Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups. Happy Matcha Monday! I’m back today with another Stateside Steeps post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Adagio’s – Matcha Black. These matcha sticks don’t contain any matcha but are instead black tea (Adagio’s Golden Monkey Tea) in a powder form like matcha hence why it has been given the name Matcha Black. I understand completely that it’s not technically matcha but because it is sold with all of their actual matcha, I decided to review it for Matcha Monday.

This particular matcha is sold in single serving stick form which makes it absolutely perfect for travelling and they are so quick and convenient to prepare. Matcha Sticks have been a favourite of mine since I found out they existed a few years ago. Not only are they perfect for travelling but they are great for when I’m hurting because of a migraine and want tea but need something super quick, easy and convenient to prepare. So I’m really glad that Adagio have started to stock all of their discover matchas in stick form.

Here’s what Adagio have to say about this particular “matcha” over on their website: “No longer is matcha limited to just lovers of green tea. Our Matcha Black uses the same time-honoured process and replaces it with black tea leaves. Now available in our convenient stick packs, simply tear open, pour into any 500ml bottle of water, shake and enjoy!”

Tea Tasting Notes

For this tasting session I tried this a few ways: Hot on it’s own, Hot with Milk & Honey, Iced on it’s own and then iced with both milk and honey. For me on it’s own this was a tiny bit strong and the hot and iced cups I had with milk and honey added were a much more pleasant experience for me as overall it was just much more balanced. Out of the two the iced latte was definitely my favourite. I made all of the cups I had using my matcha shaker as I don’t really like to use my matcha bowl and whisk to make flavoured matchas like this and instead I save them for the traditional ceremonial matchas with not additional flavours added.

However, even in my matcha shaker this frothed so well and I wasn’t expecting that at all since this doesn’t have any green tea and it’s not a traditional matcha I just wasn’t expecting it to froth very well and hold such a sturdy froth for so long, so it’s safe to say I was pleasantly surprised by this matcha and it started off my tasting session on such a great note. You can tell just from the additional aroma of this matcha that that tea used to make it is a golden monkey tea as it smelt quite sweet,subtly malty and had with notes of walnuts and cocoa which all carried through into the taste.

It’s very rich and insanely smooth and overall just an absolute pleasure to drink. I’m almost certain that this is the first Black Tea matcha I’ve ever tried and I couldn’t think of a better one to start with. Taste wise it has notes of savoury roasted apple, honey, walnuts, cocoa all of which linger in your mouth as you take each sip. On it’s own the mouthfeel has a somewhat drying effect towards the very end of the cup but once you add in milk that completely goes away and the creamy note added by the soya milk pairs perfect with the overall flavour profile of the tea itself. I’m so glad that they chose to use a Chinese black tea like Golden Monkey rather than something like a English Breakfast I feel like it works much better and truly creates a product for tea lovers rather than catering to the masses.

As you can tell I clearly love this and I’m so glad I’ve got a few more stick of this left, I’m definitely going to enjoy them though I may end up saving them until it starts to get warm again as I do prefer this as an iced latte which is perfect for the summer time. I really do hope that they start to stock this on the UK website as it’s currently only available on the US site but I would love to have this as part of my permanent tea collection. As someone who loves black tea so much this is the perfect product for me and I could definitely see myself drinking this every single day. If you’re a lover of black tea and you want something unique I highly recommend giving this a try, I guarantee you will love it.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

If you want to find out more about Adagio and purchase some of this tea 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 do my best to answer them all as soon as possible.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley

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