Earlier this week, I was reading an article by Elite Daily about the latest Starbucks drink trend. No, not a flat white. No it’s springtime summer, there is no pumpkin spice involved. The drink I am talking about requires this little green thing called “matcha.” Elite Daily pretty much sums up the trend by saying “Matcha is the latest and greatest health fad. It is so hot right now despite being a really, really old Japanese tradition.”
Ever the pioneer of reviving ancient health traditions, I was all about this craze and needed to get me some matcha stat.
Matcha is essentially ground up green tea leaves that you consume straight. They are blended into the Starbucks drinks like the Teavana Green Tea Latte or Green Tea Frappaccino. But if you’re feeling particularly adventurous/healthy/hipster/cheap and are convincing enough–you can drink the matcha leaves straight up.
Matcha has all these wonderful healing powers. It’s full of antioxidants, its calming yet has caffeine, it makes your skin look nice, it fights cancer and so on…Probably the biggest draw for me is that allegedly if you order it just right, it costs only $0.87 at Starbucks. After paying like $5 for a mediocre cup of trendy coffe (aka the flat white), I was all ready to get signed up for some cheap Starbucks redemption!
Following the instructions per Elite Daily, I walked confidently into my local Starbucks (1100 Louisiana during my lunch break if you must know), stared the cashier barista into the eye and ordered two scoops of matcha powder in a grande cup of ice water. And he straight up said, “Nope we can’t do that. Matcha is just an ingredient for drinks.” Uh WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT REALLY I just read the Elite Daily article like 2 days ago! Reading my skepticism he responds “Yep the boss man won’t let me.” Luckily, I must have just looked so defeated and crushed (I did walk a whole 2 blocks to this Starbucks), the barista took pity on me and was like “Oh since you didn’t know, I’ll give it to you this time but I’ll have to charge you for something else.”
I got charged $1.89 (for presumable a tall hot green tea or something) instead of the predicted $0.87. He also put four scoops of the matcha powder into a venti cup for me. Nevertheless, I walked away triumphantly with my purchase!
The verdict? I didn’t hate it. I sure felt like I was drinking something healthy, because helloooo it was green. Also it was just water. And it was basically green tea. I always like to drink tea when trying to rehydrate/calm my nerves. I will say, however, that there was a LOT of caffeine in that drink. Granted, I rarely drink caffeinated beverages, but still my heart was beating a million miles an hour. Next time if I feel like arguing with the barista to get this secret menu drink, I’ll only get two scoops instead of four.