Matcha Mini Shaker from Den’s Tea

Recently I bought a neat little tea gadget, the Matcha Mini Shaker from Den’s Tea. This is a unique little product which they designed and have patent pending, to help you make powdered teas (like matcha) quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

Now, I am all for practicing traditional ways of making tea, I love assembling the teaware and slowing down to get into the full ritual of making tea. However, sometimes it is nice to have something to make your tea making easy and fast. The Matcha Mini Shaker is also at a great price point of $2.00, for those new to trying powdered tea it is a much cheaper commitment than having to buy whisk, bowl, sifter, and scoop.

I bought this partly because I wanted to test how well it worked and partly because I was trying out some new kinds of powdered teas for the first time and did not want to commit to buying all the accessories yet. I purchased some of Den’s Tea’s Houjicha Powder and Powdered Benifuki teas to use with the shaker. I adore houjicha (or hojicha) and had a pretty good idea I would like it in powdered form too, but you can never be fully certain. Even though it is called a matcha shaker, I did not get any matcha. I found when I tried matcha before that while I enjoy the taste, the caffeine content makes me feel like I am vibrating and I do not enjoy that sensation.

I have found houjicha powder intriguing though, since houjicha teas are so much lower in caffeine. It also gets to be very tempting to buy some when I keep seeing people posting delicious drinks and baking recipes with houjicha.

Anyways, back to the shaker. I think it works very well and does a great job mixing up the powdered houjicha. You add 1/2 teaspoon of powder and 1.5 ounces of water and shake. Some recipes I have seen do call for 1 tablespoon of powder, in which case you have to repeat the process again, but it is simple and quick. Once you have your little shaker of concentrated tea, you can add it to more water (hot or cold), some kind of milk, or Den’s suggests pouring it over ice cream. Loads of possibilities.

So far, I have made a hot houjicha latte with 2% milk and maple syrup. It was creamy, yummy, and reminded me of hot chocolate. There is a video on my YouTube channel if you would like to watch you can click here. I also made a cold drink with water, chocolate almond milk, and ice. This one was okay, but I think I needed a better ratio and possibly less or no ice.

Lu Ann, over on The Cup of Life Blog has two delicious sounding salted caramel hojicha recipes which I do plan to try soon. Houjicha Co. has several recipes on their site as well including a strawberry one which I would like to try. Be assured more tea experiments are coming.

All in all, so far I really like Den’s Tea’s Matcha Mini Shaker and their Houjicha Powder. Be on the lookout for more houjicha fun.

Thanks for joining me for a bit and I hope you have a lovely day!