Matcha Cocoa Latte

Good morning, everyone!

The DAVIDsTEA matcha advent selection for today is a matcha-infused chocolate, but I’ve been enjoying my morning matcha and toast, so I pulled out another matcha to try! I had a single serve stick of this in my drawer and thought it was the perfect time to try it out. It’s funny that they call it “matcha latte” but there is no sweetener and no milk powder or anything like that. It’s just a mixture of matcha and cocoa powder. Sounds delish! Prepared it (mostly) according to their instructions, making a paste with warm water and then topping with warm milk.

Well, it’s certainly delicious. The matcha and cocoa go together so well, with the sweet grassiness and umami roasted seaweed and the slight toasty note of the cocoa powder. It’s decadent and chocolaty. I will say, I think in the future I would either do a mixture of water and milk or use two sachets, because since it’s only half matcha the milk is overpowering it just a little. But very scrumptious, I could see myself reordering this. It would also be interesting to try as a non-latte. Unfortunately it’s rather expensive, harrumph. I’ll have to try adding cocoa powder to my straight matchas!

On to the jam! Today it’s Strawberry-Verbena Spread which sounds highly interesting to me. I quite like it, though the verbena is reminding me more of mint than lemon. It’s surprisingly quite strong, holding its own against the sweet strawberry. It’s very different and I’m enjoying it a lot! I would love to try more jams with herbs in them in the future. :)

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIbA7q0g6Fu/)

I might not be the best person to be the first to review this.

The instructions say to whisk the matcha with a small amount of hot milk. I have no idea what a small amount is, but I do my best with a bamboo matcha whisk and milk I heated on the stovetop. Then it tells me to top with frothed milk. I don’t have a frother, so I make do with whisked hot milk. It does not say how much to use, which really frustrates me. I need better instructions than that.

Anyway, the matcha doesn’t smell like chocolate at all. It just smells like the ocean. That seaweedy generic matcha aroma. After the milk, I sort of smell chocolate, but it’s faint. The resulting tea is tan with green speckles on top. By now, the seaweed smells baked and toasty. The flavor sort of reminds me of Japanese snack mix. Sesame, roasted seaweed, and a creamy note that I guess is the faint chocolate blending with milk.

This isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had, but I would definitely not buy it again.