PicoBlog

The irony is not lost on me. 

1/ I have just launched a blog about food and my first post is about a drink. 

2/ This blog is supposed to be an antidote to the endless Manchester food hype and yet that’s a pretty ‘food hype’ headline, isn’t it? Yikes.

Well, this is my blog and if I want to break my own rules in my very first post, I bloody well will do. 

I’m not really breaking the rules though. I will sometimes write about drinks here - although I have also launched a separate wine blog in which to syphon off my wine-related meanderings. And this can’t possibly be hype because NOBODY has written about matcha beer in Manchester yet. I’m first. I’m often first, and often (hark at my whiny little bruised ego) some bloke comes along a few weeks or months, or even a year later, and says the thing I said a bit louder, and gets all the credit for it. 

No doubt the hype is on its way though. 

Anyway, I’ve been circling this new Japanese pub called Monkey Trio for MONTHS waiting for it to open and on Saturday night as I was walking home from the Sparks concert at the Bridgewater Hall (life-affirmingly brilliant btw) I saw a light in the doorway. I swanned in, dressed top to toe in skin-tight purple leopard print with a green Jedi-style cape draped over my shoulders like some kind of glam rock superhero (whose superpower is finding new food and drink stuff before anyone else does). 

“Hello,” said a bleach-haired man I later found out was called Kevin and is the manager of Monkey Trio, “It’s our friends and family only soft launch tonight but, um,” (seeing my excited face threaten to wilt into a crestfallen heap) “There’s a spare table if you want to join us? Here’s a menu.”

Beaming, I slid into a minimalist, wooden-seated booth and scanned the simple, printed menu. Cocktails, sake, more sake, even more sake, what’s this? MATCHA BEER? 

“I’ll have a matcha beer,” I said - then I clocked the price, “Erm, just a half, please.”

Kevin asked if I had tried ceremonial grade matcha before. Oh yeah, I have a tin of it in my cupboard. Big matcha fan, me. Anything that’s dark green and tastes like iron and seaweed is a massive tick in my book. He explained that there is no sugar added, and it’s not a beer brewed with matcha but actual top-tier ceremonial matcha tea powder whisked into a paste and then added to a pint (or half) of lager. Asahi in this instance. The matcha billowed into the beer giving a momentary two-tone effect like an iced latte before settling as the whole glass glowed slime green.

I’d roped my friend into trying it too, he grimaced. I grinned.

There is a slightly thickened texture that comes from the matcha paste. It gives a mouthfeel more like stout than lager. It tastes like, well, matcha. If you’re unfamiliar with matcha, it’s green tea squared and has a whiff of the sea. It tastes like it’s good for you (some say it is). Mixed with beer, it ups the savoury quality. I found this refreshing since so many beers, especially the over-hyped craft IPAs, have a sticky, almost sweet flavour to them that I’m not really keen on. Matcha beer has the complexity of something like that but without feeling you need a knife and fork to tackle it. It’s earthy, like the smell of your hands after a day of weeding. It’s swampy and unpretty and I loved it. My friend was not quite as sold as me. Matcha is definitely not for everyone.

But there was something else I loved about it. It made me feel sharp. Usually, beer makes me sleepy, but this beer perked me up. It probably wasn’t the smartest choice for gone 11pm. This effect is perhaps unsurprising as matcha contains caffeine and is widely understood to have positive effects such as heightened concentration and levelled-up energy. Beer, of course, is hardly a health food but I’m taking the little wins where I can get them.

So is this just another shallow, bullshit trend that Manchester has invented for the TikTok generation? I don’t think so. Apparently, matcha beer has been a thing in Japan since around 2013. It’s big in Kyoto and now it’s arrived here in Manchester. 

I’ll be heading back to Monkey Trio for another matcha beer and to try some of their cocktails and perhaps a flight of sake. This little drinking den in Circle Square is a unique new bar for Manchester from the people behind the equally matcha-centric cafe Tsujiri next door (there’s one Chinatown too). The staff are super friendly and welcoming and on the night we visited, they sent out some Japanese fried chicken, sunflower seeds and crispy chilli snacks to nibble on. Kevin insisted it will NOT be a restaurant though.

I hope you liked my first post. Let me know in the comments if you have ever tried matcha beer. Also, let me know if you visit Monkey Trio and try it based on my recommendation. I’d love to know what you think of it.

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