Green Chocolate! Torrons Vicens Elaboracio Tradicional - Turron de te Matcha [@NLi10]

 Spain has lots of festive treats and traditions and while my sister was in Barcelona she spotted this huge bar of Matcha Green sweet stuff and brought it home for me.

                                                

While the translation calls it Nougat it's more of a fondant praline- with a crystaline sugar inner

It's a new nougat concept, with a common denominator! It's mostly white chocolate, but wow is it green in person.

I figured these lines meant portions and chopped us one each

You can see the lovely crystaline jaffa orange filling here - such sweetness!

The chocolate itself is a lovely blend - smooth but with a strong matcha flavour.  I could have had it stronger, but my partner was less keen than I so only had a taste of her bit so I had a double portion.

This turned out to be a little much matcha for a Thursday afternoon and so a nap was required.

Great luxurious flavours and gift experience, and a perfect after dinner treat.  Not something I'd recommend you sit and snack on while working though!

Bubbleology - Milk Tea Mixology Kit - Taro Flavour [@NLi10]

 I got this bubble tea kit for Christmas, but had been saving it til the weather was a bit warmer as it's nicer as a cold drink (the bubbles in warm drinks are a little too unnerving). 

It has everything you need - except the milk, and ice - in the box and is enough to make 4 decently sized drinks.

The instructions tell you how to mix all the bits together, but the QR code also links you to a video that says slightly different things.

It says you can use plant based things too so I used almond milk

It does worry me that they keep saying that it's science

Impressive little kit!

For the Taro version you pop the powder & milk in the blender and give it a zap, and then microwave the little tadpoles

Unfortunately I put it on for a few seconds too long and it popped.  Three seconds less and I'd have likely been fine.

I managed to get them all into the pepsi glass

I then added the blended milk mix (with a little blended ice too) and gave it a swirl.

And it worked surprisingly well!  The smells were those of the bubble tea shop, and the taro tasted pretty authentic too.  Using the non-dairy milk seemed to have not changed a thing and worked really well too.

My complaint with these has always been that it's more of a posh milkshake than a novelty tea - but behold - they say you can add 1/4 of pre-made tea to the mix for a more tea based drink - so for the next set I'll do that and see if it makes a difference.

I'll probably add another review for the tiger stripes one.

Chaibibi's Green Apple (tea?) {@NLi10]

 I sometimes buy things and then don't get around to trying them for ages.  over NY I decided to crack into a few of them. 

Here is a see-through can of bright green liquid that is kind of Chai?  Seems unlikely that it's milky or spicy.

Apple tea is a thing so I assumed it'd be like that.

Essentially it's a flat apple tango style drink,  a little sour but not too bad, and doesn't have any of the odd stimulants in it.  A fairly sophisticated little drink - but more pop than tea.  Great for cocktails!

As this has been a short one here is Flo in the fort at the top of the stairs that is supposed to stop the cats from murdering each other quite as often.

0Kcal Drinks - AliENergy Lychee & Dong Feng Shu Ye Jasmine Tea [@NLi10]

We are truly in the confusing era of the 0 Calorie drink.  Tap water is 0 Calories and mostly free, but when you are out it's nice to have a similar experience and a cool healthy drink.  So I picked a few up and then drank them at home anyway! 

This one - I mostly liked the portmanteau of Alien and Energy - I'd not seen that before. It's very 90s and pretty cool. I'd forgive them if the drink was bad.

No calories and a bunch of sprayed on vitamins, it's basically PRIME.

Only this is based around water and sweeteners (boo) but with a lovely fruity taste.  This is unmistakably Lychee, and really refreshing.  Even though I dislike the sweeteners this is very subtle and suitable for most people's tastes.  A win.

And here we have a drink that is usually zero calorie - tea!  Putting milk in (as I usually do) or sugar (as I did in my twenties) makes it less of a healthy proposition - but the natural botanicals of the jasmine tea remove the need for this - IF it's done properly.

They put in some things to keep it fresh, but otherwise this is tea and water - result!  Sure - we haven't quite got to fortified vitamin teas yet, but without the negative parts you can literally drink as much of this as you like and not need to worry.

And it's a good one too - very basey flavour, deep and earthy teas.  The jasmine is very subtle, but does rise towards the end making this a very easy tea to drink.  I'd certainly have this again (even though I do default to the Mr Kong version which is a lot closer to American Pop than this serious adult tea!)

