Sunny morning rituals, garden + matcha

When my little bug was born I went hardcore on coffee out of the need to stay alive and function in the thick of the new mommy black hole. Don’t most new moms? I have always loved coffee and treated myself to it whenever I had the chance but this was the first time in my life it wasn’t a treat, it was a necessity. About 5 months in I was utterly tapped from the roller coaster of parenthood and the coffee band-aid wasn’t cutting it anymore. It was a bone chilling grey Seattle morning in winter and after a tough night with the babe I did the morning daycare drop off and popped into a favorite local cafe to get the caffeine hit I needed before a long day of work. As I placed my coffee order I remembered my girlfriend had told me they were the only cafe in our neighborhood serving real deal matcha tea. I didn’t really know what that meant at the time but my curiosity got the best of me and I changed up my order at the last minute. I have never looked back. Not once. Not even a little bit. Matcha has caffeine but the barista at the cafe explained it to me like this…the caffeine high from coffee is like a trick plane peaking, dive bombing and swirling all around (hence the afternoon crash) but the caffeine from matcha is like a big ass cargo plane coasting evenly across the sky. It couldn’t be more true! No headaches if you skip it, no icky tummy or jitters, just a very clear focused attention and lots of other awesome benefits you can read about here. For the record, I have definitely had coffee mornings since changing it up but I tend to regret them, which sucks because I really do love coffee. I end up with that overstimulated caffeine high and an upset tummy which has never happened to me with matcha. In fact the more time that passes as a matcha drinker, the more committed I have become to my sweet little morning ritual of making my tea. I promise it will be the best caffeine non-buzz you ever have.

He crawls over to get strapped in and ‘help’ me make my tea every morning

Morning Matcha Latte
this makes enough for two normal servings or one double super tired working mama mega mug

2 cups water
1 cup organic grass-fed whole milk (or use whatever kind of creamy goodness dairy or non dairy you prefer)
2 scoops Vital Proteins Gelatin (if going for a cold beverage use Collagen Peptides)
1 small spoonful of Just Date Syrup (found here, more on this in a future post)
1 tsp grass fed butter (or ghee, coconut oil, coconut butter)
1 tsp matcha powder

Add two cups of water to sauce pan and turn on to boil. While water is heating add remaining ingredients to blender. Pour hot water into blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until well combined. Pour into your favorite mug and enjoy!

Note: Matcha is very sensitive to temperature and can burn and taste bitter if your water is too hot. Ideally you want your water to be 175-180 degrees. Since I know all too well that getting this specific can be annoying in the kitchen here’s my trick…right when the tiny bubbles start to pop at the surface of the water is usually when it reaches 180 so turn off the heat and add to the blender. Or if your water comes to a full boil, turn off the heat and let sit for a minute or so while you finish adding the rest of the ingredients. You can also pour fancy style from high above the blender and the extra distance allows the water to cool slightly as it makes its way into the blender.