The eighteenth drink of my book as a bev series is an iced matcha latte colored with spirulina and sweetened with maple butter, topped with a pumpkin cold foam. This bev is based on my paperback copy of Entwined by A. R. Bellendaine.
Pulling from another on my indie physical tbr. I was super happy with the color match!
This beverage’s name is:
‘undead umami’
Name Explained: The story has to do with necromancy, so that’s where the first part of the name comes from. And as for the latter, any casual matcha drinker is probably familiar with varyious types of matcha flavor profiles, one of which is umami.
Matcha: I upped the ratio of matcha in this drink compared to my previous ones, instead of 4 g I went with 5 g and therefore also increased the water from 50 ml to 60 ml. Since umami was in the drink name, I wanted the flavor of the matcha to be quite pronounced and not lost to the other additions.
Green Milk: I personally prefer the taste of almond milk with matcha, so that’s why I used it for this drink. I think all non dairy milks are easy to manipulate in color, so when I added the green spirulina the hue of the drink darkened considerably to match the cover. Glad I got to make use of the green spirulina I’d purchased for my last experimentation. It doesn’t impact the flavor at all if anyone’s curious!
Pumpkin Cold Foam: The pumpkin puree in the pumpkin sauce that was made for this beverage helped to add a rich flavor and orange color to work towards the color on the cover. Because of the addition of the cream and milk the color brightened up a lot. Using less of both of those would result in a more vibrant and pronounced pumpkin flavor foam.
Maple Sauce: The maple butter/whipped maple I used had such a nice sweetness to it, and I decided to use that as the sweetener for the matcha. Since it’s rather thick I used some warm water to melt it down before pouring it into the base of the drink. If maple syrup was being used as a 1:1 substitute the addition of the water is unnecessary.
RATING: Overall I’d give the final drink a 4.20.
Flavor Combination: I think the maple, matcha, and pumpkin go together well. The flavor of the maple itself got absorbed into the pumpkin so it became more of a sweetener as opposed to its own distinct flavor in the drink which is why I didn’t give the combination a full score. I think I personally was light handed on the quantity of the maple and pumpkin so the drink itself was not too sweet.
Ease: This drink had a lot of individual components to it and since I was making the pumpkin and maple sauces from scratch that added to the difficulty. To save time, using pumpkin butter and maple syrup for both should suffice just fine and have the same taste.
Appearance: The milk was a near exact replica of the cover, so I was super happy with how it came out. I think the orange of the foam could have been a little darker to be closer to the embellishments on the cover so I docked a bit for that.
Ways to Improve: I think the pumpkin and maple could have been stronger overall, but I was a chicken when playing around with the ratios which is why I rated it the way I did. I’d probably add just a 1/2 tbsp and 1/2 tsp more of each respectively.
Links to all items used:
Glass Jars (exact): https://amzn.to/4byW2YQ
Glass Jars (alternative): https://amzn.to/482oi5a
Almond Milk (exact): https://amzn.to/3PFjjkx
Green Spirulina (exact): https://amzn.to/4tYmFOx
Matcha Powder (exact): Itohkyuemon Uji Matcha
Matcha Powder (alternative): https://amzn.to/4bt81si
Matcha Powder (alternative): https://amzn.to/4dGRvWZ
Matcha Powder (alternative): https://amzn.to/4uSPai8
Brown Sugar (exact): https://amzn.to/47YCGvd
Pumpkin Puree (exact): https://amzn.to/40LThPb
Pumpkin Puree (exact): https://amzn.to/3NBUwgU
Pumpkin Pie Spice (exact): https://amzn.to/4lXwGc3
Cinnamon Powder (exact): https://amzn.to/40Q8VsQ
Vanilla Bean Paste (exact): https://amzn.to/4c1vT6q
Maple Butter/Whipped Maple (exact): https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/organic-maple-butter-078933
Maple Syrup (alternative): https://amzn.to/4d9kXEX
Pumpkin Butter/Sauce (alternative): https://amzn.to/43iE7lv
Heavy Whipping Cream (exact): https://www.publix.com/pd/publix-whipping-cream-heavy/RIO-PCI-112684
Whole Milk (exact): https://tgleedairy.com/products/whole-milk-plastic-quart/
Frother (exact): https://amzn.to/41mrmp5
This post contains some affiliate links which means a commission may be received, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.
A video showing the process should be up soon~
Thanks for reading, have a great week!
~ C.C.
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