I’ll confess that my taste in anime can sometimes be questionable. But I feel you need some trash in your life to balance out the Oscar/award-worthy titles. That said, I don’t stoop as low as “In Another World with my Smartphone” and “The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar”… but I do enjoy more than the odd isekai, which my best boy has pretty much tapped out on as he feels the market is oversaturated and they all have dumb titles. Which is probably true for about half of anime these days anyway.

So the list of shows I watched last year was pretty long(65 long as it turns out). But I’d like to think it’s no longer than the past few years ^_^;. I know alot of people are hailing 2018 as the best year for anime in a long time, but I’d need to go back and compare.

Below are all the shows that I watched to completion(the ones that I’m almost finished I tagged thusly)

Winter 2018
Darling in the Franxx
Violet Evergarden
Overlord
Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho(A Place Further than the Universe)
Citrus
Death March to Another World
Pop Team Epic
After the Rain/Koi wa Ameagari no You ni
Kokkoku
Fate/Extra Last Encore
Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc
Gakuen Babysitters
Miira no Kaikata(How to Keep a Mummy, possibly my favourite of the entire year.)
Sanrio Danshi
Devilman Crybaby
(Through the Year OVA)Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan(Today’s Menu with the Emiya Family)
(17 new)

Spring 2018
Boku no Hero 3
Steins;Gate 0
SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online
Wotakoi – Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii(Love is hard as an Otaku)
Hinamatsuri
Megalobox
Shokugeki no Soma season 3 part 2
Tada-kun never falls in love/Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai
Persona 5 (4 episodes shy of finishing…)
Mahou Shoujo Site(still need to finish…)
Umamusume
Hisone & Maso-tan (Didn’t watch till it was on Netflix though.)
Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi
Dorei-ku the Animation
Amanchu Advance
Last Period
Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori
Gundam Build Divers
(18 new)

Summer 2018
Shingeki no Kyojin season 3
Cells at Work
Overlord III
How not to Summon a Demon Lord
Grand Blue
Happy Sugar Life
Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san
Island
Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight
Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki
(10 new)
(Summer was a less busy season in terms of numbers, but there were alot of
leftovers from Spring so I suppose that made up for it.)

Autumn(aka Fall) 2018
Goblin Slayer
Bunnygirl-senpai(No need for he full title when everyone knows what it is
from that lol)
SAO Alicization
That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime
Zombie Land Saga (Greatest left turn ever)
SSSS.Gridman
Iroduku, aka Irozuku Sekai Ashita kara
Jojo part 5
Bloom into You
Boarding School Juliet
Run with the Wind
Karakuri Circus
Hinomaru-Zumou
As Miss Beelzebub Likes
The Girl in Twilight(Akanesasu Shoujo)
Double Decker! Doug & Kirill (by proxy, best boy’s choice)
Merc Storia
Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 (by proxy, best boy’s choice)
Jingai-san no Yome
Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san
(20 new)
65 total

Is this too many? Did you watch too many? More or less than this? I’d like to think this is a 60/40 split of actual good shows to sub-par trash. That said, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure ;D

Go to Crunchyroll to watch this adorable heart-warming show

Either way. Back to Fate Grand Order for now! (Yes, I’ve gone down the Fate hole. It happened at the beginning of 2018. All because I told the original anime had a plot twist, and I like plot twists. Little did I realise the bigger plot twist would come in UBW…)

Got these almost a year ago now I guess. Been worried about leaning, but they seem to be holding up well so far. And being the only Yurikuma figures I’ve seen, full scale anyways, I had to have them. Got them together for £30-ish I believe. (It’s been a while.) Considering the price, they both look very nice. And in these outfits too. Can’t wait for the Blu ray’s to come out too :DD

A few months ago I was lucky enough to snag this beauty during a sale on Hobbysearch, she’s now sold out on there too sadly. Their most recent sale prompted me to post this photo’s I took a while ago. Because there were more Hestia’s in this new sale… the Genco mount one, with the pillow(now sold out since this morning), and a Cu-Poche one. There’s one other, but that one didn’t tempt me. However I now have 2 more Hestia’s on the way…….. I think I have a problem… Many many photo’s below the cut…

