Are you looking for a good frozen matcha latte recipe? You have come to the right place! In this guide, we are going to be showing you how to make the best frozen matcha green tea latte. We’ll also give you a few tips to make all your matcha lattes taste more flavorful and less watered down. Without further ado, let’s get blending!
So what is the Frozen Matcha Latte?
A frozen matcha latte is essentially an iced matcha latte that has been blended up to create a drink almost like a slushy.
This can be incredibly cool and refreshing, particularly as the weather gets hotter.
The combination of sweetness, matcha flavor and creamy plant based milk combine to create the perfect pick-me-up you’re sure to fall in love with.
If you follow this complete frozen matcha latte recipe, you’ll be able to recreate this classic drink at home with just a few basic ingredients.
How to make a frozen Matcha Latte: Complete step by step recipe
Follow our step by step guide, keep cool and enjoy our delicious Frozen Matcha Lattes featuring high-quality, sweetened Matcha green tea powder blended with your choice of milk.
Step 1 - Gather the ingredients and tools :
Before you get started on this frozen matcha latte recipe you’ll need to put together a few basic tools and ingredients. There are a few basic tools and ingredients you can find substitutes more, but some of these are must-haves. For example, you can swap out the honey for agave, the almond milk for oatmilk or the matcha whisk for a milk frother, but it is difficult to make this without matcha powder or without a blender.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup almond milk
- matcha latte powder
- 2–3 teaspoons honey, agave or other sweetener
- 2 cups ice ( 6–8 ice cubes)
- Warm water
Tools:
- Matcha whisk or substitutes to whisk the matcha
- Matcha Bowl
- Chashaku or a spoon
- Sifter
- A boiler
- A blender
Step 2 - Break the Matcha clumps by filtering it in the sifter
The first step in this frozen matcha latte recipe actually has to do with how you treat the powder. One of the biggest problems with matcha lattes is that the matcha is not mixed evenly into the drink, and this can lead to a less enjoyable drinking experience. What you really want to do is avoid the clumps that form in the matcha powder.
These clumps are not necessarily a sign of a bad matcha and they don’t mean that the matcha has gone bad, but they will impact the drinkability of the tea. These clumps form naturally as the fine powder is exposed to the humidity in the air. If you want to remove them, make sure you run the matcha powder through a sifter before you put it into the bowl or cup. Once you have a fine matcha powder at the bottom, you are ready to continue to the next step.
Step 3 - Mix the warm water and the matcha to get a thick Koicha
As we mentioned before, it is very important to avoid clumps in your matcha, because this will really impact the drinking experience and the overall flavor of the matcha. In addition to sifting the powder, one thing you can do to add a another layer of security is to mix the matcha into a paste first. This step is seldom mentioned, but we found it important enough to give it its own step in our frozen matcha latte recipe.
Just add about 50ml of water to the matcha powder and mix it up until you get a thick paste with the consistency of paint. When the matcha is in a thick paste like this, it is easier to find and smooth out the clumps. They will become lost later when you add the rest of the water to the powder.
This matcha paste is called koicha, and it actually serves a very important purpose. Koicha is used in special tea ceremonies to commemorate special occasions. When you concentrate the matcha into a thick paste like this, you magnify not only the health benefits and caffeine of the matcha tea, but also the flavor. Unless you use a super smooth matcha for koicha like the matcha tea washimine, the koicha paste will be incredibly bitter. This makes it even more important to use a high quality matcha tea.
Step 4 - Place and blend the almond milk, honey and ice in the mixer
Once you have the koicha paste all smoothed out at the bottom of your bowl, it is time to add in the other ingredients. Just take the almond milk, honey and ice and put it into the blender or food processor. Once everything is in, you can pour in the koicha and get blending.
Step 5 - Add the Koicha
Because the koicha is so thick it will stick to the sides of whatever container you put it in. This makes it very difficult to transfer the tea without losing a significant amount of it. If you want, you can mix in some of the almond milk into the bowl and mix it around before pouring the koicha into the blender. This will ensure that more of the koicha makes it into the blender and less of it is wasted.
