Matcha Masterclass with Tea PArlour
I've been searching out my favourite foods and making it my business to learn more about how they're made, where they come from etc so this weeks solo adventure was a matcha masterclass.
Chat gpt suggested “your readers already know you’re a matcha girly” and matcha girly I am. I first became part of the cult in 2023, when I insisted that all of my un-foodie friends, came to Taste of London (the food festival) with me. We stopped at the Blank Street stand (little did we know) which was practically unknown at the time, but they were playing very loud EDM and we were there for an absolute age just vibing and chatting to the guys running the stand. I had quite a few mutual friends with one of them, who I later discovered one of the founders of PerfectTed, who are supplying most places (blank street included) with their matcha nowadays. Anyway, whilst we were there, they were handing out cups of this new drink and we were all hooked from that point on.
Fast forward three years and with the amount of matcha I now drink, I thought it'd be interesting to learn a bit more about it and try it in a purer, less sugar spiked form. After a quick google I found Tea Parlour, which according to their website, serve London’s best ceremonial-grade matcha, sourced from Uji, Kyoto. Seemed pretty specialist to me.
Just behind Leicester Square, they hold similar events in store every few weeks, an hour before opening.
This was a better class for people on their one than my last! The couples positioned themselves at one end of the table and at the other end, there were 5 of us on our own which was great and meant a lot more chatting and social interaction.
Yay, my plan worked!
We started by trying three different types of matcha, each with different characteristics as a results of where they were grown. Each were different grades which I was most interested to understand more about, turns out I couldn't tell the difference. I learnt 100% Japanese matcha is becoming less and less common as growers are having to mix it with Chinese grown to meet demand and clearly, most people, like me, don't notice the difference.
We started by trying three different types of matcha, each with different characteristics as a results of where they were grown. Each were different grades which I was most interested to understand more about, turns out I couldn't tell the difference. I learnt 100% Japanese matcha is becoming less and less common as growers are having to mix it with Chinese grown to meet demand and clearly, most people, like me, don't notice the difference.
After inspecting their colours and tastes, we learnt about the best ratios of hot water to bring out the flavours and how to correctly use a chasen (the wooden whisk.)
Once whisked to perfection, we lined our plastic cups with whatever syrups we wanted. I went for strawberry, (although my usual order is vanilla,) filled it with ice, milk (coconut) and then carefully poured the matcha on top to get that very satisfying separation of colours.
It was a delicious matcha if ever I've tasted one, although it definitely wasn’t as sweet as I’m used to which showed me just how much syrup goes into my usual order.
Regardless, I left feeling a little bit more knowledgeable about something I consume daily, and having had a nice chat with some friendly strangers so it was a success if you ask me!
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