She’s so goddamn cute XD

So a while ago I posted the pics of the Dagashi set 2 and the Fukubukuro box from Freedom Japanese Market… I still haven’t finished it all. And the Discovery Box from Candysan arrived last week…. and then the April Subscription box from FJM arrived yesterday… so much like a backlog of TV or anime… I have a backlog of candy and snacks…. not that I’m complaining. I’d love nothing more than to stuff my face with it all very quickly. But I’m trying to be good. I refused to start the Dagashi set 2 until I’ve finished set 1. And I still had 2 things left when I did start it I think… and I still have stuff from my FJM sample box too… maybe 1 or 2 things…

Contents of aforementioned Discovery box. I did get some extra Umaibo…. I wanted to try the Natto one again XD

I’m/we’re working our way slowly through it. We’ve eaten the Japanese nik naks(red packet far left) which are apparently called ‘Scon’ or ‘Scoon’ XD. They were nice, BBQ flavour. Looked and tasted pretty much like English Nik Naks.

‘Scon’ or Nik Naks XD

We also ate some Grape flavour candy floss with popping candy in, but this was from the Dagashi set 2. We enjoyed this. The Candysan box had a Ramune flavoured kind in, but instead of popping candy, it turned into gum after the floss part had disolved! Very weird…

Grape candy fluff

I also decided to eat this, which I spent AGES trying to translate and google what it was. I finally discovered it was a kind of condensed milk white chocolate with powdered sugar on top which contained 1.4% alcohol content.(It also comes in other flavours too, like strawberry.) Which I could taste. It was very nice, came in that fancy box with a tiny fork. It’s all in the adorable detail.

This one was called Umaka, comes in lots of flavours it seems, was fairly easy to translate and google at least. Another corn-puff type snack. Lot of these in Japan it seems. Like Wotsits…

Not my photo, but I ate these at work, I tried to explain the mayonnaise on the front, but they were still confused. Tasted nice, but didn’t taste how I remember Japanese mayo tasting…

These are adorable. Biscuit sticks with messages on that you dipped in chocolate then sprinkles. Very cute. I took many photo’s of the sticks so I could translate the messages after I ate them XD

Adorable XD

I also ordered a few gachapon with the Candysan order…

My Neko Atsume gachapon. Sooo happy I got Cream-san!!

Metal Pokemon charms from XY & Z. Very cute. I got Fennekin and the Zygarde cell form.

I also got a garden eel phone strap. Because of Shimoneta XD

I bring things to work to eat everyday with my sandwiches, spicing it up a bit rather than just getting a donut from Gregg’s next door. Plus my colleagues will always ask ‘what’s that?’ and sometimes I can’t even give them a proper answer because not even I know! I’ve got into the habit of describing Umaibo as a ‘giant wotsit with a hole in’. And there have been several bags of mystery corn/wheat puffs or curls similar to wotsits or other English snacks. The ‘Cabbage Taro’ was fun to explain, I even googled so I could tell them what flavour they were. And the mystery ‘Mayonnaise’ flavour ones went down a treat XD. Either way, always good fun. Most folks at work are too scared to try anything if I offer, but a few are more adventurous.

Front of the box. Was a bigger box than I expected too.

So I love this series. Unconditionally. Irrationally even. So much so, I went and preordered the game, which is currently only in Japanese. Not only that, it was the limited edition, with a drama CD which for the most part I won’t be able to understand XD. I considered preordering it on Amazon, but at that time they still didn’t ship games outside of Japan. So I went with Play-Asia. A site I’ve used before for things here and there. Never a game costing this much… I figured I was going to get smacked with a hefty import tax and VAT and what have you. So I prepared myself mentally. Hell. It was only shipped last week pretty much, 2 weeks tops, so I wasn’t expecting anything to arrive yet, usually Play-Asia’s shipping is pretty slow…. so you can imagine my shock and delight when it turned up this morning. No card saying ‘PAY THIS NOW’ or anything. It just appeared… it even had the full amount declared on the box, AND it was marked as Merchandise… not gift…. so I’m baffled as to why I didn’t get slapped with import tax. Not complaining. Just dazed and confused. Happily so. (More pics of the unboxing below the cut.)

So I opened it during my lunch break at work, as you do. I wasn’t even sure what came with it apart from the drama CD. I just wanted the Limited Edition out of loyalty to the anime. And Uchikoshi. Because I love all his stuff. (For those of you who don’t know of Punchline…. how do I explain this…. it’s a very Kotaro Uchikoshi-esque plot, apart from the presence of alot more fanservice than usual, but that does die down to an extent during the second half of the series. I don’t want to spoil things. Let’s just say if you enjoyed his previous games, (Ever17, Remember11, 999, Zero’s Escape games in general etc) you will probably find Punchline entertaining, if not just for the cameo’s ;D.)

