Matcha 3 Ways: Eat, Drink, And Be Merry

Matcha is a bright green, high-antioxidant, Japanese, powdered green tea. 

It is traditionally used in tea ceremonies. It is grown under shade three weeks before harvest to increase its flavor, vitamins and antioxidants. Then all the stems and veins are removed from the leaves, by hand, and it is then ground into a fine powder.

Healing Butterfly's Matcha Butter Cookies, Palm Beach, Fla.,
Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

Matcha's claimed health benefits are increased mental clarity, appetite suppression, cholesterol lowering, relaxation (with L-theanine), and increased energy without the jitters of coffee. 

There are two grades of matcha powder: culinary ($10 per ounce or less) and ceremonial ($96 per ounce or more). 

The unsweetened flavor can take a bit of getting used to. So if you aren’t sure, consider going to your local healthy restaurant/coffee shop/food truck and ordering something that includes matcha. Then you can eat, drink and be merry without breaking the bank on something you might not love.

Here are some South Florida suggestions.

 

BunkHouse Coffee Bar's 7-layer MatchaChocolate Cake,
Jensen Beach, Fla.
Copyright 2019 by HelenA. Lockey

Eat a slice of a 7-layer chocolate, matcha cake ($6) at BunkHouse Coffee Bar in Jensen Beach, FL.

Healing Butterfly's Matcha Latte, Palm Beach,
Fla., Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

Drink an organic matcha latte with almond milk and maple syrup like the one that Healing Butterfly™ served at Localecopia last year. They sell matcha products online on their website or at Amazon.

Or you can go to Perk Coffee House (in Tequesta) and get their Energy Latte ($5.00) made with matcha, meringa and reishi.

Vintage Pops Matcha Mint frozen pop, Hollywood, Fla.,
Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

Be Merry with a Mint Matcha frozen dessert pop ($3) with Vintage Pops in Hollywood, made with organic peppermint oil, and coconut milk. You find where they are through their Facebook page, twitter, or Instagram account.

If you are feeling adventurous buy some matcha at your local grocery store or online. Bring some water to just under a boil (boiling water will make it bitter), and whisk (to stop it from being lumpy) some powdered (better than tea bags) matcha into the water. Steep for a minute or so, and enjoy straight or with your favorite sweetener.

Delicious Florida Vegetarian Pizza Locations

Vegetarian pizza no longer means cheese pizza with vegetables. Chefs, especially ones at vegetarian and vegan restaurants, are pushing the boundaries on recipes by including such things as broccolini, kimchi, spinach, edible flowers, bee pollen, and macadamia ricotta (not all on the same pizza, yet).

Flower Garden Pizza, Ground Floor Farm, Stuart, Fla.,
Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

The new gourmet styles of vegetarian pizza are delicious and good for you. Here are just a few of the scrumptious gourmet pizzas available in South Florida.

PBK pizza with peanut butter, Ground Floor Farm, Stuart, Fla.
Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

Ground Floor Farm, an urban farm in downtown Stuart, might be a bit of an unexpected for a place to buy gourmet, hand-crafted pizza. But their cafe has a pizza oven, and they have been honing their skills for the past two years in specialty pizzas that feature ingredients from their farm.

Some of their ingredients include a sourdough cultured crust, edible flowers, farm eggs, cultured cream, herbs, red wine vinegar, vegetables, and kimchi.

Their Flower Garden ($16) pizza includes herb pesto, mozzarella, Parmesan, garlic, greens, honey, red wine vinegar, bee pollen, pistachios, and edible flowers. Their surprisingly delicious PBK ($15) pizza includes peanut butter, kimchi, honey, scallions, and black sesame seeds.

California Veggie pizza with cauliflower crust, Gluten-free,
California Pizza Kitchen
Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

A delicious surprise, vegetarian pizza can also be found at California Pizza Kitchen. It's called the California Veggie ($17.89) and it can be made with a cauliflower crust. It comes with broccolini, smoky eggplant slices, Cremini mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted corn, red onions, and mozzarella cheese.

