Matcha green tea is a vibrant green powder made from young tea leaves. It's traditionally used ceremonially in Japan, but it's also a popular flavoring for sweets like these matcha blueberry popsicles as well as other treats and drinks. And a matcha green tea latté is a particularly popular morning drink.
Matcha is typically made by whisking powdered green tea into hot water where it forms a delicate and slightly bitter brew. When you make a matcha green tea latté, you blend matcha powder with warm milk and froth them together to form an ethereally creamy morning drink.
In most matcha lattés you'll find at local coffee shops, culinary matcha powder is blended with a significant amount of granulated sugar, and then frothed with steamed milk. Sugar counteracts the matcha's naturally bitter undertones, and makes the drink sweet and dessert-like. Starbuck's version, for example, packs a whopping 32 grams of sugar - or just shy of what you'll find in a can of soda.
While matcha itself is fairly nutrient-dense, and particularly rich in chlorophyll and catechins which act as natural detoxifiers that help to reduce oxidative stress among other benefits, adding sugar to matcha certainly counteracts some of its benefits. So, make it at home. You'll be able to control how additional sweetener you add, if any at all, and it'll be less expensive than buying it at a coffee shop.
How to Make a Matcha Green Tea Latté
At its simplest, a matcha tea latté needs only matcha powder and milk. You can also add sweeteners like honey, or superfood boosters like collagen peptides, spirulina, or royal jelly if you like. And while matcha lattés are typically made with milk, you can also substitute light coconut milk, macadamia milk or another non-dairy alternative.
You can make a matcha latté on the stove by whisking matcha powder into milk as it warms; however, for a truly frothy and perfectly blended version, you should pick up a milk frother like this one. After adding the matcha and milk, all you need to do is press a button, and it'll blend, warm and froth your latté beautifully.
Matcha Tea Latté
Ingredients
- 12 ounces whole milk
- 1 packet matcha tea powder approximately 1 teaspoon
Equipment
Instructions
- Pour the milk into a milk frother. Sprinkle the matcha over the milk, and turn on the frother until the milk is warmed, and the matcha is fully dissolved.
- Serve warm.
Notes
Finding High-Quality Matcha
Matcha is very fine, powdered green tea made from young leaves that is traditionally produced and used in Japan. There are several grades of matcha with ceremonial grade matcha being of the highest quality.
Tea can uptake heavy metals from the soil, so you want to purchase a very high-quality tea. You can purchase a quadruple-screened, ceremonial grade matcha here or check out this matcha tea buying guide.
Title for This BlockOur Other Favorite Morning Drinks
If you like matcha lattés in the morning, you might also like some of our other favorite morning drinks too!
Chai-spiced Butter Tea is vibrant and nourishing, enlivened by the flavor of sweet spices like cloves and coriander.
Mexican-Style Hot Chocolate made with dark chocolate, warm milk and just a hint of spice.
Supergreen Morning Tonic is perfect in the spring and a vibrant morning juice with wheatgrass, mint and apple.
Jennifer says
Good point about the sugary matcha powder in stores. Had really good luck with Tenzo Tea's matcha powder, which comes straight from Japan without any added chemicals or sugars http://tenzotea.co
Stephanie says
Hi Jenny - I'm having a hard time sourcing vanilla bean powder. Is there any reason not to use pure vanilla extract instead?
Jenny says
Sure, you can use vanilla extract.
Maria says
this sounds so good! I just bought some vital collagen, and I have so much matcha at home! I will make it asap 🙂
Linda says
Hi, I saw that the bovine product was produced in Brazil. I am just wondering if production of it is regulated and if you've actually visited the farms where the cows live to see their environment, or the facility where the peptides are produced? It sounds like a fabulous product but, I 'm always skeptical of meat products manufactured outside of the USA. I don't buy meat at the market either because I'm aware that huge percentage of it is imported from other countries.
Lu Ann @ The Cup of Life says
As a huge matcha lover, this is such a great idea! I always love experimenting with other ways to make my matcha lattes more nutritious 🙂 thank you!
Jackie says
I'd rather make this with the tigermilk as I don't drink cow milk any more and I've heard making almond milk is bad for the environment.
Jennifer says
My family and I took a tour at an Australian tea plantation once a few years back (one of the only, if not the only, remaining Australian owned and operated plantations!) and they noted that the antioxidants in green tea break down when they are exposed to animal proteins, so if you want those antioxidants, you probably shouldn't make matcha lattes. (I like matcha lattes and have no problems with this, but I figured it's worth noting in case people are thinking that they will get all those antioxidants from drinking this.) Black tea also has antioxidants, and in similar quantities, they are just different and those don't break down in the presence of animal proteins.