Back of the box

I opted for the Vita version purely because if I’m going to play a VN, or VN-esque game, I like to be able to do it on the go. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine on PC, but I like being able to hold it in my hands and lean back properly. (Which is why I’m now the proud owner of two copies of Amnesia lol, one on Steam, one on Vita.)

The game, CD and art book!!

Now actually playing the game hinges on me being able to at least quasi-read hiragana. Kanji I don’t have much hope for at the moment. Some of the Kanji in the game has hiragana above it, but not all. And from the beginning I played, it starts out following the anime’s plot. So I at least know what’s going on so far. It’s when it diverges, then I’m screwed.

The back of the Nandala Gandala/art book. It’s going characters I don’t recognise it in…

This gives me a real reason to learn more Japanese. I say real reason… a goal. To be able to play and understand more than I already do. I can understand bits and pieces of conversation and work out plots without subtitles, but games are a bit different… plus with a game like this, I need to be able to read too.

Inside the artbook, lovely glossy pages, sorry about the quality of the photos..

Regardless of being able to play it yet or not. I don’t regret buying it. I wanted to support the series. And I’m pretty sure this game will never come out in the west, so I took a chance. I wish more games like this came to the west. And it’s a shame that two of my favourite anime from last year haven’t even seen a DVD/Blu Ray release in America, let alone the UK/Europe. I’d love to own the Blu Ray’s too… but without English subs…. Well I’m still tempted. But I’m gonna wait a little bit longer to see if it gets an official English sub release.

The backpack is currently clipping through the wings, but it’s worth it XD

So because of Build Fighters, we got back into building Gunpla, and subsequently I heard about this game getting an English Asian release… and Rice Digital stocking it…(Super out of stock now I’m afraid. They did say it’d be very limited!) things happened, stuff got added to baskets. Long story short. I bought the game. I have no regrets. Apart from the fact we now have to fight over PS4 time. Part of me wishes I bought it for the Vita too. But I figured it’d look cooler on the big TV. Which is does. Very much so. But as I’m typing, the husbando is playing. Fair enough I spent close to 4 hours playing earlier. But he got to play all of yesterday while I was at work. So he’s ahead of me. When I bought the game! He didn’t even want it…

Thank god I got Zeon stuff quickly XD

The gameplay seemed to be mostly mashing triangle and square. Which I’m fine with. Then I got extra moves. So I started having to hit circle too. And remembering to occasionally fire whatever gun I had. And then I got more special moves from the backpacks…. and there was so much daka…. like…. the screen just explodes sometimes. It’s awesome.

So of course when I got Zaku parts what do I do? Make it all pink. The Sazabi shield was a pretty nice find early on. Not taken it off yet. Just powered it up. That’s another thing…. I can just keep the parts I love and move the powers on…. it’s gonna make me stuck in my ways!! When I should be customising.

This was a monster though. It was before I had enough Zeon parts,

This was after I got some Gelgoog pieces. I was so happy when I fought them.

It was a mix of Gelgoog and Gelgoog Jaeger though. But I’ve grown to like the legs, so I don’t wanna change them yet… or ever.

Beam sabers all the way.

I should make it all pink… but it feels wrong… it should be Char-colours for my Best Girlgoog The pic at the very top with the Kshatriya arms/wings is the most current build. I need to find a different/better backpack… but it’s haaaaard…

It is a very fun game. It’s loot-based button mashing which I am perfectly down with. I just wanted to make the prettiest/weirdest gunpla’s I could XD. I’m glad it got an English version, even if it’s the Asian-English version. No weird Engrish spotted yet though, nice translation all round.

Creepy fucker.

And Amnesia was on sale.

A game I already own on Steam. (Paid full price almost on Steam.)

But will probably never get to play all the way through on laptop just because I have other things to do while at home. (I started it, and got locked in a cage on my first play through. And then pushed down a well in my second. GG.)

So I got it on Vita. For £7.99. Not bad at all. And I’m continuing to support the western Visual Novel industry.

(I also got Catherine and Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment…)

I am currently addicted to Story of Seasons;aka the real Harvest Moon though. So who knows when I’ll touch my Vita again XD The bf is using it for Dissidea more than me right now XD In between The Division and Star Fox-ing.