While bottled water is a bit of a menace in nations that have clean and safe municipal supplies (just stick it in the fridge!) it's nice to have flavoured alternatives that are neither too expensive or bland and can give you a little shot of vitamins or cafiene to get through the shopping experience.

Mochi Cookies with Choc Chips & Artificial Matcha (by @NLi10)

Ah - cookies - wonderful American things. But wait - these are clearly international - Taiwanese to be precise.  But for the American Audience it seems.

It's in Oz! So American.

Pie Cookies also sounds very American - lets hope these taste at least a little international.

Look at these lovely little lumps, joyous little cookies that they are.

And they are just about gooey enough in the middle to match the pictures - so that's not so bad.

And the cookie part is quite like an American cookie with the odd aftertaste and everything. The green tea is fairly authentic - although it really makes me want a proper tea.

But...

A lead warning?  That's ... not something I want to see on my food.  Is this an Americanism like the 'please chew' warning? What on earth is going on over there?

Anyway - these are nice - not 'must buy' and something I'm happy to share with others.  The flavour is decent, and the Matcha buzz is there, but those warnings make me a little scared to have these again.

Teapigs Kombucha - Original & Peach/Mango by @NLi10

 Kombucha is great - and Teapigs make some of the best quality big-brand tea there is - lets see what happens when you combine the two!

Here is the original version Kombucha.

It's made with Mao Feng green tea which is my favourite Teapig for home (the only one I buy in boxes of 50 for dreamy afternoons)

It aslo has all the right words like SCOBY and gives 5p to charity

Unfortunately it's really unexciting.  Good Kombucha sings with the memories of all the things that went into it, this was just odd pop.  Disapointing.

I also bought a Peach & Mango one - no picture of it in the glass - but this one was really nice!

The extra flavours have been added to balance out the bits I didn't like about the Original version, and while you couldn't identify it as TeaPigs it just tasted like decent Kombucha.

I'll have to look in Holland & Barrett to see if there are other flavours (and if they are still on the special offer!)

Too Hot - Drink cooling Jasmine Tea (@NLi10)

Britain is currently Too Hot.  To this end I bought and carried a couple of litres of ice-cold tea for bumbling around the shops (which was silly - should just buy one at a time).  Only one was *new* to me and of interest.

We mostly spent the day in the Custard Factory looking at the cool new market area on Floodgate Street and hanging in Wayland's Forge.  Here I am hiding in the shade and guzzling tea.

It's a relatively simple affair - and I was warned before buying it - there is no sugar in this!

There isn't much of anything - what a swizz!  Well, actually an unsweetened Jasmine tea is just what I fancied.  I'd have preferred a deeper flavour (this is from powder - oops) but it was too grassy for my sister so it's probably just my taste buds.  It was refreshing, icy, watery, fragrant Jasmine tea.  And I felt very refreshed afterwards.

Tenzing - Original Flavour - Natural Energy Drink Purely From Plants (but basically nicer Vegan RedBull) @NLi10

 I like unusual 'sports' drinks in fact I was one of the first people to get massively behind RedBull that I know of (we had to buy it from the vending machine in the sports section of the union and then take it to the bar ourselves for the first term).  1997 was a very long time ago though, and we've moved past pouring isostar dust into vodka to get our kicks.

In a rare occurrence we had something on TV that contained adverts (possibly Taskmaster) and this popped up.  I hurridly took a picture and then completely forgot about it.

Carbon negative? Named after the first person to conquer Everest and full of plants?  Sounds fantastic!

Energy drinks have been 'Monstered' a lot recently and frankly that's not my scene anymore.  I don't want to game all night anymore (unlike 10 years ago) - I just want to get on and have a little bit more swing in my step.

And they showed up in the Co-op in Bearwood so I couldn't resist.

It's got tea in it (like Kombucha), it's got green coffee in it (which I'd not heard of but want), and a few of the usual stimulants (but from plant sources).  At only 48 calories it doesn't actually have much energy, but it does have a lot of motivation.  I guess it's like Sherpa Tenzing encouraging you to get to the summit.

Electrolyte drinks have a habit of looking the same coming in as going out - this one is no exception - but the fruity scents and sparkling water taste are really refreshing and welcoming on a hot day.

Unlike the RedBull style drinks there is no chemical aftertaste - although it could maybe be a little more botanical in taste for me (but then I love intense flavours).  I don't think it's one I'd actively seek out, but if I was in the market for a drink while out at didn't want the full Kombucha style hit, and needed a little oomph to get me back to base then I think this is a very suitable companion.

