This Matcha Chocolate, or what we call Matcha Nama Chocolate (抹茶生チョコレート) in Japan, simply melts in your mouth. As I was testing this recipe, I knew I won’t be able to stop eating them so Mr. JOC took them to work. He told me later, “The green tea chocolate disappeared in seconds.” I promise you, it’s really good! Green tea powder, or matcha (抹茶), has a unique bitter taste to it. The flavor of “matcha” is quite different from the green tea served at Japanese restaurants. Matcha is typically used for making tea at the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This tea tends to be thick and exceptionally bitter, but it goes quite well with wagashi (和菓子), a traditional Japanese confectioneries that are very sweet by itself. The color of matcha is a bright, beautiful green color, so if your matcha powder doesn’t have that nice vivid hue to it, your matcha is well past its prime. The green tea powder is also quite pricey, especially if it is of tea ceremony quality, but the culinary grade is good enough for baking and making these chocolates. As you may already know, green tea delivers a healthy dose of antioxidants and cancer-fighting power. Catechins in green tea are also known to have many beneficial health properties and matcha has greater potential health benefits than other green tea. In Japan, there are many varieties of green tea chocolate in stores, including green tea Pocky’s, Melty Kiss, Kit Kat, and the popular ROYCE’ Chocolate. When I made ROYCE’ copycat Nama Chocolate two years ago, I received many requests for the green tea version. I love anything with green tea, so I’m really happy to finally share this green tea version with you this year. Right in time for Valentine’s Day! The cooking process for this recipe is very similar to the regular Nama Chocolate recipe, but white chocolate is used instead of regular chocolate. My only advice for you is to work fast to melt the white chocolate while the cream is warm. Rich, yet not so sweet, decadent truffle-like matcha green tea chocolate, it is simply irresistible. If you love green tea sweets, this will be the ultimate treat for you. Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
