Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I’m back today with another Let’s Talk Tea / Matcha Monday post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Senbird’s – Otome Matcha. They very kindly gifted me a tin so that I could try it and review it for this series and since the moment it arrived at my house I’ve been so eager to do a tasting session with it because from the pictures on their website and Instagram it looked fantastic and incredibly vibrant. As much as I love flavoured matcha and I am always looking for new ones, my matcha journey started with unflavoured pure matcha and I always love trying new ones as not all matchas are created equally and each one definitely has it’s own characteristics.Here’s what Senbird have to say about this matcha over on their website: ”Otome Matcha is a ceremonial grade green tea powder that has a fresh aroma and tastes slightly astringent with rich, savoury notes of sweet grass. This Okumidori Matcha is from the prestigious Uji region in Kyoto, famous for producing the finest matcha. Otome Matcha is excellent as is or in drinks, such as matcha lattes, smoothies and cocktails.

Tea Tasting Notes

For this tasting session I tried this matcha 4 different ways (over two days – because I would have had a caffeine overload otherwise) to give you guys the most well rounded review I possibly could. I tried this matcha on its own, on its own iced, on it’s own with honey and as a hot latte with honey and frothed milk. Because I like to drink matcha so many different ways, I’ve chosen to do my tasting sessions with matchas like this because it helps me to see the ways in which this matcha shines the brightest. With this tasting session my favourite ways to drink this matcha were as a latte with frothed soya milk and a teaspoon of honey (hot and iced) and without milk but with the addition of half a teaspoon of honey but I’ll talk a little more in depth about that further on in this review.Firstly just like I have done in all of my matcha reviews I want to talk to you all about the matcha on its own. Upon opening the tin this matcha came in and opening the foil packet inside, I was instantly greeted by a strong vegetal aroma with a hit of creaminess and sweetness, so that got this tasting session off to a great start. After putting the matcha in the matcha bowl and adding the water the vegetal notes got much stronger and the creaminess and slight sweetness from the aroma disappeared completely. Froth wise it was so easy to build a sturdy froth with this matcha in my matcha bowl and unlike other matchas I’ve had recently the froth I built actually held up and didn’t dissipate after being transferred to my glass, which instantly put this matcha in my good books, because there is nothing worse than a pitiful matcha froth.On it’s own this matcha is fresh, and while its vegetal notes are clearly the stand out it does have some sweet grassy notes that I wasn’t expecting at all! Because the vegetal notes were so strong in the aroma I wasn’t expecting to be able to taste anything but vegetal umami and seaweed grassy notes, but I was very clearly wrong. This did have a little bit of astringency to it but I was expecting that and it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this matcha at all, its rich and definitely has a nice creamy aftertaste. I had it on it’s own both hot and iced and I think I’d definitely say I preferred it hot. I did add in half a teaspoon of honey which did take away that astringency but it wasn’t really needed for this matcha as it has those natural sweet grassy notes that were enough sweetness for me.

Since Senbird themselves said this matcha is also good when used to make lattes I just had to give it a go for this tasting session, so I made a hot latte and then after trying it I added in some iced so I could try it both ways as I do use the matcha I have in my stash mostly to make lattes. So I wouldn’t have really been giving you all a well rounded review if I didn’t include it would I? Honestly the hot latte I made with this matcha was delicious I used frothed soya milk and a teaspoon of honey which resulted in such a smooth and rich latte.

The soya milk helped to calm down the stronger vegetal notes and it also amplified the creamy mouthfeel, and the honey helped those sweet grassy notes still stand out even with the addition of milk. The astringency I had noticed when I had this on its own was completely gone as well. Both the hot latte and the iced latte were definitely my favourite ways I prepared this matcha and I’ll be making lots more until I finish this tin.

So as I’m sure you can all probably tell by this point in the review I have really enjoyed drinking this matcha and I’m so thankful that Senbird gave me the chance to try and enabling me to make such delicious and well balanced matcha lattes. I can wait to make more during spring / summer and hopefully get the chance to experiment with this matcha little bit more. This is definitely a matcha I would consider repurchasing in the future once my sip down is finally over.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

If you want to find out more about Senbird and purchase some of this Matcha for yourself, you can do both here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley

*The tea featured in this was gifted to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and have not been paid for*