So as promised, here is my recipe for a matcha tea/latte, as requested by the lovely bloggers The Arbitrary Fairy and F.A. Eid. I know it’s been a while since I mentioned it in my Liebster Award post. I wanted to include pictures and I’m not all that fabulous with a camera. So here goes!

You will need:

• Matcha powder
• A bamboo whisk
• A wide mug or small bowl
• 8 oz. milk (heated)
• Boiling water

A few notes:

• Matcha powder is not the same as green tea. This is the sole ingredient that can’t be tweaked.
• The type of mug/bowl is important. Whisking in a regular coffee mug won’t work because it’s too narrow to really mix in. You can use a cereal bowl or an oversized cappuccino mug with excellent results. Most mornings I use a handmade tea bowl:

• …which isn’t actually mine. It belongs to a loved one, but to be fair, one who doesn’t mind me using it and also doesn’t drink tea. I have been informed such bowls are named in traditional Asian tea houses, but apparently my skills lie in naming book characters, and not ceramics. I’m still just calling it a tea bowl.
• If you don’t have a cute little bamboo whisk, you can try a regular one in a pinch or just a spoon and all the strength of your fury, but it won’t froth up as much. The bamboo whisk is what gives you the thick foam on the top.
• Any type of milk is fine. I use almondmilk because I have a lactose-intolerant family member and the habit stuck. Oatmilk works too, but it tends to scald when heated. Probably a milk with higher fat content will make for a thicker latte, but I’ve never tried whole milk myself.

How to make it!

• Boil water in a tea or coffeepot.
• Scoop anywhere from 1/4 to 1 teaspoon of matcha powder into your tea bowl (depending on how thick and how caffeinated you want your brew. The powder I use has 8-12 mg. of caffeine per 1/4 teaspoon. In less mathematical terms, a 1 tsp. matcha brew = about half a cup of coffee).
• Heat 8 oz. of milk until steaming (no need to boil)
• Cover the bottom of your tea bowl and the matcha powder with the boiling water. Whisk together–it should be frothy on top. This is the part that keeps the matcha from clumping and staying at the bottom of the bowl.
• Add milk.
• Whisk again. Now it should be thick and foamy on top, like a latte (if using a bamboo whisk and enough milk).
• That’s it!

You can either pour your drink into a proper teacup/mug now, or drink it straight out of the tea bowl like a savage…which is what I typically do. I mean, the tea bowl is already so pretty…

I kind of love how the white streaks make it look like it has bones…and I can’t show textures in photos, but the glaze is almost rough on the outside so it grips your hand and doesn’t feel like you could drop it…

Anyway.

Matcha tea pairs well with Anpan (red bean buns), muffins, chocolate, strawberries, curry (the dish, not the spice), and pretty much anything else. It also has health benefits because it’s good for metabolism and sore muscles (to which I can attest as a violinist who practices to the point of shoulder aches) and a bunch of other things. And unlike other health teas, it doesn’t taste like boiled grass.

So happy tea drinking! And reading! Because what else are you going to do when you’re curled up with a mug of tea? Don’t burn your tongue.