By Tarnjit Sidhu

You’ve had your yearly dose of Eggnog and drank all the festive hot chocolates available to you – so what now? For those of us that want to try something different this festive period – matcha is the new and upcoming thing right now. Matcha is a Japanese green tea powder made from finely powdered dried tea leaves. After you’ve indulged over the Christmas period, I’m sure you’ll want to be on board with the many health benefits of matcha such as it being rich in antioxidants as well as being classed as a ‘superfood’. Matcha is a great source of energy, helps maintain focus, and is known for its ability to promote calmness – what more could we want for Christmas as PGR students?! You may have heard that matcha is an acquired taste due to its bitterness, however there are many ways to switch things up and make it your new favourite hot drink! With the overwhelming amount of matcha drink recipes available online, it can be difficult to know where to begin. We are going to share a quick and simple Matcha latte recipe (sweetened with syrup) for those of you that are new to matcha and fancy trying it!

Methods and Materials

Ingredients

• Half a teaspoon matcha powder (you can use any!)
• Milk (why not try an alternative such as oat or almond milk?)
• Flavoured syrup (I used salted caramel , but you can use any!)  

Method

1. Boil water and add 3 teapoons of hot water to half a teaspoon of matcha powder in a mug and whisk until it becomes a paste
2. Warm up your milk to a suitable temperature – this needs to be hot enough to dissolve the matcha paste into the milk
3. Pour the hot milk on top of the matcha paste and mix this until the milk becomes green (look out for lumps! – an electric whisk is great to ensure your drink is nice and smooth)
4. Add in your syrup to taste and mix this in well
5. Enjoy!

P.S. Fancy a chance at winning a £10 Costa gift card?

Have a go yourself, take a picture and send us your Winter Warmer creations on Twitter @UoMHive or email (jason.chu@manchester.ac.uk). We’ll be publishing a different hot drink recipe every day so try your hand at one you fancy!

The winning picture will be randomly selected from all entries received. Closing date for entries is 8th January.

(Feel free to make and submit as many different Winter Warmer drinks!)

Winter Warmer # 1: Minty Hot Chocolate Float

Winter Warmer # 2: Nutmeg and Orange Xmas Coffee

Winter Warmer # 3: Snowman Eggnog

Winter Warmer # 4: Terry’s Chocolate Orange hot chocolate

Winter Warmer # 5: Matcha Latte

Winter Warmer # 6: Ginger Pear tea

Winter Warmer # 7: After Eight Peppermint hot chocolate

Winter Warmer # 8: Mulled Apple Juice

*Bonus Winter Warmer* : Turmeric Milk with Honey and Ginger