A creamy, eaasy Starbucks hot matcha latte copycat recipe that you can make at home with just 3 ingredients. This green tea latte drink is pretty and delicious but healthier and cheaper!
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Why Make Matcha Latte
- This Starbucks Hot Matcha Green Tea Latte recipe helps you save money: Lattes at Starbucks isn't cheap! (Click through for recipes of some of the most popular flavors.) You can make it at home for a fraction of the price!
- It's healthier: The actual Starbucks drink is packed with sugar, making it super easy to exceed the recommended daily values. Even the matcha they use is actually a blend of sugar and matcha! With homemade matcha lattes, you can use a healthier sweetener of choice. Moreover, Matcha has about ½ the amount of coffee as caffeine, so you can have a pick-me-up without the jitters.
- Easy: Only 3 simple ingredients needed, and easy enough to get it perfect the first time!
Note: If you're trying to cut out caffeine totally, maybe give this latte a miss and go for turmeric ginger tea, barley tea or osmanthus tea instead.
What is Matcha?
Matcha (抹茶) is a very popular flavor in Asia, not just in drinks but also in baking and other sweet treats.
Its earthy flavor goes very well with the creaminess of whole milk!
Matcha is actually a type of green tea that has been minimally processed into a fine powder. (The Camellia Sinesis plant is grown for 4-6 weeks, under shade, to boost the caffeine and theanine content.)
Utmost care has to be taken when processing the green tea leaves into matcha powder, compared to the production of regular green tea. Grinding too quickly will result in the leaves heating up and the aroma changing.
Thus, the production of matcha is slow and laborious, so good matcha powder is not cheap.
Tip: to save money, use green tea powder instead of matcha powder. (Note that you won't get the same vibrant green color though.)
Ceremonial vs Culinary
There are 2 grades of matcha: ceremonial (the highest grade) vs culinary.
I usually use culinary grade- even when making Matcha Nama truffles- as it's cheaper and the taste difference is minimal. However, if you find yours too bitter, you may want to upgrade.
Note: to make matcha tea, you have to whisk the fine powder into hot water, and not steep it like you do with regular tea leaves. (It doesn't actually dissolve but is suspended in the water.)
How to Make Healthier
- Don't use cow's milk. In the Starbucks green tea latte, 2% regular milk is used, although there are also vegan options such as almond milk and oat milk available. There've been studies that found that adding dairy milk to tea reduces its health benefits, specifically its vascular protective effects (protection against cardiovascular diseases.) To ensure your matcha latte is healthier, you can use a different kind of milk, such as
- unsweetened almond milk
- oat milk
- coconut milk
- cashew milk
- soy milk
- Use a healthier sweetener: a neutral honey, maple syrup etc instead of cane sugar. (Or just use less sugar. you totally omit the sweetener, it will taste nothing like the Starbucks Matcha latte, as matcha by itself has a slightly bitter taste, so I don't recommend that.)
Note: Shop-made lattes, such as as the Starbucks green tea latte, contain a lot of sugar and thus aren't ideal for weight loss.
Ingredients
You will need:
- matcha powder mixed into hot water: Matcha is quite a mainstream product these days, even in the United States and Europe, so you should be able to find it in most large grocery stores. If you can't, head to the closest Japanese supermarket, Asian market, or go online. You can also substitute this (and the sweetener) with matcha syrup. (In this case, you won't need any hot water.)
- milk: cows' milk goes well with matcha in terms of taste, but for health benefits, a vegan milk is better. (See above.) Click here for the best milks for matcha latte.
- honey: you can also substitute with white sugar. Do not use dark brown sugar- we don't want the drink to taste like molasses.
Variations
- Iced matcha latte: You can make a cold matcha and add ice cubes in the summer for a refreshing and delicious drink
- Matcha chai tea latte: if you like a slightly spicy taste, you can add a chai tea bag or click through to the recipe.
- Starbucks inspired Vanilla matcha lattes: add some vanilla extract or vanilla syrup.
- Strawberry green tea latte: the berries are a natural sweetener.
- Blueberry latte: Dunkin Donuts style, with a blueberry jam at the bottom of the cup!
- Vegan: make this oat milk and matcha latte instead.
Step-by-step Instructions
- Heat the milk, whisking it to froth it as it heat. Do not let it boil.
