Strawberry Matcha Latte by Chamberlain Coffee
Today I'd like to talk about one of my regretful purchases - the Strawberry Matcha Latte by Chamberlain Coffee. I previously purchased from there before and was happy with their vanilla matcha in the past (maybe if I buy it again, I will review it properly in the future!), so I was looking forward to trying this out.
General Info
The packaging and online product info sadly don't state much about where this matcha comes from aside from "Japan". The bag includes matcha powder mixed with strawberry powder and oat milk powder and costs 19 Euros in the EU store, 19 Dollars in the US store. Since it is a fairly low price for matcha, but with added ingredients and the celebrity price increase (I assume), I think it's a safe bet that this is low quality, cooking grade matcha. They say on the website that all their matchas feature Ceremonial Grade Matcha with earthy and nutty flavors, but this certainly cannot be true - neither price wise nor flavorwise. I think this happens because calling your matcha 'ceremonial grade' is something anyone can do, since this isn't protected and sounds good for marketing. Cooking grade matcha usually doesn't need any deep flavors, it is mostly used to add a grassy note or green coloring to baked goods; and adding gimmicks like strawberry or vanilla flavor or milk powder can level it up a bit in the eyes of customers and make it more interesting for drinks and saves companies money.
Color and Smell
The look of the powder is a bit disappointing, but makes sense - the matcha is likely a cooking grade one with little shading, so there is less chlorophyll. The light green is visually diluted by the pink-ish strawberry powder and oat milk powder mixed in it. If you expected a bright green beverage, you'll sadly be disappointed; the mix blends into the water easily, but looks ugly. More like a broth, green-yellowish.
The smell is overwhelmingly artificial strawberry flavor you'd know from powders you can mix into drinks, medicine, strawberry milk, cereal and so on. It is very overt and intense and drowns out anything else.
Taste
I think the drink suffers from wrong ratios. The strawberry powder is very overpowering and only leaves a slight bitter matcha note barely noticable. If there are even any umami flavors in this matcha powder, they're not detectable thanks to the strawberry. The oat powder isn't really doing anything here, not enough anyway; it doesn't add any flavor or creaminess, it just clouds the drink a little bit. It's like you're drinking watery cough medicine. If you want a genuine latte experience, you'd have to add your own milk anyway, and at that point you're left with strawberry flavor milk. If you add more than the recommended amount of powder to get more matcha flavor or more oat creaminess, all you get is more intense chemical tasting strawberry, which is more sweet than berry.
Conclusion
I know strawberry matchas have been a trend on TikTok, but you are better off buying a better quality matcha and putting strawberry syrup or jam into the bottom of your drink. That way, you can create an amazing looking drink with a bright, strong green, a nice red, and a milk gradient that also tastes amazing. I tried that with strawberry syrup and my standard Cha-Do matcha once and it was great. So, so much better than this weird mix.
0 out of 5 matcha bowls.