Jenny says
Hi Jennifer, I don't believe there is any evidence (unless you can link to peer-reviewed studies analyzing the antioxidant capacity of plain tea compared to tea with milk or other animal products), because I find that assertion doubtful at best. Many antioxidants, particularly carotenoids, become more bioavailable when consumed with fat (animal or plant-based, it doesn't matter). What you heard sounds to me like one of the repeated, but baseless, myths that are so prevalent within the natural foods movement.
Kristin says
I worked for years in a research department in a medical school where it was common knowledge that dairy proteins bound with antioxidants. We were all heavy tea drinkers, so when something was published regarding tea, it would catch our eye. There is another study that shows timing of dairy consumption surrounding high antioxidant foods, and whole fat vs reduced fat dairy, but I can't find it right now.
Just an example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19135520/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17213230/
Jenny says
Thank you so much for sharing! I had no idea, found the idea doubtful, and appreciate being pointed to the relevant studies.
Jennifer says
Thank you, Jenny, for sharing this recipe. I really enjoy matcha lattes, but when I searched online to find organic matcha (over a year ago) that's when I first read about the conflict with adding milk to green tea. I was rather disappointed and fell out of my matcha latte habit. Fast forward to today, (and I would need to spend more time researching), I'm now seeing claims that casein does bind with the catechins, but then will release the antioxidants slowly over several hours. That would be good news, if true.
All that said, if it's the casein that's the issue, my thought goes to ghee. It's my understanding that it is casein free. But then wonder if that would make the concoction oily. Perhaps I should quit being lazy and just make coconut milk from the coco-cream I have and give that a try. 🙂
Three Pipe Problem says
My father has Parkinson's disesase, and through that I've learned that one of the most promising theories on the drug links it to exposure to blue-green algae. This can be through ingestion or through swimming in lakes that are high in the algae... one researcher has successfully correlated to rates of Parkinson's disease to the specific bodies of water that patients grew up around. The research is far enough along that they are developing drug candidates based on the finding of an amino acid that accumulates in the brain based on this exposure. For this reason I would avoid consuming spirulina, at least until further study.
Jenny says
Can you link to those studies, please?
Mary says
Do you have any concerns about lead contamination in matcha? From what I understand it's worth being concerned about, but I can't find a source that seems to have been reliably tested.
Jenny says
Tea plants, and other plants, uptake minerals from the soil, and when that soil has been treated with heavy metals or is exposed to heavy metals, they will uptake those heavy metals too. I'm not at all concerned about lead in matcha (or in other foods), but for those of you who are concerned there's a few things to consider: 1) buying organic can make a difference, especially if the farm is long-established as organic and so is less likely to have had heavy metals applied, 2) buying from areas that are not close to mines or ceramics factories can help mitigate risk, too, and 3) buying from sources that test their fields can also help.
Nau says
Collagen is considered a beauty food in Japan and is highly touted in products aimed at women. You can buy collagen infused gummy candies to snack on, collagen rich pre-packaged broths for hot pots, supplements, etc. Angler fish, beef tendon and chicken skin are considered natural sources. Personally, I'd probably feel more comfortable drinking broth made from beef tendon or chicken skin than adding a packaged powder to my food, but I could definitely see the utility of including collagen supplements!
Krista says
Is there a benefit to using vanilla bean powder over vanilla extract?
Laurie Lingemann says
Sounds delicious, I will try it. Matcha is rich in L-theanine but also higher in caffeine than other green teas. It is still lower than black tea or coffee.
Deb says
This sounds very interesting. Any suggestions on making it vegetarian? I assume that it would still be beneficial without the collagen.
Missy says
The links for the collagen peptides are bad
Jenny says
I'm sorry you had trouble accessing the link. It seems to be working on my end, you might also try it directly here: http://www.vitalproteins.com/collagen/collagen-peptides.html
judy says
So happy to get the tigernut milk recipe. Does the tigernut flour sold at Amazon need to be soaked, too, before using, and if so, how much? Thank you so much for all that you offer.
Jenny says
Hi Judy! No need to soak tiger nut flour!
Michelle says
What flours could u substitute the tigernut flour for?
Jessica says
Thank you 🙂
My tummy also does not wake up till mid morning, though my body wakes at 7 to care for the kids.
I have 2 tubs of Vital Protein's gelatin sitting in my pantry and some fresh raw milk and honey.
Mmmmm.....I will try this tomorrow
Susan says
Hi Jenny,
Where do you buy your Spirulina?
Jenny says
I usually pick it up at the health food store, but you might also try mountain rose herbs.