Made with white chocolate, butter, and cream and dusted with Japanese green tea powder, this decadent Matcha Chocolate (or Matcha Nama Chocolate) is simply irresistible. It’s rich with a truffle-like texture and just the right touch of sweetness.
This Matcha Chocolate, or what we call Matcha Nama Chocolate (抹茶生チョコレート) in Japan, simply melts in your mouth.
As I was testing this recipe, I knew I won’t be able to stop eating them so Mr. JOC took them to work. He told me later, “The green tea chocolate disappeared in seconds.” I promise you, it’s really good!
Green tea powder, or matcha (抹茶), has a unique bitter taste to it. The flavor of “matcha” is quite different from the green tea served at Japanese restaurants. Matcha is typically used for making tea at the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This tea tends to be thick and exceptionally bitter, but it goes quite well with wagashi (和菓子), a traditional Japanese confectioneries that are very sweet by itself.
The color of matcha is a bright, beautiful green color, so if your matcha powder doesn’t have that nice vivid hue to it, your matcha is well past its prime. The green tea powder is also quite pricey, especially if it is of tea ceremony quality, but the culinary grade is good enough for baking and making these chocolates.
As you may already know, green tea delivers a healthy dose of antioxidants and cancer-fighting power. Catechins in green tea are also known to have many beneficial health properties and matcha has greater potential health benefits than other green tea.
In Japan, there are many varieties of green tea chocolate in stores, including green tea Pocky’s, Melty Kiss, Kit Kat, and the popular ROYCE’ Chocolate.
When I made ROYCE’ copycat Nama Chocolate two years ago, I received many requests for the green tea version. I love anything with green tea, so I’m really happy to finally share this green tea version with you this year. Right in time for Valentine’s Day!
The cooking process for this recipe is very similar to the regular Nama Chocolate recipe, but white chocolate is used instead of regular chocolate. My only advice for you is to work fast to melt the white chocolate while the cream is warm.
Rich, yet not so sweet, decadent truffle-like matcha green tea chocolate, it is simply irresistible. If you love green tea sweets, this will be the ultimate treat for you.
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Matcha Chocolate
Video
Ingredients
- 14 oz white chocolate (you‘ll need 4 Lindt White Chocolate Swiss Classic Bars and measure the weight to get 400 g; see Notes)
- ½ cup heavy (whipping) cream (see Notes)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 Tbsp matcha (green tea powder)
- 2 tsp matcha (green tea powder) (for sprinkling)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. You will also need 1 8- x 8-inch (20 x 20 cm) baking dish and line it with parchment paper.
- Chop 14 oz white chocolate into small pieces so it will melt quickly.
- Cut 2 Tbsp unsalted butter into small pieces.
- Add ½ cup heavy (whipping) cream into a small saucepan and bring it ALMOST to a boil over medium heat. Keep an eye on the cream; when you see bubbles around the saucepan, remove from the heat.
- Immediately add the white chocolate and butter. With a rubber spatula, mix all together.
- The mixture will start to solidify, so melt the chocolate and butter while the cream is still warm.
- Once the mixture is smooth, sift and add 2 Tbsp matcha (green tea powder) into the mixture.
- Mix and combine together until the color is homogeneous.
- Into a prepared the baking dish lined with parchment paper, pour the green tea chocolate mixture.
- Tap the baking dish a few times on the kitchen countertop to remove any air bubbles. Flatten the surface with the rubber spatula if necessary. Refrigerate for 4–5 hours (or overnight).
- Lift the parchment paper to remove the green tea chocolate from the baking dish. Run the sharp knife under hot water to warm up the knife and wipe it dry completely.
- Slice the 8- x 8-inch (20 x 20 cm) chocolate block into 4 smaller squares, then cut each square into 9 small pieces.
- Dust 2 tsp matcha (green tea powder) on top of the chocolate. Store the chocolate in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve chilled.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in the refrigerator for 2–3 days, but it‘s best to enjoy it sooner.
Notes
- Make sure the bowls and utensils you are using are perfectly dry. Even a small amount of water/steam can “seize” the chocolate melting process.
- When buying white chocolate, make sure that it contains cocoa butter because some inferior brands contain vegetable fat. White chocolate should be ivory-colored (white chocolate made with vegetable fat is white-colored).
