Two ways to try healthy matcha green tea

Have you ever heard of matcha green tea?

Matcha green tea is becoming more and more popular these days. You can even find it in specialty drinks at Starbucks and Peet’s coffee shops.

I tried matcha for the first time about a year ago and really enjoyed the flavor in a hot latte beverage.

What is matcha green tea?

Basically, matcha green tea is super green tea. It’s made from whole green tea leaves grown in the dark. It’s the highest-grade quality green tea around. Because it’s made from the whole leaves and isn’t oxidized, it has more nutrients than any other regular tea.

Matcha green tea has plenty of benefits above and beyond other teas. Here are a few, according to some quick web research:

• Contains tons of antioxidants, which help prevent diseases (in fact, it has more than 137 times the antioxidants of a regular cup of brewed green tea)
• Provides energy and focus without as much caffeine as a regular cup of coffee
• Can be mixed into food, smoothies and nearly anything in its powder form
• Increases the metabolism and supports burning more calories
• Improves skin and hair health by increasing blood flow

Kiss Me Organics Matcha

Although matcha is always in the back of my mind, recently Kiss Me Organics reached out to me with the opportunity to try the company’s 100 percent organic culinary grade matcha green tea powder. They didn’t have to ask me twice, because I’m all about trying new healthy and trendy food products, and I already knew I liked matcha.

Kiss Me Organics Matcha Green Tea is only available on Amazon, and you can purchase it here.

When you order the product, you have access to a downloadable 70-page recipe book that includes 50 creative recipes incorporating the powder into drinks, smoothies, snacks, meat and poultry, dips, breakfast and desserts. Some of the dishes featured include the Tuna Burger with Matcha Ginger Sauce, Pan Fried Matcha Chicken, Basic Matcha Chicago Pizza Dough, Cheesy Spinach and Matcha Dip, Matcha Mousse Pie, Tea Scones and the Mint Matcha Milkshake to name a few. I was really surprised to see how many different types of dishes matcha can be added to.

I’ve earmarked a couple of the dessert recipes to try soon, but wanted to jump right in and add some matcha to my day. Therefore, I started by incorporating a teaspoon of matcha into my typical green smoothie recipe, which I will now call the Matcha Tea Sweet Green Smoothie.

Matcha Tea Sweet Green Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder
• 1 cup fresh kale
• 1 cup frozen chopped spinach
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon almond butter
• 2 packets of Stevia sweetener
• Enough almond milk to cover the ingredients
• A few ice cubes

Directions

Whirl it all together in a blender and enjoy.

This smoothie already has a faint veggie taste, due to the massive amounts of greens, so you could only slightly taste the matcha. I will say that I had a little bit of a pick-me-up after drinking it, which lasted for a few hours. If you don’t know if you will like the flavor of matcha, this might be the best route for you to go since it’s disguised.

However, I knew I wanted to taste it in all its strange matcha glory, so the I decided to put it in a latte.

Kiss Me Matcha Green Tea Latte

(Pulled directly from the Kiss Me Organics downloadable recipe book, which comes with purchase.)

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder
• 3/4 cup almond milk (or soy or cow or goat milk)
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup (optional, so I used two packets of Stevia instead)

Directions

1. Place matcha in the bottom of a coffee mug or other heat-proof cup.
2. Bring almond milk to a simmer in a small pot.
3. Whisk boiling water slowly with the matcha powder in the mug, then pour in almond milk.
4. Tip the cup to up the foam factor.
5. Sweeten with agave syrup if desired.

Now this one really lets you enjoy the matcha flavor. It’s a green-texture taste and a great way to drink a latte.

Concluding thoughts on Kiss Me Organics Matcha

I really enjoyed both attempts at drinking matcha creations made at home. This product has the taste I had expected and hoped for.

I’m already a tea drinker (I gave up coffee unintentionally when we moved to San Francisco over a year-and-a-half-ago because we didn’t have a coffee maker for several weeks and I got sick of going out to buy a cup every morning), so it’s easy for me to jump on the bandwagon to support a super tea.

It’s versatile. Because there are so many benefits of matcha, you could certainly could consider incorporating it into your cooking without ever really needing to taste the unique flavor as a beverage.

The only downfall is that the product is expensive. It’s $25, plus shipping, for a four-ounce bag. I looked around Amazon, and that seems just about the price of the other products on the market. However, it should last a while. You only use one teaspoon at a time, and the bag closes up nicely, so you can probably store it in a cool, dry cupboard for some time.

While I was given the product gratis, I’ll say that you definitely have to pay more for quality products these days, especially those that are 100 percent organic like this one.

I’ve got a whole bag of it left, so I’m going to work through the recipe book and look around for more ways to drink or eat it. I’ll check back in if I find another winner to share.

Now you know all about matcha. Go forth and conquer!

*I was given a bag of Kiss Me Organics Matcha Green Tea Powder for free, but this post is not sponsored, and all the opinions are my own.

Questions of the day

Have you heard of matcha? Have you tried it? Would you ever consider giving up coffee for tea?