MCT Your Matcha Latte!
- Holly Helt
Have you ever been to a foreign country and felt completely out of your comfort zone? Well, that was me in Austin, Texas; standing in front of the milk aisle at Sprouts Market!
I haven’t lived in the US for 12 years and have just moved to Austin to spend part of my time in the US and the other part in the tea fields of Kyushu. The culture shock is about a 7 on the Richter scale!! The main thing I have noticed is the various diets out there…keto, paleo, high-protein-this and -that, triple up on your good fats, and the list goes on.
When I moved back to Japan in 2007, it was the days of “no trans-fats”. Come full circle to the dairy section today and I’m hard-pressed to find regular old dairy milk -- which is just about all you can find in Japan -- apart from soy milk.
So I did what every foreigner might do: Buy one of every kind of milk and cream on the shelf and try them in my matcha latte. Sip after sip I was disgusted with the taste, performance, and oddity of each oat, hemp, almond, and coconut cream I tried.
But then a chorus of angels started to sing when Kitu’s Vanilla Creamer kissed my matcha!! It wasn’t just acceptable, it was FANTASTIC!! So much so that I immediately wrote to them to say thanks for creating it! Kitu is founded by three brothers (started in their dorm room!) who are dedicated to changing the world with positive energy. Yeah, they are totally Chiki!
With 3g of protein per serving (6g for my serving!), Kitu’s Vanilla Creamer is made with MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil known for burning fat, boosting energy, feeding the brain and apparently studies show that it helps prevent Alzheimer's and autism - which I didn’t know until reading up on it. It’s like bulletproofing your latte but better.
Kitu’s creamer range includes bronze-packaged Hazelnut (um, yikes for a matcha latte but try it if you must), silver-packaged Original which means it doesn’t include a natural sweetener or flavoring, and gold-packaged Vanilla.
The ingredients for the Vanilla Creamer are (in order): purified water, whey protein concentrate, cream, coconut MCT oil, monk fruit, natural vanilla flavor, natural flavor, potassium phosphate, gellan gum. It contains dairy -- as in cream -- but is 99.9% lactose free.
Here is how I made my iced latte:
Add one heaping teaspoon of Chiki Tea’s LUSH matcha to a mason jar
Add 6 oz of my special purified water from the Bizen vessel in the photo (I’m showing off!)
Add about 3oz (6 tablespoons) of Kitu’s Vanilla Creamer
Lid on and shake like crazy!
Pour over ice and fall in LOVE all over again…
It was so good that I had another one straight away, made with a combination of water, whole milk, and 3 tablespoons of vanilla creamer. The angels continued singing in a cappella!
To learn more about Kitu, check out their website: drinksupercoffee.com (I have no affiliation with these dudes!) and of course, for the best matcha on the planet, go here!
About Holly Helt
Holly is American and grew up in Japan drinking Japanese tea from age-three. She has studied two methods of tea ceremony, Urasenke and the lesser-known Yabunouchi, which has a direct lineage to Sen-no Rikyu (known as the father of the tea ceremony) ; it's also the school of practice for samurai. In 2012 she founded Chiki Tea - an online retailer of Japanese green teas, all sourced directly from small farms in Japan. Splitting her time between Japan and her home in Texas, Holly strives to bring the best teas from Japan to as many people as she can find to share in her life's passion.