00:00:00 John Daub: It's a little sunny February 20th afternoon. There's a space boat going by, one of our favorite boats. In this episode we're going to be enjoying some matcha goodies. This is the season of Japan's matcha-flavored snacks. Now I don't know why February is the time because actually the matcha harvest isn't until the end of April. So it's a little bit early, but that's sort of Japan. I think even with the cherry blossoms, they're not going to be blooming until the end of March. But still, you have all of the decorations on all of the packages with cherry blossoms to get people really excited about it, starting as soon as February 1st hits.

00:00:54 John Daub: In this bag of goodies, I have a lot of green tea-flavored stuff. I'm going to start with this one here. This is actually made by Lipton, a matcha latte from Uji (Uji matcha, made in Kyoto). Kanpai. Now I never really know if these flavored snacks from Japan are chemically enhanced, meaning does it really have matcha powder in it? And the answer is, it does a little bit. But this one has coconut oil, grape extract, a bunch of stuff I've never heard of. But matcha powder is the ingredient right after milk, so Lipton is pretty good. And high in calories. Lipton supports Uji cha (Uji tea). I guess that's a good thing. It is quite windy here on the riverbanks, so that's why I have a microphone. If you do have any problems with the audio, just let me know.

00:02:35 John Daub: Next up on the hit list. Whoa, strong wind. This is matcha-flavored Alfaro (Alfort cookies). Alfaro is a very famous cookie. It has a picture of a ship on it, but the chocolate ones are the ones everybody knows about. This one has matcha-flavored chocolate on it. Chocolate is brown, but this one's green. So I'm not quite sure how they make matcha chocolate, just like I'm not sure how they make strawberry chocolate. I love the sailboats on it. If you ever come to Japan, you're going to want to know this. I want to try some of these cookies, and I might just put one into the dime-meal boxes for next month. What makes these cookies amazing is that the chocolate overhangs over the cookie. So everybody that I know nibbles around the cookie to eat the chocolate.

00:04:30 John Daub: I take the overhang and go for it. There is a hint of the Uji matcha, but it's mostly sweet. And that's the thing with matcha—it's not supposed to be sweet but bitter. These cookies are addictive. Don't start. The biscuits or cookies have this really nice pleasant sweetness to it. It's not overly sweet, but there's something in it that is addictive and you just can't stop. So be careful with these. There's 15 in it. Matcha is a little bit more expensive than the other ingredients, but shortening is one of the big ingredients here as well as sugar. Sugar after wheat, then cocoa powder. Matcha doesn't show up until number eight. However, it's pleasant and a good change of pace. That right there is the Tokyo Skytree, just thought I'd point that out.

00:06:03 John Daub: Next up, you're going to like this. This is a matcha eclair. Does it look like the packaging? We dedicate this to Shane because it doesn't taste like fish. Only one way to find out. It's a boat going by because we're live in Tokyo. Enjoy the Tokyo view. Just write cringe if it's really nasty. Look at that. It's like Slimer from Ghostbusters. The only time I ever saw this color of a product was when Ghostbusters was opening in the 1980s and they had Slimer-colored goods like pies and stuff. But matcha green tea has this color. Let's open up this Slimer eclair. Is that enough matcha cream? Looks a little light in the cream department. Am I the only one that sticks their tongue in the eclair to get that creamy goodness out of it? It's really good. There's not a lot of matcha taste to this. It's not nasty.

00:08:57 John Daub: Hey. I was just seeing your cousins the other day. I think they see me with food and they're going to come over here. There's only one way to find out if it's nasty or not—gotta let the local population try some. Pigeon, come here. Try some matcha. He prefers the grass. He's back. He's eating the grass at the time. He's on top of the hill calling them over. Oh, they're coming. The throw looked violent to him and he took off. They'll be back if they know what's good for them. That eclair was good, but it wasn't great. I think it was because it only cost me a dollar. You get what you pay for.

00:10:33 John Daub: This one comes from that same company, Bourbon. Bourbon makes some really good snacks here. They're very creative with it. This one is Baumkuchen (layered cake), or Rumando. It says that it's a delicious, crunchy cookie. Is it naughty or is it nice? He ate the matcha and then he took off. That's an approval. He's sticking around, walking around in circles. Check out these Bourbon cookies. There's no alcohol in it—that's just the name of the company. It's called Matcha Cream Rumando.

