Want a fun way to change up your green tea routine? This jasmine matcha latte is a refreshing, floral, and creamy twist to milk tea. It’s super light and earthy and packs an energy boost.

It’s super popular in bubble tea shops like HEYTea, and a simple flavor combination you can easily make at home without breaking the bank. With just 5 ingredients, you can make a delicious sweet treat for yourself!

Here’s how to make a fragrant jasmine matcha latte at home!

What is a Jasmine Matcha Latte?

This matcha jasmine latte is made of steeped jasmine green milk tea, ice, maple syrup, and whisked matcha. It’s a super refreshing and creamy tea drink that is super floral. Some matcha powders have a floral taste, so paired with jasmine, it’s amplified.

You can use any sweetener or milk you’d like! I prefer dairy with stronger eas for a balanced flavor. Maple syrup also is a liquid sweetener so it’s easy to mix with cold liquids and doesn’t have a strong flavor so it lets the tea flavor shine.

What is Jasmine Green Tea?

Jasmine green tea is green tea leaves infused with jasmine flowers for that signature jasmine scent. It’s floral, light, and refreshing. Jasmine green tea is the default tea served at most Chinese restaurants because it pairs well with spicy and oily foods.

Jasmine tea also has many health benefits, including calming and antidepressant properties (study) as well as decreasing weight gain (study). Additionally, it also has a low caffeine content (30 mg per 8 oz) compared to oolong (50 mg) or black tea (80 mg), which has significantly more caffeine.

Because of its fresh and light flavor, I love jasmine green milk tea when I need a pick-me-up but don’t want something heavy.

What Does Jasmine Tea Taste Like?

Green tea on its own is earthy and grassy, yet light and refreshing. It has a beautiful light yellow color and is “clean” tasting. Jasmine flowers, on the other hand, have a bright floral taste that is delicate and smooth.

Together, you get an amazing floral and earthy tea that you can pair with anything, from milk and sugar to fruit, tapioca pearls, desserts, and more. It’s an extremely versatile tea with a great aroma!

What is Matcha?

Matcha is another type of green tea, often mistaken as Jasmine green tea when it is not the same! Matcha tea powder is a finely ground green tea powder made from young, shade-grown tea leaves that have a lot of chlorophyll in them (the thing that makes plants green). It’s also what gives matcha its earthy and umami flavor!

Most of the matcha produced in the world comes from a small region in Japan, called Uji, famous for its tea farms and matcha. Unlike jasmine green tea, matcha needs to be whisked with water before consuming.

Matcha also has an earthy flavor, but it’s more complex than green tea, with lots of umami, floral, creamy, and sweet notes.

What does Jasmine Matcha Taste Like?

Together, jasmine matcha tea tastes like a more earthy, creamy jasmine tea. The floral aroma really shines in this combination, and the brewed green tea supports the earthier matcha tea.

Unsweetened, you’ll get a strong, bitter tea flavor immediately followed by a refreshing jasmine flavor. The jasmine can definitely overpower the matcha on its own, but with sugar and milk, it balances out and you get a refreshing matcha jasmine milk tea!

Its refreshing flavor makes it the star of some boba shop menus, like HEYTea, and intrigues many customers who want to try this cool flavor combination!

How to Prepare Matcha

As mentioned, matcha needs to be whisked with water before consuming!

Traditionally, matcha is prepared in a matcha tea bowl (chawan) using a bamboo whisk (chasen). You sift your powder and add water, then whisk in a zigzag motion to create a layer of froth that makes your tea taste smoother.

Usually, I like to use 1.5 tsp of matcha and a 1/4 cup of water for my matcha, but depending on how strong you like your matcha you can experiment with different ratios.

If you don’t have a matcha bowl or whisk, you can also use the tools you have at home to prepare matcha. Here are some alternative matcha preparation methods:

• Shake matcha and water in a jar until frothy
• Use a handheld frother or whisk until the matcha is frothy
• Shake in a mini-shaker cup
• Whisk using a fork in a shallow bowl

You can definitely get creative and use what is accessible to you. If you have the opportunity, though, invest in a matcha bowl and whisk! They get you an incredible froth that you can’t get with anything else and if you use it often, it pays itself off.