Check out the sale anyways. Up to 70% off PSVita and PS3 games. Digimon Cyber Sleuth is now £15.99. But I got many hours of enjoyment out of that game, still will. So I don’t mind that I paid full price back in January.

I love Ako. And her psuedo yandere-ness XD

So I tried out quite a few of the new series out this season. Too many even… with the 3 episode rule used in most cases unless I couldn’t even get through one episode… These aren’t in any order. I just watched as they came out, but wrote stuff not in order. Because I’m a heathen. OP’s & pics of said 27 series below.

Kuma Miko – Tried ep 2… still not grabbing… think I’ve given up.

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu – HELLS YES. A thousand times yes. Give me all the time travel/groundhog bullshit you can make!! FINALLY AT A SAVE POINT!! I will eat this stuff up. Put time travel in anime and I am THERE.

Nope. Just nope.

Bakuon! Dropped like a ton of bricks. Stupid accident that would kill the waifu in ep 1 didn’t kill the waifu. Plus the bike talks. And it’s basically anime for bike otaku. So I’m good without it.

Cute character designs though.

Seisen Cerberus – Kind of interesting concept, but mobile game adaptions never sit very well. I kind of enjoyed half of Divine Gate, mainly for the art and the op, but I lost track and got bored.

Sousei no Onmyouji(Twin Star Excorsists) – Liking so far, on ep 2. Like the art style, interesting concept, want to know more about his powers… and his black talisman. Half expecting a time skip forward and them to be married with twins, hence the name. But I don’t think it’s that simple. Still enjoying it though.

Onigiri – Cute op, but not substantial enough to keep me watching even if it is only 4 mins-ish long.

Super Lovers – I hate myself for even watching episode 2… but I’m gonna keep on just to see how creepy it gets XD I’ve seen ep 3…… I need to be stopped… it’s like when I watched/read the majority of Kodomo no Jikan, and bulk watched Kanokon… it was out of gross curiosity… car crash TV, I just can’t look away XD.

Me thinks I’m the wrong demographic…

12 Years Old/12-sai – There’s something vaguely unsettling about an anime about young girls growing up at 12/13, getting boyfriends and having first kisses and periods. Specially when I had my first kiss waaaay later than that…

Anne Happy – Fluffy happy school shenanigans. My little brother will love it. Not for me at the moment. Unless there’s a random zombie apocalypse added in for good measure.

Looks perfectly cute and normal there…

Big Order – YES – Saw ‘Future Diary’ pop up on screen during the op sequence of ep 1, thought it was a coincidence. Boy was I a fool. Looks to be just as messed up as Mirai Nikki. Seen 2 eps now. It got weirder. She doesn’t seem as yandere as Yuuno, but still.. pretty bad.

Boku no Hero Academia – YES – It’s kinda stupid, but it’s sweet. Looking forward to seeing how things develop

Bungou Stray Dogs – New season Kekkai Sensen. Unsure about this because I can’t pin it down… it keeps flip-flopping from serious to comedy… not as badly as Big Order though. Talk about emotional whiplash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_c0F9M84AA

Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou – THE LAST SONG – YES – More jumping time periods and bright colours please!

Endride – Crystal otaku’s would love. Too shounen & standard.

Flying Witch – So adorable. Kiki’s Delivery Service for all those too young to remember it. Or just modern day Kiki. Will definitely keep watching.

Ace Attorney – No. Low quality, movie was better.

Boobs were better in Valkyrie Drive. They raised my standards LOL

Hundred – Seems a bit like Valkyrie Drive Mermaid, but with less boobs and fanservice… which somehow makes it less fun… will give 3 eps though.
So this is like… Valkyrie Drive Mermaid inverted then? They have to make out to STOP the powers. o_____o sure. Okay.

Jojo – Still stupid, still fun. Now with a Togepi stand.

Joker Game – Quite heavy going, but will give it 3 eps. 2 already seen…
EDIT: Seen 3 eps now. Will continue watching because I’m not sure if it’s going to become ‘Spy of the week’ or if there’s going to be over-arcing story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzd-T0pceEY

Kiznaiver – Looks cool, acts cool, must be cool cos Kill la Kill. Ep 2 was good. Looking forward to finding out stuff to do with the cliffhanger. Won’t say cos spoilers.

Kuromukuro – Alternate world where samurai had giant mech battle machines even back before the modern era. YES. On ep 3 now. I still need more to explain things though. It feels like Dimension W… but less fun… But I want to know where the alien mechs come from.

