I have recently rekindled my love of green tea after discovering matcha – a powdered green tea made from specially selected green tea plants, which are shade grown for a few weeks before being ground up. The result is a clean, smooth-tasting tea that doesn’t have that horribly bitter after taste that first put me off regular green.

It’s really easy to drink and has helped me through many a starvation lull on one of my fast days, as i’m currently trialing out the intermittent fasting (or the fast diet) in an attempt to (pun-alert) have my cake and eat it too (sorry.)

But I’m more interested in matcha being used as an ingredient in cooking. The first time I tasted matcha was in a life changing dessert at So Japanese, Soho. This place was recommended to me by an ex colleague for its unbeatable sushi (and at a reasonable price for sushi) but I would also highly recommend the Japanese desserts.

The Matcha & White Chocolate Cake with Black Sesame Ice Cream & Fruit Mousse  

This was ordered on a whim (I think  I had doused my sushi in far too much soy sauce and was after a hit of sugar after my meal.) The cake has a mossy green coating on it’s brown surface, the ice cream is stone grey from the combo of black sesame and cream and the mousse is blood red, making the whole thing look like a graveyard scene on an American Halloween cake. But the bright grassy taste of matcha with creamy white chocolate chocolate was an absolute dream come true, with gorgeous contrasts in flavour from the nutty ice cream and sharp fruity.

I’ve been exploring the use of matcha in cooking more. I recently ordered a matcha latte on Great Portland Street which set me back about 5 British Pounds, but was heavenly and would’ve been finished in around 5 seconds flat if not for the scorching milk.

I’m going to be working on some recipes working with matcha  in the next few weeks. But before I binge order at Holland & Barrett, can anybody out there help me to source the best value matcha powder for cooking?

Do you cook with matcha? If so, what? And what do you use?

I look forward to some pearls of wisdom!

Beth x