This vegan latte is comforting and mellow. Smooth and creamy. Sweet and round. As an avid tea drinker and gong fu cha enthusiast, I am usually against anything milk and sugar, but with matcha, this somehow works well for me. I see this more as a lemonade or soda, not really as a tea. Its super easy on the palate and easy to drink for someone not used to drinking tea.
Matcha is a Japanese green tea, and different from any other loose leaf green tea, as matcha serves the whole leaf ground up. General loose leaf green tea brewed right, usually in between 60°c - 80°c, is vegetal, bright, grassy, brothy and slightly flowery and sweet. Matcha is similar, but here the vegetal and brothy flavours are on steroids, its less sweet and more bitter, as the whole leaf is part of the drink. Matcha is so different from loose leaf brewing, which I think is why I am okay with making this more of a soft drink, hence all the milk and sugar to balance the slight bitterness and strong flavours.
The slightly bitter matcha powder is tamed by the creamy almond milk and rounded by the vanilla and the sugar. It works well with oat or soy milk too, so feel free to substitute the almond milk. Rice milk seems a little too thin and not creamy enough in texture to work well though, but play with what you have, just keep in mind that the latte is gonna be flavoured from the milk that you choose.
When the drink is cold it’s also really tasty, so do feel free to refrigerate and enjoy on a hot afternoon. I mostly drink mine cold now. The tea needs to be infused though at a certain temperature, so bringing the temperature up is important to gain flavour, then you can always cool it down again in the fridge if you wish. Just be really, really careful to not add the matcha paste while the milk is too hot, it will bring out very bitter and astringent flavours of the matcha, and we want to avoid that. Green teas do really not like boiling brewing temperatures.
Serves two 250 ml cups (two 8.5 oz glasses)
Ingredients
- 500 ml almond milk (17 oz)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar / pinch of pure dried vanilla powder
- 3-4 teaspoons organic matcha powder *ceremonial grade (to taste)
What you will need
- 1 measuring cup
- 1 small pot
- 1 spoon to stir
- 1 bowl
- 1 bamboo matcha whisk
Instructions
- Pour almond milk in the measuring cup. Put into the small pot with the sugar and vanilla sugar, turn the heat on high. Continuously stir for a few minutes until boiling. Turn the heat off and prepare the matcha powder.
- In a bowl put 3-4 teaspoons of matcha powder. Gently whisk it with the bamboo whisk to a fine powder as pictured above.
- When the almond milk has cooled down and it has reached about 80 c (176 F), take a few spoonfuls of almond milk in the bowl with the matcha powder. Gently incorporate the almond milk with the matcha powder, so it becomes an evenly thin and smooth paste. No pieces of matcha powder should be prevalent, it has to be completely smooth.
- Transfer the matcha paste to the pot with the rest of the almond milk and stir so its fully mixed.
- Pour the finished Vegan Vanilla Matcha Latte into two cups and serve.
Enjoy !