Finally Making Those Matcha Green Scones (@NLi10)

What is this, powder upon more powder?  What kind of snack food is this?!

Well the green is easy to explain - that's my Matcha powder that I got send to review ages ago.

It's great stuff and while I drank most of it I reserved the last half a pack for baking.  And while it's taken 2 years for my health and procrastination to do that baking - here it is!

This green sausage is a half dozen of Delia's scones.  With a table spoon of matcha.

They don't look that green now

They bake up nicely

And they compare well to the normal batch I did for comparison

Tea scones with more tea is maybe a little much, but they worked really well (as expected) and the flavours still came through.  I definitely used less sugar than the recipe needed (or the wrong grade) but generally it worked as expected.  I needed the clotted cream and jam in stock before I did this!

So all in all the baking grade matcha was a success - now to do a chocolate cake - but with matcha instead of chocolate - the possibilities are endless!!

Mangajo - Pomegranate & Green Tea (@NLi10) - Water Juice & Tea all together!

I've already talked about this one before - but it was 9 years ago it turns out!  This doesn't feel like something that could have been around that long - so what did they do right that I just didn't spot?

First of all the health halo on this one is HUGE - Pom & Green tea and no added sugar?  So what is actually inside.

As my past-self's abject disappointment showed - this is water. 11% of the drink is fruit juice (only 2% of which is Pomegranate) and there is 9g of green tea powder per litre.  While that's not much thats possibly enough to give you a boost.

All it really claims to be is hydrating, which is pretty easy.  And it achieves that - see how empty the bottle is?  These juicy waters were all the rage for a time, and still seem to crop up - and this is at least a natural one.

So then - if you fancy a flavoured water, and only want a little one (250ml) and don't mind paying a premium for less chemicals then it's a decent product.  I did enjoy the drink.  And I guess it's low calorie too. 

It's just hard to recommend as a first choice when there are real water, juice and tea usually available right next to these.

Gunpowder Green Tea (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

Gunpowder, treason and plot! I may have missed the boat with this Pure Leaf Gunpowder Green Tea as Bonfire night was on the 5th November, but I'm sure Guy Fawkes and his mob wouldn't have minded having another day to blow up parliament in 1605. With the farce that British politics has turned into over the last few years, some people are possibly thinking they wouldn't blame him today either…

This Indonesian long leaf Gunpowder Green Tea was picked, rolled and dried, and added into sixteen pyramid tea bags. After a few minutes brewing in my trusty Captain Cave Man mug, there was a predominantly smoky and also leafy green tea aroma from the deep brown tea. The plastic container the tea pyramids came in didn't recommend adding milk, so I didn't. Besides, milk in green tea is a bit of a no no. I gave up adding sugar in tea long ago, and I only add a teaspoon of sugar when I'm really ill and off food, which fortunately is rare. Besides, adding sugar in green tea is also probably a bit of a no no. On taste this Gunpowder Green Tea has a rich almost sweet smokiness to its flavour that is very pleasant. This green tea should go very well with my lunch or dinner to help with my digestion.

Green Tea Kit Kat (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I have to say I am impressed by Kit Kat for bringing out such an adventurous flavour in the UK, the minute I spotted this Green Tea Kit Kat I couldn’t wait to try it. This particular Kit Kat has launched in similar style of packaging to the Ruby Kit Kat and it too looks rather posh. I like the Japanese art work and characters on the packaging.
Once the wrapper is off there is one thing that needs to be said about the contents, this Green Tea Kit Kat is green! Very green!!! This upped my interest levels further, I’m loving that this adventurous Japan inspired Kit Kat is available as a proper UK release.

One thing that did worry me was the aroma was quite strong, it was of Green Tea but the scent is quite grassy and herby and I did worry the matcha in the Kit Kat might be a little to strong. Green tea can be a little bitter if over brewed, and I hoped that wasn’t the case here or indeed the flavour they were aiming for.
I tried some of the Kit Kat and the taste was thankfully spot on, matcha yes but creamy and sweet enough to to bring balance and enhance the tea taste. This does taste distinctively of green tea, but the flavours of white chocolate with it are magic, different yet tasty. Obviously this bar of chocolate contains all the usual crunchy goodness of a regular Kit Kat in terms of texture too. Thumbs up for this Green Tea Kit Kat and I hope it finds a nice niche market here in the UK that leads to some more exotic flavours being released.