Matcha, a green tea traditionally drank during Japanese tea ceremonies and lauded for its health benefits, can be found these days in a range of forms including desserts, drinks and even savoury items like curry and noodles. In Japan, companies from overseas such as McDonald's are also keen to get in on the trend and in the past have graced us with plenty of matcha products to appeal to the green tea lovers.

But just because these beverages are from a fast food restaurant, doesn’t mean any old tea is used. In particular their ‘Uji Matcha Series' contains matcha powder sourced from Uji, an area in Kyoto famed for tea growing. Uji matcha is regarded as a superior quality green tea due to its rich taste and bright green colour.

This Uji matcha lineup comes around every so often with a few mainstays and one brand new green tea taste experience. This time around for spring 2020, McDonald's have really leaned into the traditional Japanese angle, with an added fruity twist, and the new addition is a Strawberry Shiratama Matcha Frappe.

The base is a matcha frappe created with a mix of bitter matcha powder and milk, piled on top of strawberry whipped cream. Above this is more strawberry whipped cream, almonds, a chunky strawberry sauce and shiratama (white mochi balls made from rice flour). The pink and green colour scheme also makes it an especially fitting offering for spring.

As seen in previous lineups, the Matcha Latte Frappe has plenty of rich matcha powder to counter the mild taste of the milk. The whipped cream and powder on top beautify the icy beverage as well as make it a bit more luxurious.

Finally, the matcha latte has both an iced and a hot version, depending on your preference or maybe to suit the changeable spring temperatures.

As usual, the Uji Matcha Series can't be found in every Japanese McDonald's, only ones with a McCafe. The beverage lineup will go on sale from 8th April until around the middle of May.

If you love matcha, read about the best matcha treats in Tokyo here, to fantasise about the various cafes you can patronise when all this has blown over.