The Double Matcha Latte I Drink Every Day

I always loved waking up to matcha in the morning, but until recently I could never get it quite right. I could make a mean iced matcha latte, but that took time I didn’t have. Or, I could skip the blender, but then I’d have to deal with clumpy matcha. And if I used my one whisk, well, the next day I’d be fishing it out of the dishwasher. Besides, matcha was so expensive, it just wasn’t feasible to drink it every day.

But when there’s a will there’s a way. And right now, I think I’ve nailed it. Let me know if you think so, too!

Step one: heat your milk

Yes, I am using a Turkish coffee pot to heat milk. Don’t at me! And if you don’t have a small pot to heat your milk in, I suggest you get one. The biggest payoff is that I never need to measure milk in a separate container. Fewer dishes = more life.

What kind of milk should I use in a matcha latte, you ask?

Good question. Personally, I prefer whole cow’s milk for a matcha latte. It’s naturally rich and sweet, so I don’t have to add sugar to counteract the bitterness of culinary matcha. However, I usually alternate between cow’s milk and unsweetened oat milk or almond milk. It will taste a bit more “grassy” with plant milks, but I like it nonetheless.

If you like a creamy plant-milk flavor, try your latte with Chobani’s extra creamy oat milk (no I’m not sponsored…yet!). Some almond milks will actually curdle when they’re heated and mixed with matcha powder, so if you do use almond milk, opt for one that’s homogenized or thickened, NOT one that’s pure almonds and water.

Step two: Whisk two teaspoons of matcha with a small bit of water.

This is critical. Most importantly, if you do this well enough, there’s no risk of getting clumps of matcha. Also, it reduces the need for fancy equipment. I just use my handy dandy…

…fork!

A very sophisticated piece of kitchen equipment. There are entire ceremonial traditions around matcha tea preparation, and I have much respect for them. But they are way beyond the scope of this post, not to mention the expertise of the post-writer!

What kind of matcha do you use?

Another great question. I use the one above, Carrington farms’s organic matcha powder. It’s a culinary grade matcha. I don’t really have sufficient funds for or knowledge around preparing ceremonial grade matcha, which is less bitter and more smoother-tasting. But this one, as far as I know, delivers similar health benefits. I find that buying this organic matcha makes my morning latte cheaper than coffee, since it is similarly priced but lasts about twice as long as a bag of premium beans.

Step three: when your milk is foamy, bubbly, or simply hot, pour it into your cup

This is the easy part! You could use a handheld milk frother here if you wanted to, but I usually don’t. I don’t really have to stir it up, either. You could also add some sweetener…

To sweeten or not to sweeten?

I don’t sweeten my latte. I don’t really like getting used to a daily drink if it has a spoonful of sugar in it. That’s just me. I used to drink coffee with milk and no sugar, too, so I guess I’m just used to it.

But if I do have sugar, it’s coconut sugar. In addition to being less processed, I just think it adds a little something interesting flavor-wise. It’s not really “better for you” though. It has the about the same grams of sugar per serving as white sugar.

On occasion, I’ll also use this liquid stevia sweetener from Trader Joe’s! I really like it in lemonade or agua fresca. Also, my sister in law gave me this vanilla bean paste for Christmas, and I would not be my bougie self if I didn’t use it in my matcha latte on occasion. The bean paste is made with sugar, so it’s a sweetener, too.

Why drink matcha in the first place?

My coffee roots run deep. Growing up, I’d get little sips of my mom’s coffee drinks from Barney’s in the mall. That place had an intoxicating smell, even for a kid. She’d let me slurp off all the whipped cream before I got to the coffee taste, at which point I’d give it back so she could have the rest of her bitter drink.

When I got to college, I decided to get rid of sodas in my diet and drink only tea or coffee instead. There I made coffee a daily beverage I enjoyed. Since then, I’ve tried all sorts of coffees–Cuban coffee, Italian Mokapot coffees, Turkish coffees, New York deli drip, Greek frappés, the list goes on…

But at a certain point, I felt like I wanted to find a different drink for the morning. Even though I loved the taste of coffee, it made me a little jittery. Then, in an anatomy class, I learned something that made me switch gears forever: coffee triggers the release of cholecystokinin. Among other jobs, this hormone stimulates intestinal contractions to “move things along.” Well, things seemed to make a lot more sense. I decided to switch to tea for good and keep coffee as an occasional treat.

While I love nothing more than sipping a hot cup of black or green tea in the morning, I found that a matcha latte was much faster to prepare–and for what it’s worth, less likely to stain my teeth. I enjoy the grassy flavor and the potential health benefits of matcha that somewhat balance out the fact that it contains more caffeine than other teas. One of these days, I’ll switch to preparing this drink with half the amount I currently do, saving my double matcha for special occasions.

If you try out this drink, you’ll have to let me know what you think! Did you sweeten it? And if so, how? Or, tell me a little bit about your favorite morning drink!

Looking for more lattes? Try one of these!

• Cacao Latte
• Turmeric Latte
• Blue Moon Milk
• Strawberry moon milk

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