The Jade Peach

Matcha is made of specific shade-grown, unfermented green tea leaves, stone-grounded into an extremely fine powder. Although originally from China, cultivation has been brought to perfection in Japan. Thus, authentic matcha nowadays is Japanese.

It’s probably the healthiest tea type out there: fully packed with antioxidants (10 x more than regular green tea or pomegranate). One class, the catechins (esp. EGCg), is pretty unique to this precious product and contributes to preventing cancer. And with high amounts of the amino acid L-Theanine & caffeine, it will help you to slip into a state of focused relaxation similar to meditation.

Fresh matcha powder has a vibrant, almost luminous, jade-like green color. It always tastes creamy & rich with the characteristic underlying umami qualities. However, the flavor can range from bitter to rather sweet, from floral to rather fruity, from mild to intense. Tip: there is a tendency that cheaper matcha has more bitter flavors and more expensive ones provide a sweet mildness and increased umami.

Besides sweetness, sourness, bitterness & saltiness there is actually a 5th basic taste – umami. The neologism was created in 1908 by the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda and translates as “delicious savory taste”. He was the first to scientifically prove this flavor perception relates to specific amino acids (L-glutamate) + nucleotides.

Those chemical compounds have the ability to enhance the flavor of matching aromas, typically resulting in a pleasant “brothy” or “meaty” taste with a long-lasting, coating & mouth-watering sensation over the tongue. Products with naturally high umami qualities are fish, caved meat, mushrooms, specific vegetables (e.g. ripe tomatoes, spinach), breast milk, and… green tea (matcha).

For the balance of the cocktail, the specific matcha product affecting the matcha-syrup-ratio is crucial. E.g. if you bought one with intense grassy-bitter notes, you better handle the amount with care and stick with the syrup amount recommendation. Otherwise, you can for sure reduce the syrup. (Isuzu is rather balanced but has a bitter-tart punch. Thus, more than just a drop of syrup is needed here, if you want to balance it out.)

Thanks to the peach wedge the peach flavor will be staged in a soft & extra-fresh way. If you don’t use it, you may increase the liqueur to 30ml to highlight the peach note. But the strong flavor & sweetness of the liqueur would already shine out more anyway.

Here is a straightforward, pretty sharp variation: use vanilla-flavored vodka instead of rum and even drop the syrup (resulting in 30ml vanilla vodka & 30ml peach liqueur). This will ultimately highlight both, peach & matcha while keeping the vanilla impression. Exciting but a bit harder to balance.

Looking for another fruitful matcha combination? Think about raspberry or pineapple!