Look familiar? Well it’s cos this is the guy responsible for the Shingeki No Kyojin anime. He got his own anime. And made it exactly. The. Same.

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri – Attack on Steampunk Zombie Trains. YES. Watched ep 2 with questionable subtitles… random untranslated Japanese ‘otou-sama’ and ‘Mataku’s left in. I didn’t mind that, it was mainly the missing subs that bugged me. I did wonder why there was a QR at the end of the ep… seems it was a slightly early release…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLZhGOJCAGc

Macross A – Maaaaaaaaybe. I think I only sat though Frontier cos I watched it with friends… liked the music though. Explaining it to the bf was fun though. Idol x mechs XD

Mayoiga – YES. And I called it. I fucking called it. Looking forward to the weekly cliffhanger being resolved XD What’s up with the Lost-esque Smoke monster noise though?

I love Ako. And her psuedo yandere-ness XD

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta? – Harem. Cute character design, good voice actors. And I like the concept that they all place games in the dark. Seen eps 2 and 3 now. I FUCKING CALLED THIS TOO. ALL OF IT. It seems fairly basic in harem terms. But the set up seems nice. And I still can’t tell if someones going to flip… And the animation seems really good And the op theme sounds oddly like Oreimo’s.

Sakamoto Desu Ga – Ep 1 was oddly entertaining. It’s 4koma-esque but I know it’s not. He’s just too cool.
Seen ep 2 now… it’s ridiculously. I know it is. It’s meant to be. I’ll probably keep watching because it’s stupid harmless fun. And the op’s pretty good too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFfVFeWdJyM

Shounen Maid – Ep 1 was cute and sweet. I hope it continues on this path. Seen ep 2 now. Also cute and sweet. Reminds me Ouran High School Host Club a little. And Kuragehime. (I also like the ED alot, so I linked it.)

Tanaka-kun was Itsumo kedaruge – This show makes me sleepy. It actively makes me want to do even less than I already do XD. It’s a bad influence. And if the whole show is just him being lazy… I think I’ll stop. I watched ep 2 though… still not sure if I’m gonna keep or drop…

So that’s 27…….. that I have kept count of…….. that’s crazy… can’t keep watching them all obviously… Just counted… 17 of these I am most likely going to try and watch… but not sure I’ll be able to…. a couple were maybes, and the rest were no’s.

So last week I got to go to Ikea, and finally get a second Detolf (amongst other things, like shelves and cutlery).

I also caved and got some more matcha, which was in the last post. But today I caved and opened it. Which I’m glad I did.

And the past couple of weeks all the new anime has started, and I’ve tried almost everything new out, even the shorts. Haven’t decided to pick many up though… so far anyway.

First of all, the new Detolf, which I’d been wanting for a while, sadly I had to give up the top shelf, as the other one is full of my stuff. Seems fair, but where will my Phat Shiro go when she arrives? The second shelf is currently for Nendoroids and a few Figma’s and such. And Dio front and centre. Not mine, but he looks cool with Lulu and Aegis and his back up. Zelda will arrive in October to go with Link. Husbando and Waifu lol. And I even took a panoramic photo of the living room to show how badass it looks with the new Blu ray/DVD/game shelves behind the TV. Oh the symmetry

They look so good together

Filthy Federation units at the top… shame…. my Zeon’s would better there XD

My beautiful Zeon’s on the third shelf. I didn’t put them on the second to leave space, but seems his Gundam collection is somewhat lacking. Must be rectified.

Majority of the crap clogging up the living room belongs to me of course. The amiibo’s on the top shelf are Lee’s though. Got some acrylic display steps on the way though. To raise em up. All that dead space at the top is just such a waste…

Second of all. I opened Matcha Factory’s First Blossom. I lasted like… what…. 4-5 days? This means I can just use the cheap stuff for matcha latte’s. I even got some soy milk as it’s better with the matcha. And it does taste better, mixes better too. I forgot that I actually liked soy milk lol. From my time in China, I used to get meat buns and warm soy milk from the local shops for lunch :3 Was always cheap and yummy.

First of all, Stephen, you were right. The colour of First Blossom was brighter, more vivid, and the smell was quite different. It still smelt like matcha, but not as bitter as the stuff I had first.

Even in the bag it looked brighter.

It looks bright in the bowl too. Compared to the Grape Tree kind, which I still thought was quite bright.