- The fat content for heavy (whipping) cream is 38%, which is used to whip cream.
- Separation (oil came out of the chocolate) happens when you get the chocolate too hot. When chocolate gets too hot, the cocoa butter separates from the solids, and there is no way to salvage it (although you can bake with it and it tastes fine). The best way to prevent separation is to use gentle heat (simmer on lowest heat) and stir frequently. Since we’re not using a double boiler in this recipe, make sure you do not bring the heavy whipping cream to a full boil. Remove from heat as soon as you saw bubbles around the edges of the saucepan.
- Seizing happens when moisture is introduced to melted chocolate (even a tiny amount of liquid or steam). It happens all of a sudden from a smooth bowl of liquid chocolate to a lumpy, grainy mass of chocolate.
Tried out this Reciepe, sadly the choclate don´t get hard 🙁 I found only 32% whipping cream, could this really be the reason? But i will taste more of this awsome reciepes from this side, the anko sounds so interesting 🙂 thank you for all this stuff <3
Hi Linda! Hmmm it’s hard to say. Did you use white chocolate WITHOUT vegetable fat? I know that’s a major reason why it doesn’t solidify. It has to be 100% cocoa butter. Please check, and if it was 100%, then maybe cream? But I’m not too sure. 🙂
I love your recipe so much I have made it twice.. Thanks:)
I would really like to reduce the sweetness next time, do you have any advice?
Last time I increased the cream but it did not impact the sweetness and compromised the consistency. Increasing the matcha isn’t helpful either.
I absolutely love this recipe but am desperate for a less sweet version! Thanks in advance:)
Hi Kate! Thank you! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe. Only advice for green tea chocolate version is to find white chocolate that’s not sweet. If it was regular Nama Chocolate, I’d suggest bitter chocolate…. but for white chocolate, it’s a bit harder. Find good (expensive) chocolate. It shouldn’t be overly sweet. 🙂
Followed the recipe but chocolate turned out more like a ganache than anything else. Still tasty but not the consistency I was looking for.
Hi Matt! Hmmm I can’t tell how the texture of your chocolate was, but it’s kind of like truffle – soft, it would melt if you take it outside for 5 minutes. It’s just like Royce’s nama chocolate (if you try it before). It melts quickly in the mouth, and it needs to be kept in the fridge all times, which is why a lot of people can’t bring back to their country…
Your recipe sounds delicious, I am wondering how long one could keep these bars considering,that they contain cream and butter? Do I need to keep them in the fridge?
Hi Ela! Thank you! 2-3 days in the fridge. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Hello Nami~ ^^ I just found out about your site and this green tea chocolate recipe. I wonder, is it okay to use a white chocolate that contain vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter? What will happen if I use the one that contains vegetable fat?
anyway, nice to meet you ^^
Hi Anne! Welcome to my blog! Hope you find some recipes that you like on my blog. 🙂 No, you can’t use white chocolate with vegetable fat in it. Your chocolate will most likely not solidify. Or that’s what I know and learned (I have never made it with chocolate with vegetable fat).
I can’t find heavy cream 38% but just 30% 🙁 How can I make your wonderful matcha nama with this heavy cream? Domo arigato gozaimatsu <3
Hi Phuong! To be honest, I have never tried this recipe with cream that’s 30% fat (that’s considered light whipping cream: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream). Wish I can tell if it works or not. If you try, please let us know! Arigato! 🙂
Hi Mrs. Naomi, thx for the great recipe. I tried to follow the steps with a bit bigger portion, 500gr of chocolate with 160ml of cream and 30gr of butter. The result does look similar to your video and the taste is fanstatic. However, it’s a bit too soft some how, and the worst part is that it stick to the parchment paper ????
I don’t know what step is wrong but the end result doesn’t look as fanstatic as yours in the video :((
Hi Ryan! This chocolate is like truffle, so it’s not hard chocolate. What type of white chocolate did you use? I wish I can tell you but without being there with you it’s hard to pin point what went wrong as I don’t know how you made it and what point it went wrong…:sorry, wish I could help!
