Sometimes, regular iced green tea is just not enough. Matcha may just be the answer. It's super versatile, has a beautiful, vibrant colour, intense green flavour and frankly, it's just fun to prepare and drink. This iced matcha with lime and thyme is a great recipe to try when you can't bear the heat and need a proper me time.
What’s great about this recipe?
Matcha is undoubtedly one of the best teas for making iced drinks. It's strong, vibrant and fresh, and may provide an energy boost and stress-relieving properties, and a myriad of other benefits. Not only may matcha provide an antioxidant boost (1), but thyme has that potential, too (2). Thyme is more often used in dishes, rather than drinks. However, when steeped, this aromatic earthy herb will win you over with its delicate but powerful flavour.
So, why lime? Lime is both sweet and sour, and able to balance out light bitterness of matcha exceptionally well.
Together, these ingredients make for a super tasty, refreshing, and aromatic iced tea that is worth trying.
Ingredients for making Iced Matcha with Lime & Thyme
Matcha tea: Choose only high-quality tea powders as not all matcha teas have a vibrant green colour. If your tea looks grey and dull and smells anything but fresh, do not use it. Fresh powder will not only taste better but provide better potential benefits. Use either ceremonial or latte/culinary grades.
Fresh thyme: Fresh thyme is readily available and gives a much better flavour than dried thyme. Even though the scent is strong, the flavour is extremely delicate and fresh. If you want to intensify the thyme flavour, you can gently crush sprigs using pestle and mortar.
Fresh limes: Fresh lime juice will add both sweetness and light sourness. Limes are a perfect condiment for iced teas, but are often overlooked. They pair really well with both matcha and thyme.
Sweetener: This recipe will work even without a sweetener. If you prefer adding some sweetness, white granulated sugar or light floral honey will both be great choices.
Steps for making Iced Matcha with Lime &Thyme
Prepare fresh thyme tea: To make this matcha iced tea as flavourful as possible, steep the thyme tea first. Use 3-5 fresh sprigs per cup of water.
Prepare matcha tea: To make matcha tea you will use the thyme tea, rather than water. Always pre-sift matcha powder before adding water to prevent lumps. Although you can make matcha with cold water too, hot water is always a better choice. Read more here: Making Iced Matcha: How vs Cold Water tested.
Assemble the drink: To assemble the drink, fill a serving glass with ice. Add matcha tea, the rest of thyme tea and freshly squeezed lime juice.
Iced Matcha with Lime & Thyme
Equipment
- bowl or cup for making matcha
- cup for making thyme tea
- chasen or electric hand whisk
- Serving glass
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lime – juice
- 1-2 teaspoons of sugar
- 250 ml of water
- 3-5 springs of fresh thyme
- ½ teaspoon of matcha powder
- ice
Instructions
- Wash fresh thyme sprigs.
- Steep them for 5 minutes in a freshly boiled water.
- Remove thyme sprigs and save them for decoration.
- Sift matcha powder into a matcha bowl or a smaller cup with a wider bottom.
- Use 1/3 of thyme tea to make matcha. You can use either a chasen or anelectric hand whisk.
- Add sugar to the rest of the tea and stir until melted.
- Add ice to a glass.