In addition to Japanese treats and confections, I am a huge fan of tea. I take up way more shelving in my kitchen than I should for tea, mugs, mesh tea balls and whatnot. I must have had green tea flavored treats in the past...it is a pretty common flavor in Japanese chocolates and sweets, but I cannot recall any specifics. I decided to spend a little bit more ($3.49) at Asian Food Market for a bag of soft green tea candies.
Matcha (it would be spelled maccha if you translated it exactly, but I often see it spelled matcha in English) is a very fine, high quality powdered green tea. If you drink a matcha, you mix a small amount of the powder directly into the hot water. The kanji on the front of this bag says that the flavor is matcha, not just a normal green tea flavor.
I love how the Japanese use diagrams to explain their candies....the outside is described as matcha powder and the inside a matcha milk candy.
The candies come individually wrapped and sport the kanji for matcha as well as "soft" spelled out in katakana.
The candy is much as described in the diagram. The outside is the bitter raw matcha and the inside is a slightly sweet chewy candy. I liked the candy, though I'm not sure that I loved it. I like green tea and this candy tasted just like it. The problem I suppose is I can't figure out the appropriate time to consume this candy. It's not sweet enough to dampen your sweet tooth...it's tasty but not satisfying.
Ah see, I eat these all the time. There is a reward that comes with eating them slowly and letting the stiffness dissolve.
ReplyDeleteYea? It's been a little while and I've a couple left, maybe I'll try eating them like that. Thanks!
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