Matcha Dalgona

I finally got on the matcha bandwagon after reading about all the insane health benefits it holds in just a small amount of this super duper special green tea powder. It’s like, green tea on steroids, but it’s not exactly green tea. Matcha is made with green tea leaves that have been grown in the shade for 3-4 weeks prior to being harvested, and the stems and veins are not included in processing. I wanted in on all the goodness matcha has to offer.

Benefits of matcha

So what I wanted to harness was this wonderful list of health goodies:

• Is packed with antioxidants including the powerful EGCg

• Boosts metabolism and burns calories

• Provides vitamin C, selenium, chromium, zinc and magnesium

• Lowers cholesterol and blood sugar

• Detoxifies effectively and naturally

• Calms the mind and relaxes the body

• Is rich in fiber, chlorophyll and vitamins

• Prevents disease

• Enhances mood and aids in concentration

Now who wouldn’t want all that, especially if it’s natural and comes in one little spoonful of powder?

Matcha, Give Me a Minute

When I tried matcha for the first time, I thought it tasted like fish. I didn’t like it! But I was determined. The first bag I got wasn’t so good, even though it got a high rating on the big online store. So I gave it another shot and got the exact same brand my friend the chef had. Again, fish! When I told him that, he said it might be the same type of thing where some people just don’t pick up the chlorophyl flavor, but get fish instead. Kind of like how cilantro tastes like soap to some people. But I am (most likely) a super-taster, so what I’m thinking is that I’m picking up on nuances most people don’t. For example, I didn’t like olive oil most of my life, until I had good olive oil. I was all, oh this is what it’s supposed to taste like? Like grass? I love olive oil! Turns out I had been eating the rancid crappy stuff Italy exports because it doesn’t meet their standards. Don’t believe the package wholesale, people. Anyway, I was determined to like it.

First came the matcha panna cotta

I thought the matcha panna cotta looked delicious, so I thought I’d try that first. I chose a recipe from Pinterest and gave it a shot. That was the first time I tried the matcha in a food. But… no bueno. That fishy taste was very pronounced to me. That’s when I started looking for another way to mix in the Amazing Matcha into my food.

Then came the matcha dalgona

This one was better! It looked delicious in the pictures, so I poked around to find out what exactly was a matcha dalgona. It’s a derivation of the dalgona coffee. The original drink is basically whipped instant coffee over warm or cold milk of your choice. The matcha dalgona is a riff off of that drink, but doesn’t use coffee at all. Instead, it uses whipped heavy cream or egg whites for the frothed topping, and matcha powder is added to that. After much reading, I came to the conclusion that there are a few different ways to make a matcha dalgona. If you are dairy-free, you can make it with whipped egg whites (a meringue). If you want egg-free, you can use whipped heavy cream. I even saw some recipes that used whipped coconut cream. And the milk part can be regular cow milk, a nut milk of your choice, or coconut milk. so I guess you can boil it down to, it’s whipped whatever-you-want with matcha and sweetener in it, topped over whatever milk you like, hot or cold. Lots of room for creativity and personal food preferences!

How to make Matcha Dalgona

Of course, how to make it the way I made it. These are the ingredients I used:

1. Whip about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of heavy cream into whipped cream.

2. Add 1 tsp - 1 Tbsp matcha powder (to your taste) to the whipped cream. I used 1 tsp

3. Whip matcha powder into the whipped cream

4. Add sweetener of your choice to tase. I used 1 tsp of this keto-friendly monkfruit/erythritol blend.

5. Whip sweetener into the matcha whipped cream

6. Pour warmed or cold milk into a cup, glass or mug

7. Scoop out and place the matcha whipped cream on top the milk

1. whip your cream or egg whites 2. add matcha 3. whip matcha into cream 4. add sweetener 5. whip again into dalgona

A few things to note: the whipped cream floats, so when you drink it, the cream hangs out at your lip and all you get is milk. So use a spoon to eat that yummy cream! Or mix it up, I suppose. I didn’t try that. Also, I used coconut milk just because I didn’t have regular milk, and I thought drinking straight heavy cream would be a bit too rich for my taste. The other thing to note is, it takes a whole lot of cream to get it to look like the pretty pictures. So don’t be shy about the amount of whipped goodness you make. That’s what it’s about!