The Italian original is espresso poured over ice cream. Two ingredients, no technique, and it works because hot bitter coffee against cold sweet cream is a good idea that nobody needs to improve.
Matcha does the same job. It does it better, actually, because you can control the strength precisely, and because the green against the white is the kind of thing people put their phone down for.
The whole thing takes thirty seconds. The catch is that it requires good matcha, and there is no way around that.
The recipe (makes one serving)
- 4g ceremonial matcha (about 2 heaped chashaku scoops, or a scant teaspoon)
- 40ml water at 70–80°C
- 1 generous scoop of vanilla or milk ice cream
- Optional: flaky salt, or a splash of whisky
Chill the glass and the ice cream hard. Freezer, not the door of the freezer. The whole thing depends on the temperature gap, and a soft scoop collapses the moment the tea hits it.
Sift the matcha into the bowl. Koicha at this concentration will clump violently if you skip this. Push it through a fine strainer.
Add the water. Off the boil by a couple of minutes. Boiling water scorches matcha and turns it bitter.
Work it, don't whisk it. Usucha gets a fast W motion to build foam. Koicha is the opposite: press the whisk slowly through the paste and fold it against the side of the bowl until it is glossy and smooth with no foam at all. It should coat the back of a spoon. Fifteen seconds or so.
Pour it at the table. Scoop the ice cream into the cold glass, carry it out, and pour in front of whoever is eating it. This is a small piece of theatre and it is most of the appeal. Do not pre-assemble.
Eat it immediately. It is a two-minute window before it becomes a milkshake. A good milkshake, but not what you made.
Some variations for you to try:
- A few flakes of sea salt on the ice cream before the pour. This is the one worth trying.
- A splash of whisky in the glass first, which turns it into a dessert for after dinner rather than with it.
- Hojicha ice cream instead of vanilla, if you can find it, for a roasted note underneath.
- Black sesame ice cream works too, though it fights the matcha rather than supporting it. Depends what you want.
- Skip the toppings. Cookie crumb, syrup, whipped cream all bury the tea, and burying the tea defeats the purpose of having used the good tin.
