每隔幾日就會有朋友會問我建議一些茶粉，希望做到一些”濃茶味”的食品。字面解:要”濃茶味”的話其實就是要將一種味道深化。例如奶茶要奶濃一點，就是要叫奶茶多奶，即是奶的比例要多一點。問題是茶粉能夠無止境加入嗎? 情況有點像朱古力，一般牛奶朱古力裡的可可成份有25-60%，而黑朱古力裡有70%以上，咖啡因上升，甜味減少，質地較硬，配對其他食材不容易。
還有一個問題是風味。我記得吃過Lindt的99%黑朱古力印象不太好，估計他們用的可可質素不佳，同樣情況，在抹茶世界裡，放多茶粉的後果是所有茶味道會倍增，但不會改變它的味道。什麼意思呢? 如放入3倍龍膽茶粉，它的苦澀會放大3倍，但不會感受到優質茶粉如比龍膽貴3倍的又玄裡提供的回甘/鮮味。所以很多烘焙朋友要買多種茶粉自己配對就是這個原因。
總結一下，要濃抹茶味其實加多點茶粉就ok了，問題是加多的茶粉是否你要的味道，還是要轉另外一款茶粉或mix and match 達致你的要求。想理解多一點茶味的分別可按我們上一個post: 認識抹茶的味道。
Every couple days, a matcha fan will ask me to recommend a matcha choice. One request I often get is "how can I get a very strong matcha flavour in my matcha food / dessert?" Say you want to have a strong cafe latte, you can get a double espresso shoot with same amount of milk to increase the coffee ratio against milk. But is it that easy for matcha?
It's a yes and no. Yes one can just add more powder to a food to increase the density, but the consequence is that it might lose the balance - say a cookie might become drier because matcha powder will absorb more liquid from the dough.
Another issue is the character. I remembered trying a pack of Lindt 99% dark chocolate thinking it'll be a great bar for chocolate lover (I was), but it wasn't. The chocolate bar became rough, bitter, undesirable. Same goes to matcha that when its intensity rises, it may not be too pleasant. Instead, I would suggest to replace / mix & match with other higher-grade to yield a more complex tea flavour, because matcha is supposed to carry multiple flavours.
In summary, to create a stronger tea flavour, one can simply add more powder / quantity to reach the result. If one wants to have a richer matcha flavour (i.e. better quality), changing / mixing with other matcha may be a better solution. Know more about matcha flavours from my previous post: Various flavours of matcha.