Gluten free oatmeal is nothing new but oatmeals boosted with the nutritive power of matcha are are a new edition to the cereal market. The work of sisters Annette Downing and Susan Downes, Matcha Marketplace is a line of simply seasoned, not too sweet oatmeals.
Made with gluten-free rolled oats, the oatmeals are available with or without sugar, each larded with the green tea known as matcha.
Matcha, grown only in Japan, is a finely milled tea, the leaves pulverized into a powder after drying. Some health benefits are ascribed to the flavonoids and catechins (both are antioxidants) in green tea and Matcha Marketplace, by putting the matcha directly into the oatmeal, incorporates the entire leaf in each serving.
Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal
Add a half cup of milk, set the microwave to 80 seconds, stir and your breakfast is ready. Packages are 2.3 ounces, standard in the instant cereal industry. Six grams of protein and four grams of fiber per 200 calorie serving are great numbers for satiety (you stay full for quite a while) and the mild benefits of added matcha are a nice touch.
I sampled the Variety Pack of Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry Coconut and Cranberry Walnut and the flavors are all incredibly straight-forward. You taste fruit and nuts and oats and, in each, the subtle, pleasing bitterness of matcha.
Matcha, a rather bright green color before cooking, turns pea-soup green when mixed with milk and heated. This is not necessarily a turn-off but it is a visual cue of one of the bowl’s main ingredients.
Along with a piece of fruit and my requisite cup of coffee, a bowl of Matcha Marketplace was a wonderfully warming addition to a chilly winter morning.
Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
For more information and to purchase Matcha Marketplace, click here.
