Matcha Cortado – Omomo Tea Shoppe

Russian practice is back at Omomo! Today we started one of the intermediate passages we found, which was about cats. Miscellaneous grammar items include whatever what was in the passage. It is also significantly cooler, and more tolerable temperature today to be out, which was much appreciated! Boba shall be appreciated in any weather though. 🙂

I went with one of Omomo’s matcha drinks today, the Matcha Cortado. I feel like I haven’t had a matcha milk tea in a bit, and I have been interested in trying the Matcha Cortado too. I’ve actually never heard of a cortado before Omomo, but apparently my friend likes regular cortados, except she doesn’t like matcha. What makes a cortado?

I had previously gotten the Uji Matcha Latte a while ago, but I was turned off a little because it included Jasmine tea, and the flavors from the Jasmine and the matcha clashed in my opinion. I might try it again (for the blog hehe), but that was what initially made me not get the Matcha Cortado for a bit since I thought it’d be similar, since the Cortado has Gyokuro tea. They (initially) look different, because the Matcha Cortado comes unmixed or in layers, so I thought, surely they must be different, and hey, they’re separate drinks on the menu for a reason right? (Does the Uji Matcha also look like this before it’s all green?)

So, you definitely have to mix the drink, unless you like drinking your drink in layers for some reason. Before I poked my straw in, I debated whether or not to mix it, because surely there must be a reason they don’t mix it. Maybe it’s so it doesn’t get confused with the Uji Matcha, which is purely green. Maybe it’s for the aesthetics. Regardless, I did not mix it, so when the straw went in, I got pure matcha. The pros? I tasted every layer individually, and each layer was great in its own way. The cons? I’m pretty sure the layers are meant to be drunk together!

The matcha (when I had it by itself) is a very good quality, slightly bitter, pure matcha, which I found nice, and it seemed the matcha layer itself doesn’t contain any sweetness. I’m also assuming the Gyokuro tea is in this layer. The milk layer, which supposedly is a sweetened house milk, is nice and rich, which would have been very nice combined with the matcha. Together, they form a great matcha milk tea! I’m not sure why some places feel a need to combine their matcha lattes/milk teas with some other green tea (Jasmine, Gyokuro, Four Seasons, etc), because that’s not why I want a matcha latte. Perhaps so you feel you get your money’s worth instead of needing to DIY it at home.

The boba today was one of the better boba I’ve had from Omomo! When I got my drink, the bottom of my cup was warm, which is a good sign that the boba is fresh. There was a little syrup on the side of my cup, but I didn’t mind it too much. If anything, that proves they do have syrup I guess. I was pleasantly surprised because the boba was a little chewier than other times I’ve had from Omomo, which was very nice. The boba is also slightly sweeter too, but once the syrup is gone it tastes like regular Omomo boba. Goes nicely with the slight bitterness of the matcha!

Details: Matcha Cortado; 50% sugar; No ice; with brown sugar boba; from Omomo Tea Shoppe (Irvine, Walnut Village)