Attempting a matcha ube latte
I have seen matcha ube lattes (usually iced) online and sadly that’s not a thing in my country. I have a hard time even finding ube (purple yam) at all. The asia shop I like only carries fresh whole one, but no extract or powder, and I don't want to order from Amazon et al. The problem is I don’t even know what it’s supposed to taste like - I just know it’s slightly sweet, vanilla-like, and kind of like sweet potato. How would I know I’ve made it well or if I ever got powder or extract, that it was a good one? So I decided I need to make some puree from scratch and see how it goes.
I read up on some recipes online, but all are using extract or powder or using the puree as dessert or for baking, so I had to improvise. All recipes added condensed milk and coconut. I used fresh purple yam, condensed sweetened coconut milk (by Nature's Charm), and oat milk (Alpro).
Steps
- Bought a purple yam (not taro root!).
- Peeled and cut it.
- Steamed the slices in my rice cooker until soft (keeps color and nutrients better than boiling)
- Used a fork to squash it into a mush/puree together with the condensed coconut and oat milk (just eyeballed it). In retrospect, I should have used my hand blender, too.
If you'd like purple ume milk that you can just pour into your beverage I’d probably cook the entire puree with milk in a pot and strain it through a muslin rag into a bottle for the fridge. I didn't do that though.
It would still be too hot for anything iced and I have seen people drink hot ube lattes online, so I put a teaspoon of the puree into a cup, added some more oat milk, used a milk frother to mix, then added hot water to top it up.
I put the rest of the puree in the fridge for use for the iced ube matcha latte later. It tasted absolutely delicious, could have just eaten the puree straight out of the bowl.
First try of a simple ube latte (no matcha)
First lessons: It probably needs a lot more ube puree per drink. The hot ube latte was blue and taste was mild; tasted like hot sweet milk with a tiny bit of sweet potato taste. And also if you don’t like chunks you should maybe strain it through a sieve or be extra meticulous with a hand blender, but I didn't mind it.
Attempting the iced matcha ube latte
Anyway, later I flung quite a chunk into a glass to make an iced ume matcha latte; again mixed with some milk, added ice and water, and whisked the matcha separately to pour on top. Now I have to say, I am extremely bad at creating gradients or latte art… I can’t do that stuff at all. So I was afraid how shit it was going to look like.
And it did. It just never creates a gradient for me ever. No matter the difference in liquid and milk or whatever… so now I had a dark green grayish thing. Also, this time the chunks came back to bite me in the ass because they got stuck in the straw frequently.
Taste of the ube matcha latte
The taste is good. I like the starchy sweet taste, it adds up nicely to the herbal, nutty, slightly bitter taste of the matcha. Gives it a nice body and interesting texture, because there are obviously starchy particles in there.
Conclusion
Is it worth it? Hmmm, probably for me, no. I think I would recommend just using an extract. Or if you just want a cool purple, use food dye and add something to sweeten it slightly and you have a very similar result. I don’t think I will make ube puree again for a drink; maybe a dessert though. I am not opposed to trying extract some time.
🍵🍵🍵 3 out of 5 matcha bowls, but only because of how I made it. I would totally love to try it in a cafe or so and would probably enjoy that a lot more. I may write a separate update post in the future if I get my hands on extract...