Artichoke, spinach, basil, garlic, vegan cheese pizza,
Nombucket Vegan Foods, Lake Park, Fla.,
Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

Nombucket Vegan Foods located in vegan food cooperative kitchen in Lake Park puts out a mouth-watering pizza using vegan cheese. It contains onions, minced garlic, basil, spinach, artichokes, tomato paste, broccoli, olive oil and vegan cheese. A slice costs $6.

Biancoverde pizza with macadamia ricotta, Christopher's Kitchen,
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Copyright 2019 by Helen A Lockey

Christopher's Kitchen, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens has some  delectable hand crafted pizzas. The Biancoverde ($18.95), pictured above, contains macadamia ricotta, red onions, garlic, roasted cherry tomatoes, dates, thyme, oregano, fresh arugula and chili flakes.

I hope these gourmet pizzas have opened your mind (and wetted your appetite) to the possibilities in the vegetarian pizza scene of South Florida.


Ground Floor Farm, 100 SE Martin Luther King Junior Blvd., Stuart, FL (772) 600-4230
Nombucket Vegan Foods, 1408 N Killian Drive, Lake Park, FL
Christopher's Kitchen, 4783 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, FL (561) 318-6191
California Pizza Kitchen, multiple locations.

SHROOMS--Crispy Mushroom Snacks & More

Looking for a healthy crispy snack this year? Then look no further than SHROOMS™ Crispy Mushroom Snacks made with North American-grown mushrooms. These snacks are the brainchild of two mushroom growing farms-- South Mill Mushrooms , and Champ's Mushrooms™  (they combined companies, January 2018). "We are getting into a new line of snacks, which is our SHROOMS™ line," said Jeff Schrett, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for South Mill Mushrooms, during an interview at Produce Marketing Association's (PMA) Fresh Summit, last year in Orlando, Florida.

SHROOMS™ Crispy Mushroom snacks at the Produce Marketing Association's
Fresh Summit, Orlando, Fla.
Copyright 2018 by Helen A Lockey

"Mushrooms are definitely on trend right now and we found the millennial audience is really looking for a healthy snack. They like to graze through the day and were looking for people to fill their needs. So the folks that are camping, biking, sailing, and canoeing...this is a snack that they can bring with them and it is very fulfilling. It's a family friendly, wholesome snack, and it's good for you," said Schrett.

And not only are the SHROOMS™ crispy mushrooms good for you but they are also good for the environment because everything is grown indoors with compost made by the mushroom farmers, according to Schrett. "We actually make our own compost...and we also give back at the end process. A lot of our used compost gets recycled and sent back out for folks to use in gardens and things like that," said Schrett.

SHROOMS™ Portobella Mushroom Jerky,
Produce Marketing Association's Fresh Summit,
Orlando, Fla.
Copyright 2018 by Helen A. Lockey

South Mill Mushrooms started growing oyster mushrooms over 80-years ago, and now they grow other types of mushrooms along with the oysters, including Cremini, Button, Portabella, Maitake, Enoke and Shiitake. Champ's Mushrooms™ started growing conventional and organic mushrooms over 15-years ago.

Both farms now grow over 100 million pounds of fresh mushrooms a year. "We grow all the mushrooms, everything that is going to be used in our snack line, clusters, bars etcetera everything is made from our own fresh mushrooms," Schrett said.

The SHROOMS™ snack line includes crisps, bars and jerky. All are non-GMO. Of the snacks available for sale, online at the moment, some are vegan, some are plant-based, and some are vegetarian. You can purchase them through their website (for large orders) or through Amazon (for smaller orders).

There are future mushroom jerky lines called SHROOM™ SPLITS on their website www.itsamushroom.com that include other ingredients.

One last detail, everything on the SHROOMS™ line is shelf stable for a year. "We don't anticipate that anyone is going to keep it on the shelf, in the cabinet for a year. It's going to be a snack package, one of those you can't put down," said Schrett.