Premium Matcha Sweets at Mister Donut Japan

Mister Donut Japan has teamed up with Uji tea shop Gion Tsujiri in Kyoto to release a tasty range of new matcha donuts and drinks as part of their Misdo Meets series. The limited edition 9 premium matcha products are available for you to enjoy from April 6th until the end of May in Japan.

The Uji district of Kyoto has long been famous for its premium quality matcha which is known for its deep flavor and sharp fragrance.

The theme of this new matcha series is “deep matcha” and the products certainly live up to that with the perfect combination of deep matcha flavor with the sweet donuts. The donuts are made using flavor combinations typically found in traditional Japanese sweets, such as kinako (soy bean powder), azuki (sweet red beans), mochi (rice flour dumpling), and warabimochi (starch dumpling).

Here is a look and short description of the 9 products available right now at Mister Donut in Japan.

Pon de Ring Double Uji Matcha (¥151) 

The popular ‘Pon de Ring’ donut is Mister Donut’s signature donut and is made with rice flour giving it a very chewy texture. This special matcha edition is made and coated with Gion Tsujiri’s rich Uji matcha giving it a double matcha hit.

Pon de Ring Uji Matcha Kinako (¥151) 

This ‘Pon de Ring’ donut is also made from Gion Tsujiri’s rich Uji matcha and is coated with kinako (soy flour chocolate) giving it a real traditional flavour.

Uji Matcha Whipped Cream (¥151) 

One of Mister Donut’s fluffy donuts is filled with Uji matcha whipped cream and coated with Uji matcha chocolate. If that is not enough, it is even dusted with some kinako (soy bean powder) sugar powder for accent.

Choux Cream with Uji Matcha and Azuki (¥183) 

This fluffy and chewy profiterole style donut is layered with sweet azuki beans and whipped cream. It is also coated with matcha chocolate using Gion Tsujiri’s rich Uji matcha and kinako sugar powder.

Choux Cream with Uji Matcha and Brown Sugar Syrup (¥183) 

Another profiterole style donut which is filled with brown sugar syrup jelly and whipped cream made from Gion Tsujiri’s rich Uji matcha. It is also coated with soy flour chocolate and kinako sugar powder.

Brown Sugar Donut with Uji Matcha and Mochi (¥194) 

This brown sugar donut contains sweet azuki beans, Uji matcha from Gion Tsujiri and a mochi rice flour dumpling.

Brown Sugar Donut with Uji Matcha and Warabimochi (¥194) 

Another brown sugar donut with the center filled with a brown sugar syrup jelly, warabimochi and Uji matcha from Gion Tsujiri.

Uji Matcha Au Lait (¥302) 

Uji Matcha Au Lait Whipped Cream (¥356) 

To accompany the donuts, we have two special beverages made with Uji matcha from Gion Tsujiri.

Head to your nearest Mister Donut shop in Japan and give these tasty treats a try. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

I am happy to say that I have tried a few of these goodies already and really enjoyed them. How about you? Please leave your comments below.

Mister Donut Japan https://www.misterdonut.jp/ 

Credit: Mister Donut Japan 

Rare Craft Matcha Green Tea from Japan

Material Matcha Uji, one of the most disruptive tea companies of recent years, launch their unique craft Matcha green tea after a year of patient development and hard work.

Material Matcha Uji (MMU) produces insanely good Matcha Green Tea. Collaborating with traditional tea-masters and using ancient, nearly forgotten blending techniques with the highest quality tea leaves from Uji, MMU creates the most exclusive blends of matcha ever offered to the world.

From corporate jobs to the fertile lands of Uji 

Material Matcha Uji is the brainchild of two Frenchmen & longtime expats in Japan, foodies at heart, who after years in finance & IT gave up their big corporate jobs to go on a quest for purity: to find and create the greatest matcha green tea ever.

The Founders, Morgan & Etienne

Etienne Denoual, co-founder at MMU, explains: “It all started from a deep wish to reconnect with nature and authenticity. When I went back to Kyoto, a city I had lived in for years before, it was a revelation. We just had to do it.”

