Matcha Magic

Nothing is more iconic in Japanese sweets than matcha flavored everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's earthy, floral, sweet by not too sweet flavor brightens any dish - both sweet or savory.

Matcha lattes, matcha lattes with boba, matcha latte ice cream, matcha ice cream on waffles, matcha ice cream in matcha tea, matcha fudge, matcha kit kats, matcha cake, matcah mochi, matcha cream puffs, tea ceremony matcha and even matcha salt.

While the origins of matcha can be traced back to Chinese Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty, a Japanese Buddhist monk named Eisai, who was studying in China, brought back to Japan tencha tea seeds and planted them on his temple's grounds in Kyoto around 1191.

These high quality leaves would be roasted and ground into a powder to be used in the Zen tea ceremony of chado. Today, the production process is not dissimilar - harvesting young leaves at peak sweetness, steaming and drying, and then grinding to a fins powder on granite stone.

Today, however, matcha is used in far more than tea ceremony. It is a current trend, likely because it has excellent health benefits (benefits are 130 times that of regular green tea!), has a lovely sweet and earthy flavor to add to other dishes, and is VIBRANT green, which I am sure Instagrammers love (myself included).