How to make a Matcha Latte and why I gave up coffee

I often get asked how to make a matcha latte, so I finally got round to filming a how-to and put it on my Instagram Highlight Reel. But not everyone is on Instagram, so here it is for you here:

For your matcha latte, you'll need:
1 x tsp Lady Bonin Matcha
1 x cup of warm milk of your choice
1/2 x cup of hot water (not boiling, +-70 degrees)
1 x tsp of honey or sweetener of your choice
2 x tsp of collagen (optional)
1 x tsp of butter / ghee / coconut oil
A Nutribullet

Method:
1: Place the water and matcha into your cup and give a little whisk.
2: Place all the ingredients including the matcha in your Nutribullet
3: Blend, pick a rad song, pour into your cup and Instagram it at the same time to be part of the club.
4: Enjoy!



The reasons why I quit coffee:
A few years ago, I noticed that I would get very sneezy and snotty after drinking a coffee. I blamed this on the milk. I quit milk from my diet, but then I started getting the same reaction from other foods. Wheat, then legumes (peanuts are a legume btw, took me a while to realise why I was sneezing after making oaty peanut butter crunchies). Then it was gorgonzola and all other dairy, please god, not the cheese! So I read this as a mould allergy. It was pretty crappy. My favourite food is a creamy pasta, so it was a dark time. Lol. I would still eat the "illegal" foods every now and then and just make sure my Allergex and nasal spray were handy to help me through the fallout.

Around this time, I decided to do a type of cleanse and try and wean myself off coffee. I was totally addicted to the bean and wanted to feel free from its grasp. I was only having one a day at the time but I really needed it to function. My friend Jessica Bonin of Lady Bonin tea asked me why I didn't try to switch over to matcha. So that's exactly what I did. It took me a couple of days to switch over without still needing a coffee, but eventually, I found myself not needing the coffee at all. I started sneaking some illegal foods back in and not having a reaction and would just think it was luck. Or perhaps I'd given it a break long enough and now it was fine to go back to it. One fine day, I decided to have an espresso just to get me through the day. My snotty sneezes came back with a vengeance. It was only then that I realised how long it had been since I last blew my nose. It was also at that moment that I made the connection to coffee. So I quit it for good. I'm on the tea train now and I couldn't be happier. I haven't had a cup of coffee in over a year and I don't have to drink matcha every day to function either. A good ol' cup of Enligh Breakfast sets me right. I've found that I'm a lot less anxious and irritable now that I've quit.

So, if you've got the sneezy snotties, maybe cut coffee out for a bit. Perhaps google: "how coffee affects your adrenals and food allergies" if you want to understand more. There's also a lot of interesting stuff out there about L-Theanine which is found in matcha and other teas. This amino acid is found in rich amounts exclusively in tea, so that's pretty awesome.

My friend Jess was pretty excited when I started on my tea journey. And now, a year later, I totally understand why. I feel like I've changed a lot of things in my life from the way I think to the way I do things. Tea is so much more than just a drink. <3 p="">