Orange Matcha

Today for something a bit different. A bit ago I was organizing my tea stash and found a container of matcha that I had opened but neglected to finish. Matcha has a tendency to lose some of its flavor quickly after being opened, so I figured this was a perfect subject on which to experiment, the result: Orange Matcha.

To start with I pulled out my matcha equipment, I chose one of my smaller chawans because I didn't want to make too much of anything when I was experimenting with this. The equipment I used was fairly standard; chasen (wisk), chawan(bowl), and chashaku (bamboo scoop). Along with this I had a small pitcher of cold orange juice.

To start with I placed 3 scoops of sifted matcha into the chawan. I then poured in a small amount of orange juice and proceeded to wisk the orange juice and matcha. I only used a small amount of the orange juice to help work the matcha. As I continued to wisk the matcha I added more and more orange juice. I have been experimenting with the ratios, but it varies incredibly by the orange juice you use. For instance a nice freshly squeezed orange juice is much sweeter than the orange juice from the grocery store in a jug. I tried using more and less with this variation, and found that the sweeter and bolder the orange juice the less matcha to use. For a weaker more dilute orange juice more matcha provided a good flavor. The two difference though produce very different beverages. It becomes a bowl of matcha with a hint of orange or a bowl of orange juice that is flavored with matcha. Both proved to be quite good, but it seemed odd to produce something in the middle.

This was more of an experiment with something unusual, but proved to be quite good. If you wish to try this I would suggest starting with about 3 scoops of matcha per 200 mL of orange juice. From there you should vary your proportions to your taste or whatever you may think is interesting. There is no right or wrong here, only interesting experimentation. I will continue to experiment with this and find something that I enjoy even more perhaps.