Consumed on 28 September 2013
Location - McDonald's Centrepoint Mall, Orchard Road, Singapore
Price - $2.80SGD ($2.25USD)
Calories - Unknown. ~370kcal
Last weekend, my wife and I were spending the afternoon running some errands on Orchard Road. We couldn't really decide what we wanted to do for dinner, and since we had skipped lunch, we decided to stop into the Centrepoint Mall branch of McDonald's for a quick snack. It was a perfect opportunity to try the new Matcha McFlurry, which had already been running for a couple weeks when it launched alongside the 2013 version of the Samurai Burger. Since I reviewed the Samurai Burger last year, so I haven't had it year, but since they recently launched a new Chicken Samurai variant, I've been debating giving that one a try but not sure if I'll get around to it before leaving for our trip later this week.
For those of you who don't know what "matcha" is, it's finely ground green tea powder. It's quite common on desserts, and even in ice creams throughout Asia, and not surprisingly the Matcha McFlurry actually isn't the first Green Tea based item I've had, I had the Kumquat Green Tea Punch in HK in July, nor was even it the first Green Tea McFlurry I've had. The first was in 2009 in Korea, where the Green Tea McFlurry used to be a regular menu item, but like the Shrimp burger, shortly after I moved to Korea in mid 2009, most of their unique items were discontinued leaving only the Bulgogi Burger to taunt me. Though this new Singapore version was different in that it also included Oreo pieces and it was actual matcha mixed with the regular vanilla ice cream.
As you can see in the photo above, whomever made my McFlurry definitely went above and beyond their standard topping amounts, not only was there a tonne of Oreo pieces, but there must have been 5 spoonfuls of green tea on there! It looked even better than their promotional photos. I'm glad they put that much tea inside, since you are paying a 50 cent premium over the standard Oreo McFlurry just to add the green tea, so I had my moneys worth. There was enough of both toppings to be able to have a taste in every bite. There was actually so much tea that near the end, it was starting to get a little gritty, but still not enough to distract from the taste. The tea used was clearly not top grade tea (you could tell it was just a touch too dark) but it tasted fine on the ice cream, and probably would have been good enough to drink on it's own if you really wanted.
Rating - 4.5/5
One more thing I noticed, since I ordered the McFlurry at a dessert kiosk that was attached to a McCafe, I saw them promoting a new line of "Christmas" desserts. I won't be trying them since I don't review McCafe items, but the cake seemed tasty enough. Though, isn't September just a bit too early for Christmas? Even worse, when you step back outside and it's +34C, hot and sunny, it will never feel like Christmas...
