Experimenting with Shizuoka Green Tea Soy Latte!

Now that we are all stuck at home, one thing I really miss is going out to Starbucks or Doutor Coffee and trying their most recent seasonal, fancy (and overpriced) drink.

So, I thought, why not make it at home myself?

I wanted something rich and creamy but with a subtle bitterness to it, but I wasn't in the mood for coffee. Looking through the ingredients available at home (remember, the point was that I didn't want to go outside), I came up with the idea of creating my own Shizuoka Green Tea Soy Latte!

I thought the Shizuoka green tea would have that deep but pleasant bitterness, so it should be the perfect base.

But, looking online for a tea soy latte recipe, most of them use basically mostly soy milk and just use matcha powder instead. That seemed boring to me, so I scrapped them all and decided to experiment! It was exciting because it reminded me of chemistry class!

It wasn't just about making a soy latte anymore. I dug through and took out everything that MIGHT go well in it.

First, I made the high-grade Shizuoka green tea from Itoen. I really liked that tea. One reason was for how deep the flavor was, but the other was the beautiful green color. I wanted my tea soy latte to be delicious AND pretty! (Spoiler: It turned out mostly white at the end anyway so the green part ended up not mattering).

Finding the ratio was tough, and I tried small bits in a measuring cup first. At the end, I found that 1 tea : 2 soy milk was good if you want it more creamy, but 1 : 1 is perfect OK too.

I tried a version with the Kunitaro caffeine-free green tea powder as well. Although this tea was mostly Shizuoka green tea as well, a powdered tea just wasn't strong enough to pair with the rich soy milk. So I would recommend brewing Shizuoka green tea from tea leaves instead.

On how to sweeten it, I had many options, but I also gotta remember that the soy milk was sweetened already, so I did not want to over sweeten it and end up covering the flavour of the tea.

First, I tried using blue agave sweetener. Flavor-wise, this was great. But being a thick syrup, mixing it in a cool drink took a bit of effort. Very nice though.

Then, I tried this brown sugar from Kagoshima. I had to dissolve it with hot water first, but I really liked the flavor of brown sugar pairing with the drink itself!

Finally, I tried good-old maple syrup. Unfortunately, the maple took over both the Shizuoka green tea and the soy milk, so I will save this for pancakes instead.

At the end, I think brown sugar is something people would more likely to have at home, so I would go with that!

And just some simple steps: brew the Shizuoka green tea you have at home, 1:2 or 1:1 it with sweetened soy milk, and add some dissolved brown sugar into it, you got yourself a delicious (and muuuuch cheaper) Shizuoka Green Tea Soy Latte without having to go outside!

If you got a nice variation to it, please let me know so I can improve upon it!!!

This post is supported by Shizuoka Green Tea Guide, one of City-Cost's Supporters helping City-Cost bloggers to enjoy life in Japan and engage in new experiences.