It froths up alot easier than the other stuff too. Not sure if the amounts I use differ slightly each time, but I try to use 1.5 to 2 scoops each time, with about 80ml of water, which is what I’m spose to use according to everything I’ve read.

Comparison of the two. I took the photo’s in the same part of the kitchen, but I think the light differed slightly. Still, the First Blossoms seems like a brighter green, the Grape Tree looks duller next to it.

The Grape Tree matcha will not be relegated to use with matcha latte’s only. The First Blossom will only be used the proper way :3 it’s too nice to waste with milk. It did taste sweeter, specially towards the end of the cup. And it blends better. It seemed like a lighter powder, the way it almost sat on top of the water as I poured it in. The Grape Tea matcha never did that.

Lastly. New anime. I’ll probably do a separate post about it too, cos there are alot of new shows… But two of the ones I’m liking most so far are Mayoiga and Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu. Mayoiga seems like a good mystery. It’s an original series, so I can’t even cheat and read ahead unfortunately. But that’s probably a good thing. I hope it picks up it’s pace though, because not alot has happened so far and I want a good plot twist. Or reveal. Or something.

And then Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, which on the outside seems like just another alternative RPG-like world, but has a darker centre. Which I am thoroughly looking forward to. It’s like Konosuba but darker. This one is based on something though, so I could cheat if I wanted… but I’ll try not to.

Anyway. I need to prep rice for dinner. So I should probably move. Plus there are games to play and anime to watch. Too much to do, too little time.

This is the Grape Tree’s Matcha, it’s been sifted so it’ll mix better :3

So thanks to my favourite sushi restaurant’s particular choice of green tea, I’ve been on a green tea bender. I asked them where they got their kind from and they told me, Costco. So of course I went on a googling spree. I found out that it was a green tea-matcha blend. Which is probably why it was the greenest green tea I’ve had in a while. It’s the Kirkland brand, which I couldn’t order direct from Costco, so I ordered from Amazon. The day it arrived I decided to wander round town to see if there was any pure matcha on it’s own. Found 2 places near where I worked, one was a weird blend, and one was pure matcha. £6.99 for 30g from Grape Tree in Sutton Coldfield, probably some of the cheapest I’ve seen online or offline. I can  only think of one website that has it cheaper. And of course, I’ve done my research now.

Grape Tree’s Matcha, 30g packet for £6.99. Most matcha seems to be sold in 25-50g packs.

In indoor light

In somewhat natural light

The colour of Grape Tree’s matcha is pretty good as far as I can tell, nice bright vibrant green, as opposed to some of the darker, more yellower toned matcha’s I’ve seen reviewed, this post was particularly enlightening. Seeing the comparison between brands and qualities. I’m no connoisseur by any means. But if I’m gonna try something. I’m going to do it right. Which is why I then went on a hunt for the proper matcha whisk, or chasen, figured I’d get the bamboo spoon at the same time, the chashaku.

And I had bowls that I was using, but then I found a nice black chawan for £6.75 from a Tea/coffee shop in Norwich, was super happy considering all the nice ones I’d seen online cost more than I was willing to pay. I’m sure that’ll change if I find a really pretty one though. Seen a few on some sites now… but I will hold off as I have my nice Cha Cult one now.

Very pleased when I found out it was only £6.75.

So my next problem was, what would I do when my current batch runs out? Do I get the same kind of matcha? Or do I try a different kind? A better/more expensive kind? So I did. I went for Matcha Factory‘s First Blossom. (And a whisk stand, cos why not XD)

I so want to try this now, but I should wait until my Grape Tree stuff is finished…. I might break down though… this is supposed to be the slightly sweeter matcha, because of the super fresh top leaves that are harvested during the first season. So I’ll see… either way, the Grape Tree matcha is lovely, not bitter at all, warm and earthy with a hint of sweetness. Like a super concentrated green tea, like I expected. And it’s meant to be good for bowls and whatnot, so it might benefit me more than I know due to my Crohn’s and all.

I’m still not sure if I’m getting the amounts right, but it seems to froth up *ok*(could be frothier) and the colour looks good to me. A nice bright green, instead of the muddy yellows you see with most green tea bags, and low quality matcha or so I’ve seen.

If I try the Matcha Factory kind and find out I can’t taste much of a difference, it either means my tastebuds are dead, OR I can keep buying Grape Tree’s without any problem or thoughts that I could get tastier matcha. I should keep trying from other places though… over time… No point buying loads all at once.