lemon combined are a great healer. But right now…. not so much. The aroma and the flavor are far too medicinal for this one. Though there are some interesting lemon drop candy hints every now and then.
http://teatiff.com/2021/01/25/3-leaf-tea/

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80

Sipdown! (29 | 518)

I really don’t drink matcha often enough. So it feels really good to finish off one of my pouches from 3 Leaf!

I’ve been preparing these cold in oat milk, and it works really well for this flavor. So convenient in my milk frother as well. This is probably my least favorite of my current flavors, but only because I just tend to prefer fruit flavors in general. It does have a nice, rich cake flavor to it that’s not overpowering. The matcha itself is also quite smooth with only a touch of bitterness at the end of the sip. I also added a light drizzle of vanilla syrup to this glass, which gives it a nice subtle sweetness and enhances those yummy cakey notes.

Tasty! Not sure if I’ll order it again though since there are other flavors I like more. But variety is always nice too.

Flavors: Bitter, Butter, Cake, Grass, Smooth, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal

Preparation
Iced 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Another sample from Cameron, thank you! :)

I used all the powder (~2 tsp), which may have been overkill, but I have a big mug so I felt okay about it.

I heated the kettle to 185° F and poured just enough water to be able to whisk the powder. Then I steamed a wee bit of soy milk with our espresso machine steamer (!) and poured that on top. I took a sip and it seemed a bit bitter or something akin to bitter, so before drinking any more, I added 1/4 tsp of coconut sugar to the top.

This is pretty tasty, and does have lovely banana flavour. I do wonder if this would be better cold. The addition of the sugar I think adds to the banana-ness here, but maybe the hojicha makes it more toasty than I was imagining. Whenever I see a powder tea, my mind just thinks of matcha and it can’t seem to reconcile this as hojicha haha! Nevertheless, a fairly tasty cuppa, but not something I need for my own cupboard.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 tsp 14 OZ / 414 ML
Cameron B.

I never drink hot lattes, and I love this one cold with oat milk.

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I like the cold latte preparation of this one much better than when I tried it hot.
It really needed the latte portion of milk to soften the roasted notes of the hojicha. It’s still has a bit of a chalky finish but the flavor is delicious with the sweetness from the banana balancing out any bitterness. The low caffeine content makes it a nice earthier tasting night-time version of matcha.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 4 OZ / 118 ML

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Homemade Advent Day 13
from AJRimmer
This one was prepared hot with a little bit of agave and almond milk. The flavor of this one is strong and roasty. It reminds me of coffee but is also leaning a little too close to tasting burnt. Perhaps I should have added more water? The banana is really nice though! I think this one just needs some more experimenting. I have some left to try it cold and with a different type of milk. I think maybe soy milk or oat milk would work better and I might water it down or use less hojicha next time.

Flavors: Banana, Burnt, Coffee, Roasted, Toasty

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 1 tsp 7 OZ / 207 ML
Cameron B.

I love this one cold with oat milk. ❤

AJRimmer

Yeah, I prepare all matchas cold in entirely milk to tame them! Just personal preference though!

Lexie Aleah

Good to know for my next cup! :)

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2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 13
From Skysamurai.

A day behind again! I’ve made a mistake with this one, so I don’t even know if I can finish the cup. I noticed on the back of the package that one of the recommendations is to add 6 ounces of milk after mixing the powder with 2 ounces of water. The only milk I have at the moment is an unopened carton of coconut milk in the pantry. (It’s definitely time for a grocery run.) Anyway, I mixed it up, took a sip, and SOAP. I think my coconut milk has gone off. How incredibly disappointing. I will say that before I took that dreadful sip, the aroma was like a roasted matcha, very interesting. I could also smell the lemon – it was bright like lemon juice instead of zest. So unique! Luckily, I have enough for one more cup so I’ll be able to try this one again. Sad it didn’t work out today though.

Flavors: Lemon, Roasted

Preparation
Boiling 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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80
drank Hojicha Powder by 3 Leaf Tea
3986 tasting notes

Sipdown! (1 | 490)

First sipdown of December! Those rascally advents have been keeping me busy… But I would like to get to 500 by the end of the year, so I need to sneak in some more!

This was the lone survivor from the 3 Leaf hojicha sampler I bought a while back. Whizzed it up tonight with some cold oat milk and a glug of maple syrup, and it’s scrumptious. Roasty, nutty, hint of grassiness on the back of the palate. Little bit of smokiness as well. So rich and creamy with the oat milk. The texture is good but not perfect, there is a slight grittiness to it, but not enough to be very distracting for me. I used one teaspoon of powder for 16 ounces of cold oat milk, and it’s lovely.

I don’t think I’ll be ordering this, just because I don’t tend to drink powdered teas often lately. Poor matcha, languishing in a drawer… Plus I have a pouch of the banana version of this, which is plenty for now. :)

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Bitter, Caramelized Sugar, Dry Grass, Grass, Nuts, Roasted, Smoke, Wood

Preparation
Iced 1 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
tea-sipper

Good luck on getting to 500 sipdowns! That is quite an accomplishment. I’m trying to squeak 4 more sipdowns in by the end of the year…

Cameron B.

We can do it! \o/

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