Green tea is harvested from many parts of the world and the highest quality matcha comes from Japan. Matcha in its pure form is filled with nutrients and antioxidants offers the health benefits that no other beverage could provide. Compared to a regular cup of green tea, matcha offers 137 times more antioxidants. Matcha is found to increase thermogenesis from a normal 8% to 10% of daily energy expenditure, to between 35% and 43% of daily energy expenditure. It is said to be effective in maintaining heart conditions and blood sugar levels in individuals with cardiovascular conditions and diabetes. It lowers bad cholesterol (LDL) whilst increasing the good cholesterol (HDL).
We were looking for consumables to satiate our Matcha cravings and went on a search for Matcha products. The fine green powder from grinding green tea leaves is great as a beverage but if you need something to sweeten up your day, there are many options available.
Inner Matcha Lets You Whisk Your Own Matcha Green Tea
Inner Matcha offers high quality Matcha from Ise Bay in the Mie Prefecture that is affordable for you to drink on a daily basis. In fact, the whole art of whisking your own Matcha can be extremely therapeutic. Whisking the Matcha in an M direction, enjoy how it all froths up before you sip it down giving yourself the sufficient dosage of caffeine to perk up the day.
Drinking one bowl of matcha is equivalent to approximately 10 cups of regular green tea. Unlike tea bags which contains only 10% of nutrients, matcha provides 100% nutrient consumption as whole leaves are ingested. A cup of matcha provides a sustained boost of 4 to 6 hours to kickstart your day. There is no need to drink multiple cups of coffee a day to stay awake.
For starters, get the Inner Matcha Starter Kit (S$69). It comes with a can of Morning Matcha which lasts around a month, White bamboo whisk, artisan glass bowl, wooden scoop and wooden mat coaster. The white bamboo matcha whisk is made of 100% white bamboo with 100 delicate yet flexible bamboo prongs.
I use two scoops of Matcha in the morning, filling half the glass bowl with hot water and whisk it and look at the froth increase.
A culinary matcha (S$24) is also on sale so you can bake or cook with matcha powder. This coarser grind brings out the flavour and taste of the matcha green tea. You can also use this for lattes and smoothies.
Garrett Popcorn’s Matcha CaramelCrisp Popcorn
Garrett Popcorn is introducing Matcha CaramelCrisp popcorn for a limited time from 16 March 2016 to 10 April 2016 at S$6 for a small bag and S$18 for a quart-tin. The strong caramel flavoured popcorn has a slight hint of matcha. Firm and crunchy, these are our personal favourite. Especially when we Netflix and chill.
The new Limited Time recipe Matcha CaramelCrisp is available in Singapore from Garrett Popcorn shops at City Link Mall, Great World City, Somerset 313, Resorts World Sentosa, Vivo City and Wisma Atria.
Green Tea Kit Kat
We have always been thrilled with the flavours Nestle comes up with for its Kit Kats in Japan. There were the Strawberry flavoured ones, a citrus golden blend, pear, shinshu apple, edamame soybean, purple sweet potato, hot Japanese Chilli, Cinnamon cookie, Strawberry cheesecake, Blueberry cheesecake and many other flavours.
These Green Tea flavoured Kit Kat has been available for quite a while and we couldn’t resist these. They are a tad bit sweet for our liking, but the strong overpowering Matcha flavours can be tasted.
Glico Pocky Crush Matcha Cookie Crunch
If you grew up with Pocky, you’re probably around my age. But these matcha flavoured snacks on a stick biscuit are absolutely addictive, especially the Matcha Cookie Crunch.
The Matcha Cookie Crunch are filled with a Matcha green tea flavoured mousse. The creamy milk chocolate may have overpowered the green tea flavour. So if you wanted a stronger green tea flavour then get the Pocky Green Tea Matcha Flavour. The packaging indicates that the Green Tea Matcha is from Japan.
Kabaya Quattro Uji Matcha
These chocolate biscuits are divine. The green tea used for this snack comes from Kitagawa Hanhei Mamoru Store, an established tea store in Kyoto. Available at S$2.70 from Tokyu Hands in Singapore, Kabaya Quattro Uji Matcha biscuits come in three layers. The top layer is a Uji Mtcha chocolate which tastes semi-bitter. The middle layer is chocolate filled with Uji Matcha and the bottom lay er is a biscuit to give the whole experience a complementary crunch. Extremely delightful.
Meito Uji Matcha Chocolate
We all love variety and a packet of Meito Kyoto Uji Matcha Chocolate offers three kinds of green tea chocolate – crunchy, melty or rich taste. The crunchy type has be made by kneading rice puff with wheat puff while the melty piece is made of green tea chocolate with creamy green tea jam.
Otona Choco Sand Matcha
This Bourbon-Choco biscuit contains wine giving it a grape after taste. These bite-sized ‘weaved’-design chocolate biscuits actually go quite well with the cream. Perhaps we should have tried this with a glass of white wine. One packet contains only 10 pieces which can be easily consumed in minutes.
Funwari Matcha Baum
This multi-layered rotisserie cake is great as a snack to give you substantial fill for afternoon tea or even breakfast. It does not have the strong matcha flavours. Ingredients in this confectionery include eggs, sugar, wheat flour, vegetable oil and fats, starch syrup, corn starch, whole sweetened condensed milk, dextrin, powdered green tea, sorbit, emulsifier, leavening agent, flour, food colouring and antioxidant.
Häagen-Dazs Green Tea Ice Cream
Made from Matcha Green tea, this flavoured ice cream from Häagen-Dazs will bring you moments of joy with each mouthful. This creamy ice cream reminds our writer Dennis of his favourite Starbucks Green Tea latte beverage. There is a hint of bitterness from the matcha as the milk tends to dominate the flavours. Make yourself some waffles and top it off with two scoops of this Green Tea Ice Cream.
