Nothing can beat the original, high quality, vibrant green matcha. However, now and then, a novelty blend tries to take over the palates of matcha lovers. Sometimes, they really succeed. The Heroine is a flavoured chocolate and caramel matcha from The Tea and The Gang, made for chocolate lovers.
What is the Heroine?
Tea and the Gang say the Heroine is a superhero blend full of the good stuff – nutrients, antioxidants, and we dare to add – a very pretty colour and an incredible scent. It’s blended with Japanese matcha, cocoa powder and flavouring granules.
Matcha is a shaded Japanese green tea, ground into a fine powder. In the last decade, matcha gained enormous popularity worldwide, and not only because of its potential health benefits and unique flavour. It’s easy to make, super versatile, and has a beautiful green colour. And as it turns out, it can be blended with different ingredients for an even more unique flavour profile.
The Heroine is a real proof.
It has a beautiful green colour, especially considering it’s blended with 43% of cocoa powder.
How to make chocolate and caramel matcha tea?
Traditionally, matcha is prepared using a special bamboo whisk called chasen, a tea bowl called chawan, and measures using a matcha scoop – chashaku. These three utensils will be highly valuable for making any matcha at home. However, if you want to enjoy it as a latte, you will only need an electric whisk and a cup. Handheld battery-operated simple whisk is great for whisking both matcha powder and frothing the milk.
Per instructions, measure 1 gram of matcha powder and add about 30 ml of 80 Celsius degrees water. Mix it well and top up with hot frothed milk or hot water.
For a stronger flavour, add a gram more, especially if you want to make it with milk.
Does chocolate and caramel matcha taste better with water or with milk?
We tried it with both. While it tastes great with water only, it’s the milk that brings out chocolaty notes of this blend. It’s delicate, light, but undoubtedly matcha – and undoubtedly flavoured with cocoa powder. Since this chocolate and caramel matcha contains both matcha and cocoa, colour is less intense, but still pretty, delicate light matte green.
This tea has an amazing scent – warming, soothing cocoa on a green tea base.
This may be a wonderful blend for matcha traditionalists too, when feeling adventurous to try out something new. It would be great even for chocolate drinkers that are not too fond of grassy intense matcha scents, but would like to add a green tea to their daily routine and perhaps switch from a calorie rich drink to something lighter.
All in all, this chocolate and caramel matcha tea is delicious!
Tea Recap
Water or Milk? Milk
Day or night? Day
Hot or Iced? Hot
Caffeine? Yes
Sweetened or Pure? Pure
What’s the price? Starting from £7.99 for 25 grams
Where to buy? Tea and the Gang website