Latte teas are all the rage these days. Our team share their preparation secrets with you so that you can prepare them successfully every time.
Matcha Latte
Matcha is a fine green tea powder from Japan. It is traditionally whisked in small quantity of water with a whisk called a chasen. Prepared this way, the liquor is very thick and the taste intensely vegetal. While some tea lovers prefer this style of preparation, matcha's current popularity is certainly due to its potential for a great latte, which smoothens the vegetal notes and gives a drink to will please everyone.
If you have a coffee machine with a steam wand at hand, there are two simple preparation methods. The first is very similar to the preparation of a café latte, but the standard espresso base is replaced by matcha. Whisk 1 teaspoon (2 to 2.5 grams) of matcha with a little sugar (to taste) in about 50ml of hot water. Then pour the hot milk on to this matcha base. This method is popular as it allows the barista to try a little 'latte art' in the foam, which looks great in contrast to the bright green matcha.
The second method is to blend the matcha in about 50ml of hot water and to heat it up together with the milk using the steam wand. Though this method does not allow the latte art, some prefer it as it allows a more uniform and consistent blend.
A matcha latte can be prepared with cow’s milk or with vegetal alternatives, we prefer it with oat milk. If you are using cow’s milk, we recommend adding a little more sugar than you would with a vegetal alternative.
Chaï Latte
Chai Latte is a delicious blend of tea, spices and milk. It is the most common way of drinking tea in India, where « Chai Wallah » offer them in small street stalls all across the country. The traditional preparation is to let the tea brew in a big cauldron with the milk and spices. While interesting for flavour, this traditional method takes more time and is not ideal in the coffeeshop setting.
For a quick and simple preparation, many big chains turn to boxed chai concentrates, often too sweet for our liking. This lead us to developing a quick and effective alternative for chai latte preparation: organic chai tea spices pouches. We make these using the same biodegradable fabric as our teabags, each of them produces 1 liter of concentrate. Simply pour hot water over the pouch and let it steep for a minimum of 45 minutes. Refrigerate the concentrate and store it in fridge for up to 5 days. To serve, add the concentrate to milk, heat and serve.
London fog
The London Fog is simply a latte version of Earl Grey tea (a bergamot flavoured black tea). To prepare it steep one of our Earl Grey teabags for 3 to 4 minutes in a cup with about 100ml of hot water and then add the hot milk. Vanilla syrup is a popular optional addition, a little sugar or our favourite maple syrup.
Hojicha latte
Hojicha is a Japanese roasted green tea. Roasting the leaves transforms the vegetal notes to grilled, nutty and woody notes. We have a powder form of this tea that is perfect for a latte. Blend 1.5 grams of tea in 50ml of hot water add milk and heat it up using the steam wand of your coffee machine. Add sugar to taste.
Iced Lattes
These lattes can also be produced as iced lattés, contact our team for our latest recipes.