Day 1: Bye bye coffee, hello matcha

After several glasses of tinto on All Hallows' Eve, I woke with my usual morning craving...coffeecoffeecoffee!! My normal routine for the first hour of the day sees me sitting down to emails and Netflickery with two or three cups of Douwe Egberts (only the best) with a little semi-skimmed milk. 

From previous experience, I can tell you that non-dairy milk and instant coffee enjoy somewhat of a contentious relationship. Add the wrong type (i.e. Almond, and the only kind I'm currently stocking) and it creates an overly creamy, yet strangely watered down taste. Add it too soon and it refuses to mix entirely, creating a 'curdled' look, and coffee that tastes, well, like black coffee. 

Had I made it to the supermarket after work last night, I would have stocked up on the ideal non-dairy for coffee, soy. But as the aforementioned Hallowe'en activities were well under way by then, a bevvy of Asda employees dressed begrudgingly in pirates hats, or with loo roll wrapped around their heads, wrestling a horde of last minute mums and dads scooping up pumpkins so small, I might even suggest they could have been another variety of gorde entirely, was a little too challenging after a 14 hour day at work. Plus, I myself had two scars drawn on with eyeliner, which I had smudged throughout the day from my usual 'hold forehead up with hand' seated position, so instead I opted for creeping through the back-door of my house (avoiding all of the lovely children) to find a husband with Hocus Pocus and a Chinese takeout. So in short, I didn't bother.

However, my vegan kick is mostly health-related, so chemical-laden granules first thing probably wouldn't be my best foot forward anyway. Luckily, I am a huge fan of a substance known to have even more caffeine, although if it does taste vaguely like hay, which I rather like. It's green tea!! Or more specifically, today, matcha tea! 

For newbies (which is a category I will include myself in), matcha is a high-grade, powered green tea, which is jam-packed with antioxidants. What do you get in a cup of matcha...

• It will relieve you of stress. When you drink matcha, you ingest theanine, an amino acid analog, which can help reduce mental stresses. Aaaaaah...
• It can help with weight loss. EGCG (not a brand of jeans, chortle) is an antioxidant which regulates hormones like Leptin, telling your brain you are full. And Matcha has 3 times as much EGCG as regular old green tea, hurrah! 
• It's the original energy drink! The Japanese Tea Ceremony has used matcha for thousands of years, so you know it's good stuff. Recently, the American Society of Clinical Nutrition found that the daily energy expenditure rate of adults increases 35-45% with regular consumption. 

Sold! Thanks, Wikipedia.

It is a little on the pricier side. I've started off with Vitalife beginner's grade, which is £10 for a teeny 30g pot. 

However, you really don't need much. I use about a third of a teaspoon for a large cup, and my little pot is still going after a few weeks. I use a mini whisk to give it a good stir, and voila! I'm off for my second cup...