The Team at Material Matcha Uji

Becoming a tea-maker 

Making high grade Matcha is no walk in the park. Indeed, they faced serious issues: while so-called matcha is booming worldwide (it is often low quality green tea dust), its production has seen a steep decline in Japan. Farmers are facing increasing expenses, weak demand for superior quality matcha, and lower sales value. Even more worrying, the aging tea-making community faces successor problems, endangering its very existence.

Grinding Green Tea

The two founders, who willingly admit that two years ago they knew next to nothing about tea-making, and were both rather coffee people, took a fresh look to the issues and devised an innovative development model: if superior matcha doesn’t work in the domestic market anymore, they would take it abroad for the first time, where foodies are thrilled by Japanese delicacies.

Rare Craft Matcha 

Their matcha blends, the result of more than a year of hard work in the fields and in their workshop, are uncompromising, bold, sophisticated, and probably unlike anything you have ever tasted before. Straying from the very classical image of Japanese tea ceremony, their craft matcha belongs to the realm of guilty pleasures, not unlike artisanal chocolate or micro-distillery whiskey.

Green Tea fields of Uji in Kyoto

Because Matcha is a precious and pure material, they package their blends in different raw materials honoring the minimalism of Japanese craft & culture. "We consider our packages and vessels as something one lives with, a celebration and everyday ceremony of the purity of Matcha." explains Morgan Josset, co-founder.

Material Matcha Uji Vessels

Support their Kickstarter's Crowdfunding campaign 

Backed by a devoted community and now ready for production, they are asking backers to help them buy a whole year of harvest of several plots of land that are especially promising. Providing tea farmers financial stability and peace of mind, they push them to always favor quality over quantity, and hope that younger generations will one day take up the torch!

You can help support their Kickstarter Crowdfunding campaign by visiting the following link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/materialmatcha/rare-craft-matcha-green-tea-from-japan

Matcha Japanese Green Tea

As an avid Japanese tea fan and also the founder of a matcha green tea company, Zen Green Tea, I always have people asking me what matcha is and why it holds such a special place in Japanese culture. There is a bit of a matcha craze at the moment- big multinational companies are using matcha to produce everything from KitKats, Starbucks frappes to French macaron. America features a growing matcha market with Dr Oz and Oprah all shouting its health benefits from the rooftop.

So how is matcha actually different from standard green tea? Well first off the production of the two teas is vastly different. The green tea plants chosen to be used for matcha (typically the healthiest plants in a harvest) are covered with shade cloths for weeks at the end of the harvest. This makes the plants work harder for sunlight so it turbo charges their levels of chlorophyll and nutrients. Only the finest leaves on the top of the plants are hand picked, oven baked and rapidly stone ground into an ultra fine, jade green powder. Normal green tea uses the leaves at the middle- bottom of the tea plants which are then steamed, rolled and dried. This process destroys a lot of the amino acids and ECGC catechins well known for cancer prevention and anti-aging.

A small amount of matcha powder (2 grams) can then be added to hot water and finally whisked with a bamboo whisk forming a stunning green tea. With matcha you are consuming the whole tea leaf dissolved in water. As a result matcha is a powerhouse of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

So what are some of the health benefits of matcha? Scientific studies highlight that it helps people lose weight through increasing the amount of energy your body burns, it also suppresses appetite and helps block the absorption of fat in your large intestine so you excrete the fat Vs storing it. Matcha has also been linked to inhibiting a percentage of the neural cell death in those suffering Alzheimer’s Disease. Many studies are linking it to inhibiting the growth of tumours and preventing cancer. You can find the links to the scientific studies on my website. If you are interested in joining the matcha lifestyle just make sure you buy premium Japanese matcha that is bright green in colour. This indicates freshness while Japan also employs incredibly clean and sustainable farming processes.

Article contributed by Erin Young who is the founder of Zen Green Matcha Tea - a premium matcha green tea powder brand in Australia. To find out more information you can visit her website Zen Green Matcha Tea.

Matcha Green Tea KitKat

Just tried a new version of Matcha KitKat called オトナの甘さ Matcha KitKat. This is a new series of KitKat made for adults with a less sweet flavour. オトナの甘さ means Adult Sweetness. A KitKat geared towards adults! KitKat is really popular in Japan and they are always coming out with new seasonal varieties.

They also make great おみやげ (souvenirs) as each region has their own unique specialty flavour.

