How to make a midday matcha latte pick me up

Despite our BEST efforts to avoid the mid-afternoon crash, sometimes it happens anyway. And sometimes you just need a shot of caffeine to power through that pile of to-dos you've been putting off for a month.

Enter matcha tea lattes.

Have you heard of all the buzz around matcha yet? Literally meaning "powdered tea", matcha boasts the benefits of green tea we've been hearing about for decades. Except it has the potential to deliver a more powerful punch than the leaf varieties.

When I was in college, the nutrition department head from China mocked American green tea, saying it was the watered-down version of the real deal. Very generally, matcha has gained popularity because of its super-punch of beneficial antioxidants called polyphenols. Basically, any food-sourced antioxidant is known for its powerful disease preventative effects. Probably even more enticing to some is that's it's associated with weight loss. But I digress. Let's get back to making matcha taste great.

I've been making this recipe for a while, and I can tell you that it's FAR better than the $9, watery matcha tea I ordered at a fancy tea shop.

Creamy Iced Matcha

Ingredients:

* Matcha powder
* Almond, coconut, cashew or nut milk of choice
* Water
* Ice cubes
* Stevia--I prefer Sweet Leaf Vanilla Creme Stevia

Directions:
1. Put 1 tsp matcha powder to the bottom of a mason jar (or a glass with a lid that you can shake).
2. Add just enough water to dissolve the powder without leaving behind little chunks of matcha powder.
3. Fill 2/3 of the jar with nut milk of choice. Add 1-2 ice cubes.
4. Add 6-8 drops liquid stevia (less is more. You can always add later!)
5. Cap with a lid and shake until frothy, like a latte.
Enjoy!

If you have an immersion blender or regular blender, you can definitely add create a great latte by mixing that way too, just like I do when making detox dandelion tea lattes (link to that blog post), but this feels faster and is super simple.

Play with the milk/water ratio if you don't like the latte so creamy.

BUYING TIP: Matcha is a little pricey to buy a large canister if you haven't tried it yet. If you can get to a health food store that sells bulk teas and spices, you can probably find a little bag of matcha powder for less than $5 and it will make you a ton of lattes. There is a LOT of variety in matcha on the market. Check the ingredient list to make sure it isn't filled with "fluff" just to make it cheaper (like brown rice powder). Other varieties come by the bag or sweetened. This recipe is for plain, unsweetened matcha powder.

Generally, caffeine and I don't play well together. I usually get a HUGE high (like an annoying, "will this girl ever shut up" caffeine high) and then I crash like a teenager that just got her license. Hard. Even though matcha is definitely a caffeinated tea and gives me a true "pick me up", I don't seem to crash like I do from delicious coffee shop indulgences. It probably also has to do with not adding refined sugar also.

Find my favorite Stevia on Amazon: (affiliate link)

Have you heard of matcha? If you try this, send me a note; I'd love to hear about it! [email protected] or come tell me on Facebook!