Matcha latte is a pretty popular drink, at least here in Asia. And when I was in the US, I discovered that matcha soy latte was even better. Somehow, the soy's mellow and soothing taste went well with the aroma of the matcha.
And since trying the barley & malt soy milk that I posted about earlier, I wondered if matcha malt latte would work too... so here's my experiment.
Matcha Malt Latte
I first made matcha using Ito En's Sweet Green Tea Powder. I found it to be of high quality because the matcha taste is rich and thick, it is not too sweet, and it generally dissolves easily even in room temperature water. If you've tried making matcha from the normal traditional powder in the little Japanese cans, you know how difficult it normally is to dissolve matcha powder. So this is really a godsend.
Another plus point is that it came in this resealable bag! So it made it convenient for me while staying relatively environmentally-friendly.
Anyway, after dumping this powder in water, you get a really dark green matcha drink.
If you want to make the normal matcha latte, just add milk to this. What I did instead was to add this malted milk powder, which also dissolves in room temperature, or even cold water or milk. (For reference, I blogged about it in this post.)
This is what the matcha malt latte looked like finally - basically like normal matcha latte. Pardon the little green specks floating around. I didn't stir it much or wait for them to dissolve. But those are all that's left of the green tea powder after some hasty and lazy stirring, so I would still say it dissolves very well.
And for the review... it was awesome! I think I like it even better than soy, because the grainy taste is much more pronounced with malted milk. I also think the slight saltiness somehow makes the taste more well-rounded.
With normal matcha latte made with milk, it's just a lot of sweetness to counter the bitterness, so the taste moves only along the bitter-sweet axis and feels very 2-dimensional, with the milk not strong enough to give it a "rounder" taste.
Malted milk, like soy milk, probably fills the taste out with some saltiness and the taste of grain, along with the creaminess of the milk.
In short, it's a winning combination, and I think cafes should really consider this drink for their menu!
Matcha Chocolate Latte
I got inspired to experiment with this because when I was in the US, I once saw this boombastic drink that the barrista of a Starbucks branch invented. It was basically a matcha Frappucino with mint, chocolate, soy milk, and I think one more syrup. Weird combination right? But it turned out, it was possibly one of the best drinks I'd had! So since I had some ingredients to mimic a part of the recipe, I decided to try matcha latte with chocolate.
I used another powder that I had featured in the earlier blog post, which is chocolate powder from Ovaltine. Once again, I like it because it can dissolve easily even in cold milk. I used this in addition to the normal matcha latte made with milk, because this chocolate powder had no milk in it.
And this is the final appearance. Once again, pardon the green specks ahahaha. Yeah, I know it looks a little funky. But I tend not to mind how it looks as long as it tastes good. (In fact, some of the best local food looks somewhat messy.)
The brownness of the chocolate basically overwhelmed the green, so if
not for the tiny green clumps of powder, you might not notice that it
was matcha chocolate latte. The customised drink that I tried from
Starbucks, however, was mostly green, although it was a very dark green.
So it's possible that I used more chocolate than they did.
Anyway, it was good too! The darkness and aroma of the chocolate basically added a different dimension to the bitterness and aroma of the matcha. Like how mocha brings out the flavour of coffee well. Except this is different because matcha has a more... herblike or grassy taste. Still, it was good!
The only thing that I didn't like was that the sugar in the chocolate powder, combined with the sugar in the matcha powder made the drink too sweet overall. I think that's the fault of the Ovaltine powder, because even without the matcha, I find it too sweet in concentrations to turn the milk a proper shade of brown. Maybe a solution would be to add more milk and also a bit more matcha powder. Or else, get a different cocoa powder, maybe one without the sugar.
Or, another solution is to get Starbucks to make this drink for you. They don't have malted milk, but they sure do have chocolate. Get them to make a matcha Frappucino or latte with chocolate!
If any of you try it, I'd love to hear what you thought about it, so if it's not too much trouble, leave a comment!
And since trying the barley & malt soy milk that I posted about earlier, I wondered if matcha malt latte would work too... so here's my experiment.
Matcha Malt Latte
I first made matcha using Ito En's Sweet Green Tea Powder. I found it to be of high quality because the matcha taste is rich and thick, it is not too sweet, and it generally dissolves easily even in room temperature water. If you've tried making matcha from the normal traditional powder in the little Japanese cans, you know how difficult it normally is to dissolve matcha powder. So this is really a godsend.
Another plus point is that it came in this resealable bag! So it made it convenient for me while staying relatively environmentally-friendly.
Anyway, after dumping this powder in water, you get a really dark green matcha drink.
With normal matcha latte made with milk, it's just a lot of sweetness to counter the bitterness, so the taste moves only along the bitter-sweet axis and feels very 2-dimensional, with the milk not strong enough to give it a "rounder" taste.
Malted milk, like soy milk, probably fills the taste out with some saltiness and the taste of grain, along with the creaminess of the milk.
In short, it's a winning combination, and I think cafes should really consider this drink for their menu!
Matcha Chocolate Latte
I got inspired to experiment with this because when I was in the US, I once saw this boombastic drink that the barrista of a Starbucks branch invented. It was basically a matcha Frappucino with mint, chocolate, soy milk, and I think one more syrup. Weird combination right? But it turned out, it was possibly one of the best drinks I'd had! So since I had some ingredients to mimic a part of the recipe, I decided to try matcha latte with chocolate.
I used another powder that I had featured in the earlier blog post, which is chocolate powder from Ovaltine. Once again, I like it because it can dissolve easily even in cold milk. I used this in addition to the normal matcha latte made with milk, because this chocolate powder had no milk in it.
Anyway, it was good too! The darkness and aroma of the chocolate basically added a different dimension to the bitterness and aroma of the matcha. Like how mocha brings out the flavour of coffee well. Except this is different because matcha has a more... herblike or grassy taste. Still, it was good!
The only thing that I didn't like was that the sugar in the chocolate powder, combined with the sugar in the matcha powder made the drink too sweet overall. I think that's the fault of the Ovaltine powder, because even without the matcha, I find it too sweet in concentrations to turn the milk a proper shade of brown. Maybe a solution would be to add more milk and also a bit more matcha powder. Or else, get a different cocoa powder, maybe one without the sugar.
Or, another solution is to get Starbucks to make this drink for you. They don't have malted milk, but they sure do have chocolate. Get them to make a matcha Frappucino or latte with chocolate!
If any of you try it, I'd love to hear what you thought about it, so if it's not too much trouble, leave a comment!
Found these drinks interesting? Check out more unusual drinks here!
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