For The Silkiest Matcha Latte, Turn To This Kitchen Appliance

A well-made matcha latte is prized for its slightly sweet, earthy flavor; the evenly calm energy boost it gives you; and its silky smooth texture. It combines a finely ground green tea powder with milk and a sweetener of choice. The crucial creaminess of the drink usually comes with the help of a traditional bamboo matcha whisk that aerates the drink with hundreds of tiny bubbles to break up the matcha powder and generate a layer of micro foam at the top. But to get an even creamier, velvetier matcha latte, don't stop with using this tool of the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. Put the drink through a whipped cream dispenser, and enjoy the dreamiest matcha latte of your life.

Baristas typically use whipped cream dispensers — also called cream whippers — to combine heavy cream and vanilla sweetener with nitrous oxide to make instantly whipped cream in seconds. When the canister is sealed, the nitrous oxide is shot into the cream under high pressure, dissolving it evenly throughout the cream. After some shaking for even gas distribution, the device is triggered. No longer airtight, the pressure change in the whipper causes the dissolved gas to expand. This forces out a cream now thickened by an abundance of micro bubbles — and it will do the same with your matcha latte, generating more tiny bubbles than you probably can with a just a whisk. While it's a little wasteful to use a full nitrous oxide charger every time you want a matcha latte, there's no denying the creamy, smooth results. You can even add strawberry syrup to make your matcha latte taste just like spring.

As tempting as ultra-velvety matcha lattes may sound, maybe you're like Alton Brown and hate uni-taskers. A whipped cream canister doesn't only make whipped cream and matcha lattes (which technically already makes it a duo-tasker). The high internal pressure of the device can accomplish even more kitchen wizardry. If you're in the mood for a beverage with a little more caffeine than green tea, but you're still craving a lip-smacking, smooth mouthfeel, run some cold brew coffee through a dispenser for a homemade nitro cold brew as good as you can get from the tap at a high-end coffee shop.

Still need more reasons to justify that nitrous whipper purchase? Making your own flavor infusions is a cheap and simple trick to upgrade mediocre booze, but the traditional method can take several days. A whipped cream dispenser rapidly infuses alcohol with whatever fruits, herbs, or spices you like within minutes. Since you're using the gas just to create pressure and you're not trying to make a fizzy drink, hold the whipped cream dispenser upright, put a napkin or cup over top to prevent exploding liquor from going everywhere, and squeeze the trigger to vent the pressure without shooting out the alcohol. Remove the head, strain out the solids, and your infusion is ready for a cocktail.

Beyond that, you can use a cream whipper for puddings and mousse or savory foams if you're fancy. You can even run cream cheese through a nitrous whipper for the fluffiest fruit, chip, and veggie dips imaginable, or put mascarpone in it for perfectly whipped cannoli filling. Just some possibilities to ponder as you sip the creamiest matcha latte you've ever tasted.