This flavour is Matcha which is a type of Japanese green tea where the tea leaf is ground into a fine powder. The Matcha is from Uji which is a region of Kyoto famous for their green tea.

How does it taste? Matcha KitKat tastes really good and the flavour is not too strong. It’s not as sweet as your regular KitKat but sweet enough and the Matcha flavour really hits you as an aftertaste with a slightly bitter note.

We picked up this KitKat for 50 yen ($USD$0.50) which contained three bars inside.

Matcha KitKat

Three of  these delicious bars in one pack

Close-up of the Matcha KitKat

Matcha Green Tea

Matcha is a type of Japanese green tea, which is produced by steaming young green tea leaves, which are then ground into a fine powder. Matcha is very healthy because the whole leaf is consumed. This method delivers a huge dose of polyphenol catechin compounds, including epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is known for its antioxidant activity.

Studies have suggested that tea polyphenols can help halt the replication of the influenza virus and rev-up T-cells, the first line of defence against nasty microbes.

How Can I Use Matcha Green Tea? To make matcha, place a teaspoon in a small bowl, pour simmering water over the top and whish briefly.

You can also add matcha to smoothies, baked goods and whipped creams.

One of my favourite Japanese desserts is Matcha Ice-Cream

Makes about half a litre


Ingredients 

• 1 tbsp green tea powder
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup milk
• 200ml pure cream

Method 

1. Mix the tea powder with two tablespoons of sugar.
2. In a seperate bowl, mix egg yolks with remaining sugar.
3. Pour milk into pan and heat gently. Be careful not to boil it.
4. Remove from heat and mix some of the milk into the green tea mixture.
5. When you have a smooth paste, add it to the remaining milk in the pan.
6. Whisk in the egg yolks and leave to cool.
7. Whip the cream then add to the cold green tea mixture.
8. Freeze

Inaugural World Tea Farms Festival

The Inaugural World Tea Farms Festival is a must see event you should schedule in to your calendar for March. It’s a 2 Day Festival celebrating tea from around the world. There will be tea from 30 tea farms including tea from India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. The tea from Japan will feature tea from Wazuka, Shizuoka, Yame, Kyoto, Nara and many more.

The event will be held on Saturday March 10th – Sunday March 11th from 10am to 4pm.


Date / Time: Sat March 10th – Sun March 11th 2012 from 10am to 4pm
Location: Green Tea Wazuka, Kyoto
Address: 35 Hazama, Shirasu, Wazuka Town, Soraku, Kyoto, Japan
Price: Admission is FREE

Note: A shuttle bus to the event location will be available from JR Kamo Station

Click on the link below to download the PDF flyer with all the details of the event

Inaugural World Tea Farms Festival PDF Flyer

Green Tea Antioxidant Wonder

Green Tea is the antioxidant wonder. Japan and Asian cultures have long appreciated and used the health benefits of green tea. Western cultures are only now beginning to recognize the health preserving benefits of green tea. Researches now know that green tea is a powerful antioxidant with compounds that can shield you from many harmful diseases including cancer and heart disease. It is now known that green tea improves cardiovascular health, reduces the risk of cancer and helps with weight loss.

Green tea comes from the same plant as black tea, but is harvested at a younger age. It is consumed fresh, rather than roasted like black tea. Green tea is thus less processed and retains more of its nutrients and antioxidants than black tea.
One of these compounds is EGCG, which is a substance with 25 to 100 times the antioxidant power of vitamins C and E. In fact, just one cup of green tea has more antioxidants than a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots, or strawberries.

Green Tea has been proven helpful at:

Protecting joints against osteoarthritis
Preventing total body inflammation
Lowering your LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels
Preventing excess hormone activity
Shielding your body from abnormal cell growth
Protecting against lung cancer
Aiding weight loss
Improving your metabolism
Boosting your immune system
Improving skin cells
Destroying harmful bacteria that can poison your system
Preventing tooth decay

I recommend drinking quality Japanese Green Tea such as Sencha, which has a perfect balance of sweet and bitter flavours, and Gyokuro, which has a naturally sweet aftertaste and soft aroma.

Green Tea is really an antioxidant wonder that can help you with its health benefits and antioxidant power.
Source: Dr. Michael Cutler`s Natural Health Answers

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