Welcome back!
Week 4 of our Quaran-TEA-ni Series!
A blog about all things tea cocktails that you can make for yourself while you're stuck at home!
Today, we'll talk MATCHA!
Matcha ICE CUBES to be more precise!
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Alright, let's recap, shall we?
There are 4 ways of incorporating tea into any cocktail:
~ Flavoring a simple syrup
~ Used as a mixer
~ Made into ice cubes
~ Infused directly into any spirit
So far, we have covered flavoring with a simple syrup and using tea as a mixer. (If you missed those, check out Part 1 and Part 2!)
Next on our list is making tea ice cubes!
As I have mentioned a couple times before, it's important the tea be made DOUBLE STRENGTH in order for the flavor to actually come through. It's no different with making ice cubes. And you can make ANY tea into ice cubes. Simply brew your tea double strength, put them in any ice cube tray and let it freeze. That's it! Super simple (as long as you have any kind of ice tray...)
On to the recipe!
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THE TWISTED LEMON
Ice Cubes
Ingredients: (makes one full ice cube tray)
~ 1 tsp matcha powder
~ 16 oz water (cooled a couple minutes from boiling)
Directions:
~ Sift matcha powder in a bowl or measuring cup
~ Pour in 2 oz water
~ Whisk well with a matcha whisk
~ Top with rest of the water
~ Put into ice cube tray and let freeze completely
Cocktail
Ingredients:
~ 2-3 matcha ice cubes (more if you want the matcha to be stronger)
~ 1.5 oz white rum
~ 5 oz lemonade
~ Lemon round or mind leaf for garnish
Directions:
~ Pop out matcha ice cubes into glass
~ Add rum and lemonade
~ Garnish with lemon round or mint leaf
~ Sip and enjoy!
If you'll notice, I had just one big round ball of frozen matcha. Get creative and use any kind of ice mould to kick it up a notch on the presentation!
Another aspect that makes this cocktail so fun is that the longer you let that ice cube sit and melt in that cocktail, the more matcha flavor you'll get. The first sip of this cocktail will be vastly different than the last.
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In light of talking about matcha, I wanted to give you just a small glimpse into what it's like to be a Cha Boshi at iN-TEA.
It's a question we often hear behind the counter, asked by any one of us at any point throughout the day:
DO YOU WANT A MATCHA SHOT?
Far more often than not, the answer is a unanimous YES.
A matcha shot is exactly as it sounds: A concentrated shot of matcha. Not only is it so so good for you, it's also freaking delicious!
So when there's a break in the busyness of the day, someone will get the matcha out, whisk away and make everyone on shift (plus the number of staff members just hanging out at the shop) a matcha shot. We take a moment (sometimes it takes us a while to get there but eventually we do...) to stop what we're doing, everyone grabs their glass, we toast and enjoy the rejuvenating goodness that is matcha.
Then it's back to work.
I was incredibly fortunate to have lived in the UK for several years. One of my absolute favorite daily occurrences was tea break. It happens every day. It's a moment in the day to stop working, put everything down and have a cup of tea and some biscuits. It's a chance to recharge, to do something special with the people around you, to enjoy a nice cuppa.
That kind of thing doesn't often happen in the US. We are such a go go go society and I am more than guilty of constantly doing all the things and never taking a break. It's so easy to get caught up in everything going on around us (the good and the not so good) that we don't take a moment to just BE. But those moments are good for us. Those moments bring people together. Those moments refresh us.
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Watch this space next week as we talk about the final way of using tea in a cocktail. You might even get 2 recipes!