Pretty sure if you have a pulse you’ve heard of matcha- the Japanese tea staple that comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. It’s picked, steamed and stemmed before being ground into a very fine powder. Matcha is the health food du jour that supposedly boosts memory, increases endurance, improves cholesterol, enhances calm, and is packed with antioxidants. It’s like green tea…. on matcha.

I’ve been a fan of matcha in my lattes for a while now, but last week while at a coffee shop in Tribeca, I upped my matcha game and ordered a matcha detox ball. And well, it was actually good (not like french fry good, but good by health food standards). Never heard of a matcha ball? Neither had I. So when I made it back to St. Louis, I tried to recreate the recipe with the help of Google. What you have below is bits and pieces of a few different recipes, mainly edited to limit ingredients and make my life easier (i.e. some called for both chia and hemp seeds, but since I only had hemp in my pantry, that’s what I put in). If I had to do it over again, I’d add less coconut oil because mine were kind of greasy.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp matcha powder
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup nut butter
1/4 cup hemp seeds
4 figs
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp coconut flakes

Topping:
1 tbsp coconut flakes
1 tbsp matcha powder

Combine top seven ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until roughly chopped. Spoon out mixture and roll into silver dollar sized balls.

Combine excess coconut and matcha powder in a bowl. Roll matcha balls in the topping until evenly coated. Chill for 30 minutes before eating. Store in refrigerator. (They make a great afternoon snack).