Vanilla and matcha green tea latte

 

Well I guess i jinxed my wow of silence too soon. I decided to be proactive and plan and schedule a post for when I'm MIA. I thought I was going to be super busy with packing and such but I kind of am done with 90 percent of it. Ro has been fab and did a lot of it and now I'm just left with my humongous prop shelf which I have to start on. One good thing that has come out of this move is the fact that I've done one big massive spring cleaning. Gave a lot of clothes, bags and shoes to charity, cleaned out the fridge--waaay too many chutnies and sauces that i don't like/ use- threw out all those expired packs of gulab kamun and jelebi mixes and it feels great. 

So i decided to put my time to good use and taste test the teapigs kit that was sent to me a couple of days back. Teapigs is a brand I'm quite familiar with. They have a fab variety of tea's which catch my attention every time i go to a nice cafe. I am quite a big fan of their fruit teas and if i do find any at a cafe then that's what i go for. Teapigs have been around for the past 8 years and they indeed produce a range of very best quality teas. Their everyday brew which i taste tested is rather string and is a good option if you want to add some milk in, but still maintain the strength. Teapigs also gives you more bang for your buck by incorporating more tea into their tea temples than most other teas (precisely 14% more than PG tips) so you get more out of you cuppa. Now who'd not want that??

Coming to matcha..I'm a matcha virgin and so was kind of looking forward to what the matcha hype was all about. I had a vague idea how it would taste and must say I wasn't wrong. I'm still making up my mind about whether I like it or not. It took me about a year to like green tea, so I'm pretty sure I'll be a convert soon. This latte on the other hand was bearable, in the sense, its got vanilla in it and that makes anything taste fab. I am more excited about the Aerolatte frother that came with the kit and i love love love it, Yup, all that froth you see is with that beautiful thing. Matcha is something I'd like to experiment with a bit more, especially in baking and see the results. I shouldn't judge it already.

Makes 2 small cups (recipe from here)

Matcha green tea powder- 1 tsp (I used teapigs matcha powder)

Hot water- 1/3 cup

Granulated sugar- 2 tsp (adjust to taste)

Vanilla extract- 1/4 tsp

Milk- 1/2 cup

Into two cups add 1/2 a tsp each green tea powder.

Top with 1 tbsp each hot water and mix well to dissolve the tea powder. Make sure there are no lumps, and mix it in well. You can use a frother to make this job easier.

Pour in the remaining hot water and stir to combine.

Add the sugar and vanilla extract, mix well till the sugar dissolves.

Warm up the milk to a simmering point or warm it up in the microwave for about 30 seconds, making sure you don't bring it to boiling point.

Using the frother, froth the milk. Don't over do it to the point where the milk gets too thick, or else you'll have trouble mixing it with the tea.

Slowly pour the froth over the tea and dust with some matcha powder.

Mix well before you drink.

Notes: Next time id reduce the green tea powder to 1/2 and use that between two cups. The tea is very strong and a lesser dosage would have tasted much nicer.

You can replace the vanilla with almond extract to give it a twist.

If you don't have a frother, use a French press, like i have explained in this post

With thanks to the PR agency for the teapigs kit.