In case you hadn’t noticed, I kind of have a thing for matcha. If you don’t know what matcha is, I can sum it up by saying that it is simply finely ground green tea.  It’s super healthy too, containing 137 times the antioxidants found in regular tea, plus 10 times the nutrients.  It’s an energy booster, full of vitamins and minerals and it increases your metabolism, all while having next to zero calories.  Studies have even shown that matcha may be able to protect you from cancer, heart disease, diabetes and even help you live longer.  If you’re not drinking matcha, maybe you really should be!

I’ve made a number of recipes that include matcha; my favorites are these matcha strawberry cupcakes, which eventually inspired these matcha strawberry popsicles.  In this post, I’ll show you some of my new favorite matcha recipes.

I’ll start by saying that this post would not have been possible if it weren’t for Koyu Matcha in Ireland.  They saw my matcha recipes and offered to send me a sample of their organic ingredient matcha.  Ingredient matcha holds its flavor better than regular matcha used for tea-making, so it is excellent for use in baking, confectioneries, smoothies, etc.  I haven’t tried matcha from Koyu before, so I was super excited to receive this sample.

The very first thing I made with it was a recipe on the pack, which was a matcha smoothie.

This recipe, which you’ll find at the end of this post, combines matcha, a banana, milk and honey.  What a simple, and healthy, way to fill an empty tummy!  It was very delicious.  I’m sure it would make a great breakfast smoothie.  My recommendation for this recipe is be sure to use a ripe banana.  You could even peel, slice and freeze the banana for 30-60 minutes for a thicker smoothie.

My current favorite matcha beverage at the moment though is this matcha milkshake.  It’s a heaven-sent energy booster, and it looks so pretty!

This recipe, which you’ll find at the end of this post, actually comes from a different tea company, but of course it works just the same for matcha bought anywhere else.  I can’t get enough of this milkshake; I’d be drinking it all day if I could!  It’s a fun recipe to prepare as well; matcha is mixed with warm water, milk and honey and frothed in a coffee press.  I had to scale down the recipe because I don’t have a coffee press large enough for the full amount the recipe makes.

While I have not been asked by or paid from Koyu Matcha to do this review, I want to let you know that this matcha is just lovely.  It’s bright green, smells amazing and dissolves well. It is by far my favorite matcha and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for your first matcha purchase, or even if you’re a matcha expert.  Koyu Matcha delivers anywhere in the world, so don’t feel left out if you’re not in Ireland.  Their shipping time to me, in Australia, was really quick.

But wait, I’ve got one more awesome matcha recipe to share.  I have not seen this one done before so I’m really excited about this and I hope you’ll like it too.

I can hear you already, you’re saying, “Green peanut butter cups????”!  Not exactly!  These are based on a chocolate peanut butter cup, but with a matcha white chocolate outer shell, and a homemade pistachio nut butter filling.  In other words, these cute little cups are all kinds of awesome!

I simply added a bit of matcha to some melted white chocolate to make the shell.  I didn’t add heaps of matcha because I didn’t want an unattractive dark green color; I was just going for a sort of pastel green.  The matcha flavor is very subtle, but it’s still there.  To help bring out some more of the matcha, I also added a couple pinches to the pistachio butter filling, and just before serving, I sifted a small dusting of matcha on the top of the cups.

Let’s talk about the homemade pistachio butter.  This stuff is really wicked.  I think the butter tastes better than a plain old pistachio!  It took much longer to reach the nut butter stage with pistachios than it did when I made homemade peanut butter.  I ended up adding a tiny amount of oil just to help it along.  I didn’t want it to be runny though, so I was really stingy with the oil.  I also added a tiny bit of ground sea salt.

I’ve seen a recipe for homemade white chocolate pistachio butter, which I’d love to try!  Maybe next time.

My matcha white chocolate pistachio cups were really delicious, with a totally different take on the classic chocolate peanut butter cup.  I stored mine in the refrigerator for a few days before they were all eaten; I found that they tasted best after having let them return to room temperature.  If you make these, please let me know what you think!   You’ll find the easy recipe at the end of this post; the instructions are long, but only to describe each step in detail and give notes.

 

 

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