Coconut Vanilla Matcha Smoothie

We’ve never been those people who drink green smoothies. But it’s not for lack of trying! Odd as it sounds, it’s been hard for us to make tasty smoothies at home. We’ll try throwing delicious-sounding ingredients in a blender and what comes out is either brown or extremely bitter. (Or it separates in the refrigerator when we try to save it for later – anyone feel me? So.gross.)

This smoothie took us six separate variations to develop. As deceptively “easy” smoothie development is, we felt like we couldn’t cut a break: too bitter, too thin, too thick, too cold. But we finally ended up with a concoction that’s nutritious, refreshingly delicious, and doesn’t separate in the refrigerator. (In fact, I put one in the refrigerator for two days and it was just as tasty as when we made it fresh, which is helpful if you like to make smoothies in advance.)

The key to this smoothie is matcha, which is green tea powder. Green tea has all sorts of nutrition benefits, like:

• High in antioxidants
• Decreases risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or strokes
• Quickly calms and relaxes
• Helps burn fat
• Etc, etc — see this reference

But not only is green tea full of health benefits, it’s pretty darn tasty combined with coconut milk and vanilla. We added fruit to bring in some brightness and a bit of agave for sweetness. We don’t use agave often, but found it to be the best natural sweetener here since the taste is less distinctive than honey or maple syrup. But you can feel free to use your natural sweetener of choice. Enjoy!