Recipe: Matcha Green Tea Shake

I was commiserating with a friend the recently about the heat and she told me her latest afternoon addiction was a shake made from matcha, the Japanese powdered green tea. “Blend matcha powder with milk, sugar, and ice. Green frothy jolt at 2pm!”

Easy enough. I put down my work and raced to the blender.

Matcha isn’t always available at your average grocery store, but it can usually be found at Asian groceries or specialty tea shops, and certainly online. Lucky me, I happened to already have some.

And I even had an empty glass waiting in the freezer.

Since I take honey in my hot tea, I decided to swap it with the sugar for the shake. And while whole milk makes this a truly creamy treat, I also tried making the shake with both rice and almond milk — those versions take the edge off a hot day, but without making me feel like I just ate two scoops of green tea ice cream.