Trying Chili Matcha Latte!
I'm a big fan of making black tea with ginger milk - cutting fresh ginger and letting it simmer in a pan of oat milk for a while before using that milk for the tea. I wanted to try something similar with matcha today, but using jalapenos.
General Info
The pack my wife brought from the grocery store had some green and red ones, and we used an entire green one and half of a red one. I actually started snacking on a red one to test if they're spicy enough for this, and was initially disappointed as it tasted like normal bell pepper. Then I arrived at the middle of it and it was very spicy, oof.
Anyway, we let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Matcha was prepared as usual, though with lower temperature because the milk added would be rather hot. I'm currently using the Unkaku by Marukyu Koyamaen (it's the only one I have left at the moment! Review is in the works :))
Smell and Taste
You can definitely smell the spiciness and, close before reaching it with your lips, the aroma of the green jalapeno. That tracks with the taste: There's a vegetable taste in it now, especially the sort of green bell pepper taste. The spice hits on the back of your throat and subsides in a bit, making it bearable. Unfortunately, the matcha taste is pretty much masked with this.
I think next time, I'd limit it to half of one red jalapeno, and make the matcha a tiny bit stronger. For better predictability of the spice level and less seeping of the veggie taste into the milk, it might be better to use dried chili flakes and sieve them out when pouring.
Conclusion
If you get the balance right, I think a little spice to the matcha won't hurt and can be a fun little thing to try out.