Best Matcha to Use

Like most food, the better the quality of your matcha, the better your drink will taste (with proper preparation). Many people claim “ceremonial grade” matcha is the best, but that’s just a marketing term (they don’t have this grade in Japan).

What you want to look for in a good quality matcha is:

• A bright green color
• A robust aroma
• Fine (not chalky) powder
• Where it’s grown
• What harvest it is

First-harvest matchas are picked when they have the most nutrients in the leaves and therefore have a more robust flavor while second-harvest matcha leaves are picked later and are less robust. However, both are great to use in drinks!

My favorite matcha blends are Ippodo Ummon, Rocky’s Ceremonial Blend, and Marukyu Koyamaen’s Wako. All of them vary in pricepoint, but usually, a tin of 20g matcha will run you anywhere from $15-30.

How to Make a Jasmine Matcha Latte

Here’s what you’ll need to make a delicious jasmine matcha latte at home:

• Jasmine Milk:
  • 1 tbsp Jasmine green tea leaves
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 tsp maple syrup
• Jasmine Matcha Latte:
  • 1.5 tsp matcha powder
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup ice
  • 1 cup Jasmine milk

Jasmine Matcha Latte Recipe

1. Make Jasmine Milk: In a small pot, add jasmine green tea leaves and hot water and let the tea leaves steep for 1 – 2 minutes (essentially blooming the tea). Then, add milk and bring to a simmer for 2 – 3 minutes. Add your maple syrup and stir to dissolve. Let the milk cool for 5 – 10 minutes before straining into a cup.
2. Whisk Matcha: Add matcha powder and room temperature water to a shallow bowl. Then, using a bamboo whisk, whisk the mixture, drawing an M shape in a zigzag motion for 10 – 15 seconds until frothy.
3. Assemble Drink: Add ice and jasmine milk in a cup, then top with tour whisked matcha.
4. Mix and Enjoy!

Jasmine Matcha Latte Variations

There are other ways you can make this jasmine matcha latte, including:

• Using a Jasmine or Jasmine Tea Syrup: Instead of making Jasmine milk, you can add Jasmine syrup or Jasmine tea syrup instead. As long as your syrup is strongly flavored, you should get a similar result.
• Using Jasmine Tea Concentrate: You can add jasmine tea concentrate to your drink but I find that this method gives a more diluted taste.
• Adding Jasmine Extract: This is perfect if you don’t want extra caffeine on top of the matcha, but a little goes a long way so be careful!
• Steeping Jasmine Flowers: You can make caffeine-free Jasmine tea milk! This will give you a less earthy, more floral taste.

Other Matcha Lattes to Try

If you liked this creative jasmine and matcha tea crossover, then you have to try these other matcha drinks, which are going to blow you away:

• Earl Grey matcha latte (Must Try!)
• Thai tea matcha latte
• Double matcha latte

Tips:

Here are some tips for making this delicious jasmine matcha latte at home!

• Steep Your Jasmine Milk Longer: For extra flavor, I recommend letting your tea leaves infuse into the milk for at least an hour or 2. Your milk will have more jasmine flavor and be extra flavorful!
• Use Different Sweeteners: You can use any other sweetener of your choice in this drink. You can use cane sugar, honey, brown sugar, demerara sugar, Splenda, agave, etc. Just note that some sugars have a stronger flavor than others so double-check before using it in your drink.
• Use Decaf Tea: If you’re sensitive to caffeine, you can use decaf matcha and, or Jasmine green tea so you can sleep soundly after consuming this drink.
• Use Tea Bags: You can use Jasmine green tea bags if you don’t have looseleaf jasmine green tea. Use 2 tea bags and let them steep a little longer for the same flavor as looseleaf.