Tea Latte
You can enjoy tea lattes all year round. A cold latte is refreshing in the hot months, while a hot mug of tea is warming and comforting in the cold season.
The preparation of the latte itself is incredibly simple and can be done by everyone at home. It is essentially preparing a cup of usucha (instructions 1 – 5), and then adding in a plant milk of your choice. We recommend plant milks, even if you are not vegan. You might be interested to know that there are studies that show that cow milk proteins bind with the beneficial compounds in tea, preventing your body from absorbing them.
If you have never made usucha before, please have a look at this page with detailed instructions and a short video showing the steps. We know many people also use a shaker to make their matcha drinks, but we hope our video will inspire you to whip up the tea in a more traditional way.
The following steps describe how to prepare a matcha latte using our Matcha Ken, which has a bold flavor that is deliciously nutty and vegetal. The procedure for the preparation of genmaicha and hojicha latte is the same, except for minor deviations, which are described below.
Tea Latte Instructions
What you need:
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- Matcha, Hojicha or Genmaicha Powder. For matcha latte, use a quality Matcha that offers a bolder matcha taste. There is no need to use a more expensive and delicate matcha meant for usucha, but do not use so-called low quality “culinary” matcha
- Spring Water
- Plant Milk (Oat milk is preferred, but soy milk, almond milk, etc are also good)
- Chasen (tea whisk)
- Chawan (tea bowl)
Optional but highly recommended:
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- Sugar or Syrup
- Small fine-mesh sift
- Weighing Scale (0.1 g accuracy)
- Temperature controlled kettle (if not, you can actually gauge water temperature by observing the size of the bubbles while it’s heating up)
- Prepare everything you need – If preparing warm tea latte, heat the water and milk to the recommended temperature listed below. For cold lattes, cold spring water is fine. Don’t forget to soak the bamboo whisk in water for a while to soften it. This will prevent breakage.
Recommended Temperature Water Volume
Matcha Ken 60 – 70°C 70 ml Hojicha Raku 80 – 85°C 70 ml Hojicha Jun 80 – 85°C 70 ml Genmaicha 70°C 70 ml ^ If the upper temperature limit is not observed, the taste profile will be affected by increased bitterness and astringency. Some people might prefer this.
- Weigh tea powder – Place the tea bowl on the scale and add 2g of tea powder into the bowl. You may sift the powder if you prefer, but it’s not necessary if you follow step 3.
Tip: 2g of tea powder is about 2 heaped chashuku or 1 teaspoon (flat).
- Blend until smooth – Add 10 ml or 2 tsp of ROOM-TEMPERATURE water to the tea powder. Then use the whisk to gently blend the powder and water into a smooth syrupy consistency with no clumps.
- Add water – Add additional 60 ml of cold / hot water.
- Whisk well – Begin whisking by moving the whisk back and forth to draw the letter “M”. The movement is mainly in flicking the wrists quickly. Large bubbles will start forming which gradually turn into a finer foam. Whisk for about 20 seconds. Please see animation below to understand this whisking action (or watch the video). Pour the tea into a glass or mug in which you want to serve the latte. In comparison to matcha, genmaicha and hojicha will produce significantly less foam. Also, using cold water will produce less foam than with hot water.
Tip: Please avoid brushing the whisk against the bottom of the bowl to reduce wear, and prevent breakage of the fragile tines.
- Froth milk – Froth 150 ml of hot / cold milk with a whisk or frother. The milk temperature should not exceed the tea temperature limit. Try using oat milk that is “barista” quality for its complementary creamy taste and frothing capabilities.
- Add milk – Pour the frothed milk over the tea. You can also add a teaspoon or two of sugar / syrup to sweeten according to your preferences. Sometimes a pinch of sugar will help accentuate the taste of tea in latte. For cold lattes, we use a syrup that is made by boiling 1:1 sugar and water.
Each brand of oat milk / plant milk has its own taste, and level of creaminess. You can adjust the amount of milk and water used depending on your preferences. Enjoy!
Organic Tea Powders
