Matcha Cocktail Recipes

Portland is a world of fun — especially when our friends are absolute masters at crafting wildly fun cocktails. Enter Mint and Mirth — "Traveling Bartenders for the World's Best Parties." Well, sign us up. Check out our little twist on a tea party!

We've been wanting to experiment with matcha green tea cocktails for a while, and our friend Lauren just so happens to own a matcha company called Mizuba Tea Company. She also collaborated with one of our favorite salt companies to make an insanely yummy Matcha Sea Salt. We invited her over for some recipe development and had a lovely night sampling multiple iterations of new matcha cocktails. We like to carefully label our experimental drinks and do blind tastings so as to get the best flavors. To bring you our very favorites, we made our way through a long night of sampling, including the best (a Bee's Knees variation) and worst (cinnamon-infused matcha with cocoa rum) ideas.

Photo by Charlotte Dupont of It's Me, Charlotte!

Start by making a Matcha Syrup that will be used in the recipes below. There is an Orange Matcha Syrup that is also used in some of the cocktails. That follows the same process except swaps out the 2 cups of cane sugar with 1 cup of cane sugar plus 1 cup of orange juice — that's it! 

Matcha Syrup
Ingredients

• ½ oz of Organic Signature Matcha 
  
• 2 cups water
  
• 2 cups cane sugar
  
• Bring all to boil in a sauce pan. Stir gently so as to break up the matcha. Reduce heat.

Recipe

1. Add ingredients to a saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring gently to break up the matcha. 
2. Reduce heat and simmer for three minutes.
3. Let cool before pouring into a jar. Syrup will keep in the fridge for ~2 weeks. 
   
   

Garden Party Matcha Old Fashioned
Ingredients

• 2 oz Burnside Bourbon by Eastside Distilling
• ½ oz Matcha Syrup
• 2 dashes lavender bitters by Scrappy's Bitters
• Water
• Ice
• Luxardo Cherry, for garnish

Recipe

1. Pour syrup into a rocks glass and saturate with bitters, then add a dash of plain water.
2. Fill the glass with ice cubes (or one large cube, which is our preference) and add bourbon.
3. Stir gently and garnish with a cherry before enjoying. 
   
   

Spicy Matcha Old Fashioned
Ingredients

• 2 oz Temperance Trader Bourbon by Bull Run Distillery
• ½ oz Matcha Syrup
• 2 dashes smoked chili bitters by Hella Bitters
• Water
• Ice
• Candied ginger, for garnish

Recipe

1. Pour syrup into a rocks glass and saturate with bitters, then add a dash of plain water.
2. Fill the glass with ice cubes (or one large cube, which is our preference) and add bourbon.
3. Stir gently and garnish with candied ginger before enjoying. 
   
   

Matcha Punch (For One) 
Ingredients

• 2 oz Spiced Rum by Eastside Distilling
  
• ⅓ oz fresh lime juice 
  
• ¾ oz Orange Matcha Syrup
  
• ¾ oz orange juice
  
• ¾ oz pineapple juice
• Ice
• Optional: Nutmeg, freshly grated to taste 

Recipe

1. Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice.
2. Shake and strain into a punch glass over ice.
3. Freshly grate nutmeg on top before enjoying. 

Matcha Punch (Party Batch) 
Ingredients

• 1 bottle (750 ml) Spiced Rum by Eastside Distilling
  
• 1 cup fresh lime juice
  
• 2 cups Orange Matcha Syrup
  
• 2 cups orange juice
  
• 2 cups pineapple juice
• Ice
• Optional: Nutmeg, freshly grated to taste 
• Orange wheels, for garnish

Recipe

1. Add all ingredients to a pitcher or punch bowl, and thoroughly combine. 
2. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. 
3. When ready to serve, garnish with orange wheels and enjoy. 

Lastly, our very favorite of the night, a variation on the classic Bee's Knees. This one is so good, it will knock your green tea-loving socks off. 

Matcha Bee's Knees
Ingredients

• 2 oz Dry Gin by Aria
  
• 1 lemon (for twist and for juicing ¾ oz fresh lemon juice)
  
• ¾ oz Matcha Syrup
• 2 dashes grapefruit bitters by The Bitter Housewife
• Ice

Recipe

1. Make a lemon twist, then juice the lemon. 
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a shaker with ice.
3. Shake and strain into chilled coupes. 
4. Garnish with the lemon twist before enjoying. 

If you want to do some experimenting on your own, here are some flavors that are known to pair well with matcha. Have fun and let us know what you come up with! 

• Coconut
  
• Vanilla
  
• Lavender
  
• Raspberry
  
• Strawberry
  
• Ginger
  
• Mint
  
• Lemon
  
• Lime
  
• Orange
  
• Grapefruit
  
• Almond
  
• Hazelnut
  
• Chocolate