Thanks for the reply and sr for getting your name wrong above, Mrs. Namiko. The chocolate that I used is from a local brand in Vietnam. I used thier dark chocolate for the nama chocolate with your recipe and it was great. However, their white chocolate used vegetable fat instead of cocoa fat, might that be the cause of the problem?
Yes! Vegetable far is bad, it won’t solidify. Make sure to get high quality white chocolate with cocoa butter. 🙂
The color of the candy is beautiful. And green tea and chocolate seem to go so well together. When I go to the mall I get a green tea @ Starbucks then head for the candy shop to get some dark chocolates. This must be a very yummy recipe!
Make sure to use white chocolate if you are making green tea chocolate. 🙂
First of all, I want to say that the texture of this chocolate is DIVINE!
I DID however find, that I needed to double the matcha powder in the recipe, as the white chocolate sort of over powered the matcha flavour.
Beautiful with a hot cup of matcha.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
Hi Jordyn! Happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Depends on the matcha and brands, matcha might be slightly different but I see you are a huge fan of matcha like me and I’m glad to hear you like more matcha taste! 🙂
Hi,
I was reading your recipe for the green tea and dark cbocoaltes, and you said to use parchamnet paper. Would wax or baking paper be OK instead?
Hi Amy! I apologize for my late response (I just saw your comment in my Inbox). I think baking paper is the parchment paper (different name used in the US). 🙂
Thank you for this simple but delicious recipe- I made half the quantity today & it went so fast……..my family are all crazy about macha chocolate (anything with macha really); it was a big success.
I really enjoy your website, thank you for all the inspiration.
Hi Maja! I’m so glad to hear you tried this recipe! Thanks so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
By the way, when you add matcha to the chocolate – If you stir it lightly and the chocolate turns green and you add just a little bit more matcha – you can make a marble look (darker hue swirl) to it. That’s how my turned out and it was so beautiful.
I love the dark green – light green marble look! Thank you for sharing your tip. 🙂
Love this recipe – it was a HUGE hit with my family and my daycare lady’s family. My husband does not have much of a sweet tooth and even he couldn’t stop eating it. Thank you! Makes for great gifts!!
Hi Lorraine! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! I’m so happy to hear everyone enjoyed it! 🙂
Dear Nami,
thank you so much!! The chocolates turned out just AWESOME! Unfortunately I only made it from 1 chocolate bar and doubled the matha powder 🙂 I LOVE matcha!! I think I could eat it with a spoon just like that 🙂
I have one question regarding matcha… Mine is a little bit darker than yours but tastes exactly like matcha I had in Japan. Are there different kinds of matcha or is mine of lower quality?
Hi Alina! I’m so happy to hear that! YAY!!!!
Is the darker color very vivid and pretty, or more like yellowish green? Matcha has different grade, and matcha used for the traditional tea ceremony is the highest. Then there are more casual matcha drink use or culinary use (like baking)…. I can’t tell the quality of your matcha, but if you feel the color is not as good, it could be lower quality or you kept the package un-airtight and it got oxidized. 🙂
Hello Nami,
the colour is kind of like dark green-gray. But when you add it to something it is really dark green. But not as bright as vivid as yours 🙂
Anyway, after googling for a bit I came to conclusion that what I have is probably sencha… well I don’t mind actually, as long as it tastes like matcha. And it does 🙂
Hi Alina! I see. Hope you can find matcha that has good taste and color, but for home use, I think taste is important. 🙂
This is such a great recipe! I’ve successfully made it 5 times already. It’s just so rich and creamy and the chocolates come out really nicely in chocolate molds as well!
One thing I wanted to talk about was the separation. I failed the 2nd and 3rd time making this (not sure why not the 1st!). I use a gas stove and even the lowest setting heats up the milk way too quickly, even in a stainless steel saucepan. As soon as I see even a hint of bubbles, I take it off, but even then, the chocolate separates. Adding in an emulsifier like milk sometimes helped; I’ve saved a batch that way before.
I ended up just going the safe route and using a double boiler for the rest of my batches, because my experience has been so random with the temperature of the milk. I do have a milk thermometer for coffee drinks but the pan is so shallow I can’t get a good enough reading.
Hi LaTara! Thanks so much for your kind feedback! YEs, a double boiler is a safe option. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your experience with us and readers!