Continuing my previous review of Third Culture Bakery teas, today we have Roasted Matcha!
Isn’t Roasted Matcha just Hojicha Powder? Hojicha is made from roasted Sencha or Bancha. Matcha is made with Tencha, which is specifically grown for Matcha. That said, this is a Roasted Tencha Matcha. I can understand why I haven’t had Roasted Matcha, it isn’t as common and search results confuse it with Hojicha.
Matcha Powder and Preparation
The smell is closer to cutting hardwood than roast. Roasted Matcha has a warm brown colour showing off the rich roasting job.
The first few tries with this tea I treated it like Hojicha Powder, which was a mistake. I found it best to ratio and temperature it like regular Matcha. So, I used around 2 grams of powder and around 100ml or so of 165F water.
I sifted the Roasted Matcha powder without issue. However, whisking Roasted Matcha was a challenge. It did foam early on with a small amount of water, looking quite tight-bubbled. As I added more water and despite more whisking, the foam fell flat.
Tasting of Third Culture Bakery’s Roasted Matcha
This tastes completely different from Matcha and Hojicha. This tea has a smooth and buttery texture with light leafy roasted notes. Kind of like the scent of maple leaves when they start getting crispy in the fall. The end of the sip has a sweet roasted note, similar to a mid to high-roasted oolong. Roasted Matcha has a slight tree barky astringency after drinking, with a light fresh woody aftertaste.
Roasted Matcha is not as potent as Hoijcha. I’ve had roasted Tencha before, and that was more pumpkin and minerally. This tea hits the middle of the road with umami, vegetal, and roast.
Iced, it’s stronger crispy fall leaves.
With milk, Roasted Matcha is a completely different experience. This became my preferred way of making this tea. This product works well either whisked as a paste then added to heated milk, or added directly. The latte is super smooth, mellow, nutty, and chocolate roast. Fine as is, but the next level is adding a touch of sweetener. Maple Butter is S tier. Roasted Matcha strangely isn’t tea like, more like a really good blonde roast cold brew coffee with oat milk – zero acidity but that roasted flavor.
The con of Roasted Matcha is that it leaves a very grainy texture as you get to the bottom of the bowl. Whisking and sifting doesn’t help. It isn’t as grainy when I run it through my milk frothing machine, but it still separates. Since this is my first this style of tea, I’m not sure if that’s the feature or if this particular product didn’t get enough grinding.
Who would like Roasted Matcha? This is a smart product as it fills all taste buds. Coffee drinkers, matcha tea drinkers, and non-tea drinkers. It’s not acidic, bitter, or intense. The subtle notes and tea curiosity hits tea drinkers like myself.
Mochi Muffin from Third Culture Bakery
As an unexpected bonus, I got a package of Original Mochi Muffins. This is coming from a bakery after all, having good tea is just being smart.
They are shipped to survive shipping, but when they arrive you have to freeze or eat them. To eat, they recommended a 325F oven for 8-10mins or 15-30 seconds in the microwave. Heating times ended up being longer when I went directly from frozen.
The oven gave the Mochi Muffin crispy sides, which had the flavor just like the top of Filipino Bibingka, a sweet rice flour cake. The muffin tastes like caramel, butter, brown sugar, coconut, and a little bit of pandan. Texture wise, it’s similar to other rice sweet with a chewy texture. I love the black sesame topping as that adds another texture and bursts of black sesame flavor.
These muffins hit multiple of warm comfort feelings – eating delicious Filipino desserts as a kid. For some bites, it is like eating a brown sugar boba milk tea in a solid form. The adult in me loves the chewy, crispy, seedy topped texture, and attention to detail like the brown butter flavor.
So, I ate 2 muffins and 2 servings of matcha in one sitting. Don’t do that. Roasted Matcha feels closer to the amount of caffeine as Matcha. I was expecting it to be closer to the lower caffeinated Hojicha, and it is not. I am very twitchy and typing became difficult.
That said, Third Culture Bakery Roasted Matcha is a winner and their Mochi Muffins are a must buy. They have different Mochi Muffins too!
(tea and food provided for review)
