Tag: Drink – Iced

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Pineapple Ginger Matcha

Now if you’re a fan of Starbucks, you may be familiar with their Pineapple Matcha Drink. It intrigued me and I’ve had it two or three times so far, but I find that it’s never properly made (clumpy matcha!) and can be a bit too sweet. But I really enjoy the flavour combination because it’s delicious and definitely makes me feel like I’m somewhere else which is currently important to me (and a lot of other people) because it’s summer and I think we all had different plans for this year than what has unfolded so far.

Luckily, it was super easy for me to figure out what they put in it, since their website provides a list of ingredients. So I knew that they used a pineapple ginger syrup, matcha, coconut milk and ice – how hard could it be, right? I’m a fan of making simple syrups – I use them a lot in my drink recipes because they’re so easy to make. This isn’t any different, because with a little bit of know-how, and a touch of fresh ginger, you too could be sipping on a made-at-home Pineapple Ginger Matcha… all without going through the drive thru at your local coffee shop and without ordering delivery!

Pineapple Ginger Matcha – Serves 2

½-1 tablespoon Ginger Pineapple Simple Syrup (see recipe below)
4 teaspoons matcha¹
250ml hot water²
500ml unsweetened coconut milk
Fresh pineapple, for garnish³
Ice

¹ I used Whisk Premium Matcha’s Everyday. You can use the matcha of your choice, but I would steer away from matcha blends or sweetened matchas.
² Heat to the instructions for your particular matcha; usually it’s not boiling.
³ Don’t sweat it if you don’t have fresh pineapple on hand, canned would work just as well!

Pineapple Ginger Simple Syrup Recipe

1 cup water
1 cup sugar¹
½-1″ fresh ginger root²
Pineapple core, cubed³

¹ I used granulated white sugar.
² I used an approximately ½” piece of fresh ginger root.
³ For a fresh pineapple, the core is generally quite hard to eat because it’s so fibrous, but it has a lot of flavour! So I cut out the core, cubed it, and tossed that into my sauce pan for the Pineapple Ginger Simple Syrup.

Prepare Pineapple Ginger Simple Syrup

Put all ingredients together in a small sauce pan over low heat.
Allow the syrup to come to a simmer and allow it to cook until it takes on a nice golden colour.
Strain out solids as you pour the simple syrup into a clean container.
Allow to cool before use.
Store in the fridge.

Prepare Pineapple Ginger Matcha

Add ice to your glass.
Add Pineapple Ginger Syrup, you can always add more if it’s not sweet enough to your liking.
Prepare matcha – I shook up approximately 125ml water with my matcha in a shaker cup for each serving, pour into glass.
Fill the rest of the glass with your coconut milk.
With the garnish, cut a small slit in the pineapple wedge so it can sit on the rim.
Admire the pretty layers before taking a straw to the drink to mix it up.

If you make this Pineapple Ginger Matcha, I’d love to see your photos! Be sure to tag me on Instagram (@onemoresteep #onemoresteep) or comment below with a link to the photo!

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Matcha Soda

While some coffee shops have taken to offering the #PSL on their menus again, I am still holding onto the idea of summer. Even though it rained last night, I’m still hoping for a warm September because it’d be really nice to still get to enjoy the patio and iced drinks on the regular.

Matcha is one of those drinks that I’ve grown to love. I think part of the issue is that I’ve definitely have had matcha that doesn’t taste good, and then I had matcha that does. This is definitely one of those good ones. I wanted to make a tasty drink to have at home, something that could be iced, and I’ve been really enjoying sparkling water lately… So mixing my want to drink matcha and my need for iced, bubbly drinks meant that a Matcha Soda was born! And quickly had. This is so easy to make at home, you could easily eyeball the amounts instead of measuring it out and just make it to your taste – so simple! And if you layer it, the Matcha Soda looks impressive and will look great on your Instagram!

Matcha Soda – Serves 1

2 teaspoons matcha
150ml water (cold)
1-2 teaspoons simple syrup¹
250ml sparkling water
Ice cubes

¹ Simple syrup is super easy (simple!) to make. Put a 1:1 ratio of granulated sugar and water in a sauce pan and allow it to reach a simmer on your stove top. It’ll thicken into a sweet syrup after you take it off the heat and allow it to cool. I used about 2 teaspoons of simple syrup in my glass of Matcha Soda. Store your excess simple syrup in a jar in the fridge to enjoy – it’ll keep for a bit, but I usually use mine up within a week.

To start, add some ice to your glass.
Add some of the simple syrup (you can always add more later if it’s not sweet enough).
Add water and matcha into a jar, tighten the lid and shake!
Pour matcha on top of the ice.
Pour in the sparkling water.
Admire the layers!

If you make this Matcha Soda, I’d love to see your photos! Be sure to tag me on Instagram (@onemoresteep #onemoresteep) or comment below with a link to the photo!

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Making a Splash: Up Your Iced Tea Game

The weather is still warm, at least where I am, and there’s no better time than to up your iced tea game. I’ll be talking about how I prepare iced tea (and iced tisanes), and then how you can amplify the flavour by adding some simple ingredients to make it even better than it was before.

For me, iced tea/tisanes start quite simply. I scoop the dry leaf into the infuser portion of my pitcher (I use the Perfect Pitcher from DavidsTea) and I use basically about one-and-a-half times more dry leaf for iced tea than I would if I was making it as a hot tea. So if you normally use 1 teaspoon of dry leaf for a cup, use 1 and ½ teaspoon. It’s not an exact measurement, but it does make it a little bit stronger flavour wise before you start adding ice or other ingredients to it.

When making the tea base, this is the best time to add the sweetener. If you are cold steeping (or cold brewing), you can’t use regular sugar. Sugar will not dissolve in cold water – but other sweetener options do. Agave syrup and honey both do pretty well when dissolved into cold water. If you’re using heated water, sugar will dissolve. Basically, you’ll need to turn your sugar into a simple syrup at minimum if you want to use it in cold water.

Basic Simple Syrup: Heat equal parts granulated sugar and water in a sauce pan until it’s fully dissolved and simmers. You don’t want your simple syrup to boil or burn.

I tend to put a bit of ice into each cup, and fill it with the iced tea/tisane until it’s about ⅔ full. There’s a lot of things that you can top your iced tea with. You’ll need your favourite matcha (blended or traditional; I opted for a straight/traditional matcha), a lemon (or lemon juice from a bottle), and some sparkling water or pop (soda).

And here are the beautiful drinks – and each of them just add a little something to the glass of iced tea and really changing the flavour profile by making it a little bit more interesting.

First we’ve got iced tea with lemonade. I’ve used lemonade before in drinks such as the Arnold Palmer and Matcha Lemonade. In the middle, I added a ‘shot’ of matcha into my iced tea – a matcha shot is a small amount of matcha whisked up. It really adds that vibrant matcha flavour that I enjoy, and in turn the iced tea adds a nice level of sweetness to the matcha. At the end, I’ve got a lovely layered drink! This iced tea was topped off with unsweetened sparkling water. You can also do this with soda water or seltzer, but if it has sugar, it may not layer as nicely.

Fun Fact! The more sweet a liquid is, the more it’ll sink. So when trying to layer a drink, put the sweetest liquid in the glass first to help maintain some well-defined layers.

Have you tried any of these methods of upping your iced tea game before? Let me know in the comments below or tag me (@onemoresteep) in your iced tea photos on Instagram.