Matcha Soy Tea- 7 Leaves Cafe

Happy Chinese Dragon Boat Festival! Most (if not all I think?) Chinese holidays, or festivals or celebrations or whatever synonym you want to use, have a certain food associated with them that you eat on that day. There’s usually a purpose or meaning to them too, but I’m a bad ABC and forgotten most of the foods and celebrations, let alone meaning (sorry ancestors, I try next time). I’m pretty sure I learned all of these at some point in Chinese school, but those days are long gone. Nowadays, whenever a Chinese holiday rolls around the first I thing I ask my parents is “Do we eat Tang Yuan?” (roughly translated to a boiled sweet rice ball). Man, those are my favorite holiday food, I could go for some Tang Yuan any day (see a pattern? I like boiled balls of sweet starch…if you want to simplify it).

So, you may ask, do you drink boba for the Dragon Boat Festival? No, no we don’t. Boba is not a holiday food, which means you don’t have to wait for a special occasion to drink boba (that’s 95% a joke). We actually eat zhongzi, which is a steamed sticky rice prism-shape(?) that usually comes wrapped in a leaf. They come with many fillings, from sweet with red bean, to savory with braised pork. Personally, my ideal zhongzi would have no filling and only be sticky rice, but I digress…what does all this have to do with boba?

Almost none. My dad went to pick up some zhongzi and 7 Leaves was nearby so here we are now. That’s it. I promise this is the end of the tangent.

Today I went with the Matcha Soy, because I wanted to try something else on the menu, and the matcha sounded very appealing. The description seemed appealing, and I figured I wanted some Matcha. I wasn’t interested in 7 Leaves’ Matcha sooner was because one is just matcha, and the other (today’s !) was oddly specifically blended with soy milk. I’m pretty grateful I don’t need milk substitutes, so I’m definitely used to and prefer regular milk, which is why I was hesitant to get this drink for a while. I’ve been into soy milk recently though (perhaps a mini soy milk story for another time), so I figured why not be more open minded about my drinks? I also opted for a regular size because I wanted to actually eat dinner.

The picture below has a very pretty gradient, probably from the matcha settling at the bottom. I wanted to evenly distribute the flavor, so I shook it up a bit. The drink itself was definitely very creamy, and the soy milk was strong. I could tell it was a good soy milk. The boba was a little sweet. Man, the drink’s color was so pretty too with that nice shade of matcha green.

My question is: Where is the Matcha in my Matcha Soy Tea?! Is my tongue okay? Are my taste buds ok? I could barely taste any matcha flavor. Did the soy milk overpower the flavor? If I wanted to drink soy milk I can just open my fridge and pour myself a cup. Is it because I asked for less sugar? Wouldn’t that just make the matcha flavor stronger? I mean, I might like my matcha a little strong but it’s almost nonexistent in my drink! Does 7 Leaves’ Matcha just have a weak flavor? I was confused and relatively disappointed with today’s drink. 🙁 I need to try the plain matcha next time I guess.

Details: Matcha Soy Tea; Regular size; No ice; Less sweet; With honey boba; from 7 Leaves Cafe (Irvine)