Vegan French-Vanilla Iced Matcha Latte

Creamy iced matcha latte sweetened slightly with French Vanilla Syrup. Power through the day without that mid-morning caffeine crash, with this sweet, green, caffeinated concoction.

Don't get me wrong I LOVE going to a coffee shop and watching the Baristas create amazing patterns and beautiful drinks, but for a pick me up when I'm stuck at my desk all day, this little recipe is quick to whip up so you can get back to work and stop procaffeinating. 😉

Matcha vs Coffee?

I do love a proper cup of coffee, or a nice big iced cold brew, but I have fallen a little bit in love with Matcha recently. Matcha is made from finely ground tea leaves and has slightly lesser amount of caffeine than a cup of coffee, it does however give you a more sustained energy boost (4-6 hours) compared to coffee (1-3 hours) with no crash at the end. Sound good?

What you need to make this French Vanilla Matcha Latte:

• Matcha Powder
  Brighter the green colour = better quality. I like this one or this one.
• Cocktail shaker or Hydro Flask
  Or any wide-mouth container with an air-tight lid.
• Milk of any kind
• Cold water and Vanilla Syrup
• Measuring cups
• Ice
  You need quite a lot of ice.
• Glass cup
  To show off the layers.

How do you make a Matcha Latte without a traditional matcha bamboo whisk/bowl?

I used the think that matcha lattes where hard to make, and I had started looking at getting a traditional matcha whisk and bowl so I could make lump free matcha lattes. That was until I stumbled across Jee's Blog - Oh How Civilised. She is a Tea GURU. She writes about how all you need to make a lump free iced matcha latte is an air-tight container: like a jar with a tight lid, a hydro flask, or a insulated water bottle,  or a cocktail shaker.

How to get the "Layered" Matcha Look

I love the look of layered drinks, and love to create them when I am feeling extra fancy and there is a trick to getting those "layers" that Mary Berry would be proud of...

It's sugar. The sugar content keeps the layers separated. The liquid that has the most sugar will sink to the bottom.

In this drink, I added the Vanilla Syrup into the matcha, but not to the milk, so that's why the matcha was added to the glass first. If you want to have the milk at the bottom and the matcha on top, simply swap it around - add the Vanilla Syrup in with the milk instead of the matcha.

For this drink, it's a two part process, which doubles up as an arm workout too! #winwin

STEP 1:

Add the matcha along with cold filtered water into the Cocktail shaker or Hydro Flask along with the Syrup, then

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE

Then pour this over ice into the glass.

STEP 2:

Now we "cold whip" the milk, which is basically whipping the milk on the cold setting of a milk frother. (this is the updated version of the one I have which is now dishwasher safe much to my annoyance....)

I used soy milk as thats what I had in but you can use any milk of your choosing.

What if I don't have a milk frother?

If you don't have a Milk frother, or just C.B.A with all the layering. Don't worry-you can still make this recipe. Just a regular blender will work. Just pour your milk into your blender (or your milk and matcha if you're not fussed about a layered drink or that insta worthy swirly milk pour) and blend at the highest speed. What you get?  Frothy bubbly milk that you pay a small fortune for at your local coffee shop.

Other Iced Drinks to try:

• Mango Dragon Fruit Cooler
• Blackberry Iced Tea