- Whisk the matcha powder with warm water till it forms a thick green paste with no lumps. (You can use an electric frother too or for more methods on frothing milk without a frother, click here.)
- Transfer the milk to a heat-proof cup, then add the honey followed by the matcha infusion.
- Optional, top with the whipped cream and matcha powder. (You may need to sieve the powder to make sure it doesn't clump.)
- Optional, for iced matcha latte: use cold milk and add ice.
How to Store
You can increase the serving size of this latte recipe.
Store the extra in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 days. (You will need to whisk the latte again or shake it up in an airtight Mason jar before serving.)
Expert Tips
Tip #1: Matcha powder clumps super easily, which is why people use a traditional matcha bamboo whisk when making matcha tea, to get rid of any lumps. Mix yours with the sugar to avoid clumps. Don't use too much even if you want a stronger matcha flavor or you'll get lots of green spot in your green tea drink!
Tip #2: Use hot water instead of cold water, to help the matcha dissolve more quickly. Note that using cold water actually produces a less bitter brew. (Definitely don't use boiling water, as that will increase the matcha's bitter.) For best results, use water around 176F/ 80C to balance efficiency and taste. I usually just use the water from my Airpot, as the water is kept hot but not boiling.)
Tip #3: Use an electric milk frother to create the bubbly top (and to help the matcha "dissolve" more quickly.) If you don't have one, like me, just use a metal whisk to whisk the latte drink several times. Alternatively, pour the drink into a mason jar and shake vigorously.
Other Matcha Recipes
Enjoyed this Matcha Latte recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & if you REALLY appreciated me saving you a round to the coffee shop, a comment would make my week! Thank you and have a great day!
Starbucks Hot Matcha Green Tea Latte
Equipment
- Optional: electric milk frother Substitute: whisk or airtight container
- Small pot
Ingredients
Hot Matcha Green Tea latte
- 2 teaspoons Matcha powder Substitute: matcha syrup. (If so, skip or reduce the sweetener.) If you decide to use sugar instead of honey, mix the sugar with the matcha powder before whisking into water.
- 6 Tablespoons Warm water 176F/ 80C is the best temperature- this helps the green tea powder dissolve more easily but note that it also increases the bitterness.
- 2 Cup Almond milk or soy milk Substitutes: vegan milks such as coconut milk, oat milk, cashew milk. If you don't mind reducing the benefits of matcha, you can use 2% dairy milk, like they do at Starbucks.
- 2-3 teaspoons Neutral honey Substitute: maple syrup or matcha syrup (or sugar if you want the flavor to be as similar to Starbucks as possible.)
- Whipped cream and matcha powder Optional garnish
Cold Matcha latte- all as above but use cold milk (Ice cubes optional)
Instructions
For hot matcha green tea latte
- Heat the milk, whisking it to froth it as it heat. Do not let it boil.
- Whisk the matcha powder with warm water till it forms a thick green paste with no lumps. (You can use an electric frother too.)
- Transfer the milk to a heat-proof cup, then add the honey followed by the matcha infusion.
- Optional: top with the whipped cream and matcha powder. (You may need to sieve the powder to make sure it doesn't clump.)
- Serve and enjoy!
For cold green tea latte
- Repeat all the above steps but use do not heat the milk. (Use cold milk.) Froth the milk before adding the honey and matcha tea. Add ice cubes if you wish.
Notes
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
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Kris Kemp says
This is such a detailed explanation. Thank you.
After trying a matcha green tea from Starbucks earlier this evening, I searched online for a recipe and you did a GREAT job!
Thank you so much for this step-by-step article!
Zen says
Thanks so much Kris! I'm really glad my recipe was of help to you and your comment made my week!!! 🙂 Enjoy your matcha lattes! 🙂
Queenie says
made this yesterday. delicious! can see how this would save me quite a bit in the long run!
Zen says
Thanks Queenie! If you're a Starbucks fan, I'm sharing quite a few copycat recipes this month to help people save money what with inflation being so high!
Devon says
Hello, I've been trying to figure out how Starbucks iced matcha latte gets it's veggie taste to it? I've made the recipe to the T many times and it never has that veggie taste that I love so much.
Zen says
Thanks for stopping by Devon! Have you tried different brands of matcha? I find that good matcha powder has an earthy almost veggie/ grassy type flavour to it 🙂