Could this matcha alchemy be for real?

Green tea ice cream is pretty easy to find these days, having become a hit internationally. Matcha latte, though, often takes a bit more legwork, and sometimes even requires a trip to a cafe, since it’s not as ubiquitous as regular green tea in supermarkets and convenience stores.

So while we pretty regularly have green tea ice cream in our freezer, we’re much less likely to have matcha latte in our fridge. Recently, though, we came across an intriguing idea to convert green tea ice cream into a matcha latte, and we were eager to test out this matcha alchemy for ourselves.

The method comes from the official Twitter account of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Group’s National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, a.k.a. Zen-Noh. According to Zen-Noh, all you need to do to turn matcha ice cream into matcha latte is combine the ice cream with milk in a cup, heat it up to room temperature so they can mix together, and then add some ice to chill it back down. Actually, you could probably skip that last step if you’re in the mood for a hot matcha latte, but here in mid-August, cold matcha latte is definitely the more appealing option to us right now.

Zen-Noh’s tweet shows them using Häagen-Dazs green tea ice cream, but in the interest of thoroughly testing this idea, and also to have an excuse to treat ourselves to even more ice cream, we also picked up a cup of confectioner Meiji’s Essel Super Cup matcha ice cream…

…and a cup of Uji matcha ice cream from Eatime, a brand exclusive to Japan’s Maruetsu, Max Valu, and Kasumi grocery store chains.

To minimize other variables, we followed the same procedure for making our three glasses of matcha latte. We started by scooping one and a half large spoonfuls of ice cream into a glass, then poured in milk until it was about 80 percent full. We then put the glass in the microwave and heated it at 500 watts for 30 seconds, then for an additional 10 seconds at a time until the mixture was lukewarm. After that we took the glass out, put in a few ice cubes to chill it, and took a sip.

Let’s see how each ice-cream-to-matcha latte conversion turned out.

● Häagen-Dazs

We should start by saying that Häagen-Dazs Japan really knows what it’s doing with its green tea ice cream. With strong tea notes, subdued sweetness, and a gentle bitterness, it really does hit all the boxes for a delicious, premium-feeling green tea ice cream, and all of those admirable qualities were carried over when our taste-testing Japanese-language reporter Anji Tabata took her first sip of our home-made Häagen-Dazs matcha latte. This was outstanding, and going by just flavor alone, Anji would never have guessed that it didn’t start out as a beverage.

● Meiji Essel Super Cup

Though they all taste like green tea, there’s quite a bit of variety in terms of how intense the tea flavors are in different kinds of matcha ice cream. Compared to Häagen-Dazs, Meiji makes theirs a little sweeter and a little less bitter, and once again, that translates to the resulting matcha latte too. Our Meiji-derived drink had more comforting sweetness than stimulating bitterness, but that’s not a bad thing, and might actually even be preferable to some people depending on where exactly their personal preference is for the mix of flavors present in matcha latte.

● Eatime

Continuing with that concept, Eatime ice cream, and the matcha latte we made from it, has the most subtle green tea flavor out of the three. That doesn’t mean the matcha latte was bland, though, because the matcha taking a less attention-grabbing role gave more room for the rich milkiness to tickle the taste buds.

So yes, it turns out that Zen-Noh’s idea of turning matcha ice cream into matcha lattes totally works! The characteristics of specific ice cream brands are retained too, so if you’ve got a favorite, the matcha latte you make from it won’t disappoint either.

For her part, Anji’s favorite was the Häagen-Dazs matcha latte, since in her book, the more matcha flavor in your matcha latte, the better. As a matter of fact, the Häagen-Dazs turned out so good that…

…Anji decided to go a step beyond Zen-Noh’s recommendation and use a full-on parfait-style bar, Häagen-Dazs’ Matcha Fondant Crunch.

▼ As the successor to Häagen-Dazs’ Crunchy Crunch Matcha Crumble, you could say the Matcha Fondant Crunch is the second coming of matcha ice cream Jesus.

Because it’s coated in chocolate and can’t be scooped into a cup, Anji had to take a different approach in making her Matcha Fondant Crunch matcha latte. She started by pouring herself a cup of milk and heating it for two minutes in the microwave at 500 watts. Then she dunked the ice cream bar into the cup of hot milk, stirred it around a few times, and took a sip of the mixture of melted ice cream and milk.

The results were exquisite, the sort of delightful decadence that she imagines members of the matcha dessert-loving aristocracy would indulge in, if only they’d thought of it.

Really,the only imperfection is that since the milk has to be hot enough to melt the Matcha Fondant Crunch’s chocolate coating, Anji’s idea only works for hot matcha lattes. Also, the milk probably won’t completely melt the ice cream bar, so you’ll occasionally have to pull the bar back up out of the cup and take bites of it directly (though really, that’s not much of a drawback).

Armed with this new knowledge from Zen-Noh, we’re curious about what other flavors of ice cream this method can be deliciously applied to, so clearly we need to go out and buy as many varieties as we can fit in the freezer for further testing. One point of caution, though, is that since the drinks we made started out as straight-up deserts, as opposed to sweet beverages, there’s a chance that they’re higher in calories than ordinary matcha lattes, and if you’re looking for healthier dessert options, Zen-Noh does have some great fruit-related ideas too.

Reference: Twitter/@zennoh_food
Photos ©SoraNews24
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