I have had plenty of green tea brewed with tea bags, but powdered green tea is new to me. In fact, baking that Hallowe’en Scream Swirl Bread! I recently made was the first time I worked with matcha. It was a great way to color the dough green, but it didn’t have much matcha flavor. Now I have most of a four-ounce bag left over, and I’m on a quest to use it up instead of letting it sit in my pantry for ages. Fortunately, I have saved tons of matcha recipes on Pinterest, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem using up the tea. The real problem was deciding which recipes to try. I gave it some thought and landed on this Matcha Soda as my first “real” matcha recipe. It’s simple, but it sounds like it will not cover or change the matcha flavor. The idea is to get familiar with the flavor so I can choose my next recipe, and I’m so chuffed to give this a go!
Fizzy water meets matcha syrup to create this bubbly tea drink.
The Ingredients
This Matcha Soda recipe is very simple. It has four ingredients, and I had them all. As I mentioned earlier, I had the powdered matcha tea leftover from a bread recipe. The rest of the ingredients were things I always have on hand like seltzer, granulated sugar, and plain old non-bubbly water. I love it when I don’t have to do any shopping!
The Process
This recipe had two main parts: making the simple syrup and making the matcha soda. I always make my own simple syrup, so this part was very familiar. This recipe used a basic simple syrup that was a 2:1 ratio of water to sugar.
The water and sugar needed to be heated until the sugar dissolved. I loved that this recipe gave the option of using the microwave, but I chose to make it on the stove. All I had to do was heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir until I couldn’t feel any sugar granules.
Once the sugar had dissolved, I removed the pan from the heat. Then I placed a fine mesh strainer over it and sifted in the matcha. It easily dissolved into the syrup. Next, I poured the matcha syrup into a measuring cup and let it cool on the countertop before placing it into the refrigerator to chill.
Making the Matcha Soda, or sodas, was even easier than making the syrup. I added ice to a couple of rocks glasses, then I divided the matcha syrup between them. The final step was topping them with seltzer and giving them a quick stir.
Timing
This recipe listed 5 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, and a total time of 10 minutes. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 5 minutes to make the matcha syrup*
- 2 minutes to make the drinks
- 7 minutes total
*Time for the matcha syrup to cool was not included. I’d say I left it for 30 minutes on the counter then overnight in the refrigerator.