Matcha for bubble tea. Built for milk, sugar, and ice.

Why bubble tea is harder on matcha than a latte

A hot latte is matcha, milk, and maybe a pump of syrup. A matcha boba is matcha, cold milk or creamer, a full measure of sugar, a cup of ice, and a scoop of pearls, shaken or blended and then left to sit while the customer walks out. Every one of those steps dilutes the tea and pushes the color toward khaki. The matcha you choose has to be green and savory enough to still be there at the bottom of the cup.

That is why a matcha that looks fine in a tasting bowl can disappear on a boba menu, and why baking-grade culinary powder, which is cheap for a reason, tends to taste like grass and turn brown in milk tea.

Which grade to use for boba

All of our grades are stone-milled in Japan from shade-grown leaf, and every bag states origin, harvest, cultivar, lot number, and milling date. Two of them are made for milk drinks:

• Organic Cafe is the everyday base. Smooth and mellow, mostly first flush, organic under Japan's JAS standard, and our highest-volume grade. It is the practical choice for a classic matcha milk tea, brown sugar matcha boba, and flavored or fruit blends where matcha is one note among several.
• Ceremonial Barista is first flush only, with the umami and body to come through syrup and ice. Use it where matcha is the headline: a premium matcha boba, a matcha-forward signature drink, or a menu that charges more for the matcha option.

Many boba shops run both: the cafe grade for volume and the barista grade for the premium line. Our lineup page shows the origin and harvest of every grade and the published price per kilogram. Top ceremonial grades meant to be whisked with water alone are not the right tool here; see the FAQ below.

How much matcha per cup, and what a kilo makes

Boba doses run higher than latte doses because sugar and ice dilute the tea. Use these as starting points and adjust to your syrup level and cup size:

• 16 oz iced matcha boba: about 3 g. A kilo makes roughly 330 drinks.
• 20 to 24 oz, or heavy brown sugar syrup: 4 g. About 250 drinks per kilo.
• 12 oz hot matcha latte on the same menu: 2 g, about 500 drinks per kilo.

Cost per cup is the dose multiplied by the per-kilogram price. With a published price per kilo and a fixed dose, that number is the same on every order, which makes menu pricing across locations simple.

Batching for a busy bar

Most boba shops do not whisk matcha to order. The workflow that keeps color and consistency:

• Sift, then paste. Sift the powder and blend it into a small amount of warm water, around 70 to 80 °C (160 to 175 °F), not boiling. Boiling water cooks the tea and dulls it.
• Make a concentrate per shift, not per day. A chilled matcha concentrate starts to lose its green within a few hours. Batch enough for a shift, keep it in the fridge, and shake before each pour.
• Weigh, do not scoop. Matcha is fluffy and scoops inconsistently. A gram scale is the difference between drink one and drink two hundred tasting the same.
• Keep the bag sealed and cool. Open one bag at a time, press the air out, and keep it away from the steam wand and the window. Use an opened bag within four to six weeks.

Dairy, oat, and creamer

The same matcha reads differently in each base. Whole dairy softens the edge and gives a creamy pale green. Oat milk shows the brightest color and makes the umami stand out, which is why oat matcha boba has become a menu staple. Non-dairy creamer and powdered milk tea bases mute both color and flavor, so they usually need the higher dose or the barista grade. Brown sugar syrup darkens the drink no matter what, so if the look matters, keep the syrup as a swirl on the cup wall rather than mixing it through.

How to test a sample like a boba shop

Do not judge a matcha sample in a tasting bowl. Judge it the way your customer meets it:

1. Make the drink at your standard cup size, dose, sugar level, and milk.
2. Shake or blend it exactly as you would in service, with your usual ice.
3. Photograph the cup at zero minutes and again at 30 minutes. Compare the color.
4. Taste it after the ice has melted a little. That is what most customers actually drink.
5. Try it at your lowest and highest sugar settings. A good matcha still tastes like tea at 100 percent sugar.
6. Work out the cost per cup at the dose that passed, and compare it to what you charge for the drink.

Buying in bulk from Japan

Orders are milled to order in Japan and packed in sealed 1 kg or 500 g bags. You can mix grades in one order, so a cafe base and a barista grade ship together. Delivery to your US address includes duties and customs, and each grade is a fixed specification: the lot behind it can change with the season, but the replacement must meet the same harvest, origin, and organic requirements, and we confirm it with you before it ships. For a multi-location operator, that means every store opens the same tea. Details on order sizes are in our minimum order guide.

Getting started

Start with the free sample kit: up to two grades of your choice, two sealed 10 g sachets of each, with a spec card for every lot. Test them in your actual recipe, tell us which one passed, and we will send a landed quote for your monthly volume. Free for boba and tea shops in the United States.