Step 6 - Add the Frozen Matcha Latte Recipe in a nice glace with a straw
Once you blend up your frozen matcha latte, you can then pour it out into a glass and serve it with a straw. If you follow the frozen matcha latte recipe directly, you should end up with a thick “slushy” type of consistency in your frozen matcha latte. This is a perfect refreshing drink for a hot summer day!
5 tips to make the frozen matcha latte recipe better
Even if you follow this frozen matcha latte recipe word for word, there are still some improvements you can make. These are tips and techniques you pick up over time, after a lot of experience preparing matcha tea. These tips apply to making not just the frozen matcha latte, but all matcha lattes. Let’s check them out!
Tip #1 Find the Right Type of Matcha
First, you’ll want to start with the right type of matcha. While super smooth ceremonial matcha like this matcha washimine are great if you are drinking matcha plain, when you add in the milk and sugar, you will notice that the flavor of the matcha itself is hard to detect. That’s why we recommend going for a more powerful Yabukita Matcha. The Yabukita is a common cultivar of matcha that has a slightly stronger, more vegetal flavor. This stronger flavor is easily smoothed out by the oatmilk, and the two pair quite nicely together.
You can also go for a latte grade matcha, which is much more affordable and suitable for daily drinking. This matcha is about a third of the price of the more premium ceremonial grade matcha, and it has a strong flavor you can taste through the milk. By using this latte grade matcha, not only will you save money but you will also create more flavorful matcha lattes.
Tip #2 Use Plant Based milk
The second tip is to use a plant based milk for your matcha latte. One of the reason people like matcha lattes is for their health benefits, and according to certain studies the casein in dairy milk can decrease the effectiveness of the antioxidants. Now there are great tasting plant based milks that pair even better with matcha. The oatmilk is a favorite of coffee shops all around the world, but almond milk and coconut milk work great as well. You can also look for soy milk, rice milk or even hazelnut milk if you prefer.
Tip #3 Use Matcha Ice Cubes
The third tip is to use matcha ice cubes. When regular ice cubes melt, they make the matcha latte taste more watered down but when matcha ice cubes melt, they actually add flavor to the drink.
One of the common complains about matcha lattes is that they end up being too watered down, and the ice cubes are a big part of that. This may seem like a lot of work, but you just need to fill up an ice cube tray with matcha once and you should have enough ice cubes for the whole week.
You can then just throw a few of these cubes into your latte in the morning and be on your way. You can even just mix these cubes with your oatmilk and make a matcha latte without having to deal with the mixing at all.
Tip #4 Start out with koicha
The fourth way to improve your matcha latte is to start with koicha or matcha paste. This is similar to the last tip in that it reduces the amount of water you put into your latte. Koicha is a thick matcha paste made using double the amount of powder and half the amount of water. This is typically reserved for special tea ceremonies and occasions, but we have found good results by using it in lattes as well. Just make up the paste and then pour in the oatmilk and mix the two together. Without adding in all that additional water, your matcha latte will end up being smoother and more flavorful.
Tip #5 Blend it well
The final tip is one of the most important and that is to blend it well. When the matcha is not blended correctly, you get clumps in the latte that can make the drinking experience less pleasant. There are a few tricks to make sure your matcha powder is evenly blended into the latte. The first trick is to sift your matcha powder. When matcha powder is exposed to the humidity in the air, it will almost immediately begin to form clumps. You can remove these clumps by running them through a sifter until you have a nice fine powder. The next trick is to use the koicha step as an opportunity to make sure you smooth out all the clumps. This can be more difficult once more water has been added. Once you have a nice smooth koicha paste, you can then add in the oatmilk. The final trick is to make sure you whisk it well, either with a bamboo whisk or a milk frother. There are other ways to mix up the matcha latte, but these two are the best at eliminating clumps. Once you have done all these steps, you should have a nice, consistent and flavorful matcha latte.
So what did you think of our frozen matcha latte recipe? Do you have anything you would like to add to the recipe to make it better? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Until then, we’ll see you next time.
1 comment
Best blended frozen matcha latte blog I have found. Thanks!!