00:13:02 John Daub: This one I tried already. I'm not going to open this package up, but the matcha tiramisu-flavored Kit Kats were an all-star. They're really hard to find now—they came out at the end of January. If you do find these, totally worth it to try. Next up on the hit list, a favorite. I think they have these all year round—Pocky. These might have a very robust matcha flavor. Again, we're live on the Sumida River in Tokyo, live streaming. Pigeons like matcha. What can I say? These are Pocky sticks. Usually they have chocolate on it, but these have matcha and it tastes pretty good. Pocky are always good.

00:15:05 John Daub: This is very interesting. This is a chocolate matcha chocolate collection. There's a matcha latte on the left, in the middle is matcha macchiato, and on the right side is a stronger matcha-flavored one. So there's three different colors of matcha. It's going to be very interesting. I'm gonna have a caffeine sugar high at the end of this. What I like about this is that they cut them differently—there's six here, then double that which is 12, then double that which is 24. That's pretty creative. I'm surrounded by pigeons. First the latte—wow, creamy, really good deep matcha taste. I like this. It's got like a sweet grassiness to it.

00:17:57 John Daub: This is the next one, this is the macchiato. This is the green tea macchiato—that's too sweet, tastes like caramel. It's got a sweet caramel kind of taste with the bitterness. Alright, let's go deep now. This is the very deep roasted green tea. That basically tastes like grass, like tea. The thing with matcha is that I like to drink the matcha, like when it's in a cup and stuff. In a tea ceremony, it's very dark, very bitter, a lot of flavor. But when you eat the snacks of it, it's like grass-flavored snacks with a deep bitterness. Or like the smell of freshly mowed grass, and then you eat chocolate. That's what this is like. Not bad.

00:20:28 John Daub: Let's wash it down with more matcha. That Lipton tea has a really good creaminess. It could be sweeter, but the fact that it's not is a plus. This one is basically Tim Tams, the Japanese version of Tim Tams. Pretty good cracker cookie. It's very much like Tim Tam and a lot of people compare it to Tim Tams, but these might even be better. Milk chocolate with some matcha cookie and some matcha cream. The packaging is amazing. You open it up and it looks like you would just take one, but there's only six cookies inside. It's so beautifully packaged that you could put it away. In Japan, they would eat just one. Individually wrapped cookies—everything is individually wrapped in Japan.

00:23:20 John Daub: Our friends are back. That's a big one. He must be the master. Fight. Awesome. No, keep going. Deck him. He's on the prowl. Finish him. No mercy. You do not deserve a cookie. No more for you. Exciting pigeon fight club going on here. I'm like in the middle of this—I'm the one in the ring and they're fighting around me. Wars. I should put this in the middle and see who fights to win it. In America, if you get in a fight, you're never friends again. Like a fist fight, you hold grudges. I remember when I went to Australia and I saw a bunch of fights, and after the fights they would shake hands and buy each other drinks. Australians know how to fight.

00:26:40 John Daub: Next up on the hit list. This is dorayaki (dorayaki pancakes). It's like two pancakes with cream in the middle. Usually it's red bean paste, but if you don't like red bean paste, you're going to like this matcha cream. The dorayaki is really good, but since it's grass-flavored, I think the pigeons would like that. So now it's time to start a fight—pigeon fight club. Don't tell the city that I did this. I'm not allowed to feed you. Fight! Get him! Dick him! Don't bite the hand that feeds you. You're supposed to fight one another for it. They can't find it—flew into the water.

00:33:52 John Daub: I don't think I have anything left here. I do have this, which is matcha milk candy. But looks like Kanae and I'm not going to eat it. Wind is really strong. My stuff is starting to fly away. So I'm going to leave you with another 15 seconds of Pigeon Royale. Which one was your favorite? Click that like button and share with me which one was your favorite. For me, this dorayaki was pretty darn good. And the Alfaro cookies were pretty good too. Thanks for hanging out with me this afternoon, getting some vitamin D.

00:35:26 John Daub: Ready for the ending. Who will be the champion? Will it be the black one or the brown one or the gray one or the one with the purple head? Fight! Get him! The gray one looks like he's going to be the winner. I wonder what set off the pigeons before. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this matcha-flavored green tea episode. Believe it or not, when the cherry blossom season hits in April, there's not a lot of matcha foods anymore. So enjoy them in February. Yeah, I know there are laws in Japan around feeding animals. I might have broken a law, but sue me. You don't leave your friends hanging. Have a good day, guys.