Day 186 -- Green Tea Time -- The Search

I'm going to start off by admitting that I'm thoroughly addicted to Starbucks' Iced Green Tea Lattes (soy, no syrup).  I've sad it before, but I think I need to preface this post with a full disclosure so that my actions will be seen in the proper light.  I will also say that, with tip, this habit is costing me five dollars a day.

That said, I know that it shouldn't be that hard to figure out how to make this drink at home.   If I was really desperate, I could buy the actual Starbucks green tea powder mixture (green tea and sugar) on ebay for a ridiculous amount of money.  But instead, I decided it would be better to dump that sugar as well and start from scratch.

The biggest hurdle was finding affordable green tea powder.  According to recipes I found on the net, you need about a teaspoon of green tea powder (matcha) to make one drink.  My first  stop was the Asian grocery store in a nearby town.  They had a tiny can, maybe a half cup at most, for twelve dollars.  That seemed a bit pricey to me, so I began to wonder if I could just buy green tea and pulverize it in my Nutri Bullet.  A big more research and I knew not to try that.  Matcha is made of just the leaves and loose tea includes stems as well.

So, I started to search again and eventually, I found this site -- Nuts.com!   And their very reasonably priced 100% Matcha Green Tea Powder.   But before making my purchase, I had to make some very complicated calculations.  How much was a half pound of matcha?  From another site, I found out that a 200 gram bag of  match would yield 71 teaspoon servings.  And 8 ounces equals 227 grams so that gives me . . . .well, more than 71 green tea lattes!  So at 18.99 a bag, I ordered two, just to save a little on shipping.

I just hope I can replicate the Starbucks drink or else I'm stuck with forty dollars worth of green tea powder.  I have heard that green tea ice cream is pretty tasty, but then, I don't eat dairy.  More about the recipe tomorrow!