Matcha Workshop

Today was the day of my matcha workshop! I found this on Rolan's IG Story a while ago and, apparently, his sister-in-law Jacque Madestomas would be hosting and organizing the event. I wouldn't consider myself a huge matcha fan, although I've been matcha-adjacent for quite a few years now. I would say that I developed enough of an interest in it to actually attend a workshop on it. Plus, you know, nothing's stopping me anyway.

So I spent most of the morning just doing my usual stuff. I watched as Ailysh had to leave for her company outing. After that, I booked a ride to Balay Kōbō. It was super down south from where I'd usually go. It's also surprisingly the second time in a month where I've been so down south, the last time was for last week when I had to buy Ailysh's Galaxy Watch. I thought I'd be late because the place seemed so far away, and it was! It took me a good while to get there, maybe 40 minutes or so. My butt was so sore from the motorcycle ride there and it was on a sunny and hot day, too. When I got there, I was still relatively-early so I bought a pen from a nearby sari-sari store. I went inside and the design of the "house" interior was interesting, to say the least. But I just sat on a couch near the main table where our workshop would be held.

Eventually, around 1 p.m., the workshop finally started. We started with an icebreaker about who we are and what got us into matcha. I honestly didn't know when I started having matcha as an interest, but I really believe it was way back in 2021 when Miss Mina gave me a bunch of assorted food and snacks from Japan that I bought from her. I already knew I was a fan because I used to drink it in my mornings back when the pandemic was waning and it was already 2022. So I could say that matcha is part of my own "culture" that I developed an interest of. When it was my turn, I told everyone how I got into it and I was even able to find the photo of the snacks and matcha that Miss Mina sent me, so that was nice. Also, I had to do that "throwing a dart hand motion" thing I always have to do so that people can know my nickname, Dart.

After our introductions, we then got started with the presentation. Jacque taught us about the history of matcha, how it is currently being cultivated in Japan, and various tidbits too like the quality of matcha, as well as the different methods on how to make it and what tools are used in making it. This was really nice and I felt assured in my own experience because they do say that real matcha comes from Japan. Since what Miss Mina gave me was actual matcha powder from Japan itself, I felt validated on my own experience lol. After the lecture, we were given a taste test on the various kinds of matcha. Some were really interesting and, being a total noob, I didn't know what any of this was. There were really strong and bitter ones, but also some matcha types that were sweeter, in a way. The weirdest ones were the fruit-infused matcha drinks because they tasted more like the bitter fruits they were infused with (mango and peach) than matcha themselves. It was super strange and interesting. I even had a question about how they were able to infuse it with the flavor, so that was a nice experience.

Then after that, we got to make our own matcha drinks. We were able to use a variety of sweeteners, flavors, they even had different types of milk. I was interested in making a carbonized, soda-like matcha drink, but after tasting how wild the coconut milk was, I just had to go for the coconut milk. I kind of love coconut, in a way. I still have a lot of Bounty candy bars in my drawer and even used to snack on Bounty bars back in December. Coconut milk + matcha was obviously a no-brainer.

At first, I kind of messed up by adding too much water, but eventually I was able to prepare a good amount of matcha to go in my drink. I also used the vanilla syrup as my choice of sweetener. After that, I blended my drink and it actually tasted really good. I've never had coconut milk + matcha + vanilla syrup before, but it was actually good. I wish more stores offered coconut milk instead. That absolutely shocked me but I only made 1 cup to drink. I looked around and saw the others making more drinks for themselves and tasting it. But, for some reason, I kind of just felt shy to make another drink. There was also a Q&A portion and I asked about their coffeehouse business, Hometown Cafe. I told Jacque and Rolan's brother that I've been a classmate of Rolan ever since elementary and I found this workshop because he shared it to his IG Story. I also said that I'm from Integrated Montessori Center, which shocked them because apparently Rolan's brother also studied there. So that was nice. Max and Rolan also left me messages and I got to reply to them while the event was going on. But after that, we took a few photos, exchanged IG accounts, and we eventually went our separate ways. It was nice to meet new people and I actually liked the workshop. It was really nice, I should do this more often.

The trip home was so tiring, though. The Angkas ride felt forever and, even though I left relatively around the afternoon, I arrived home somehow late. It was already nighttime now. Even though I love going to new places, I don't think I'd go this far on my own without having a set intention or an event to visit, honestly. When I got home, it was just me alone for the rest of the evening. I wanted to do something productive but nothing much happened. I was able to clean the dishes that my sister hadn't washed for a few days and I threw out some of the food from the fridge. But yeah, I mostly spent my evening just chilling in front of the computer.