Matcha Latte: What It Is, Caffeine, and How to Make One

A matcha latte is two things in a glass: a shot of whisked green tea powder, and milk. That is the whole recipe, which is why every page on the subject is a five-minute recipe. What those pages do not tell you is how much caffeine you are drinking, what the milk adds, and what the café put in that your kitchen does not. Here are the numbers. ^[3]

What is a matcha latte?

Green tea you drink rather than steep, which is why your cup ends up opaque. Matcha is tea leaf that was shaded for a few weeks before harvest, which pushes the plant to make more theanine and caffeine and fewer of the bitter catechins, then dried and stone-ground to a powder fine enough to suspend in water. Whisk a couple of grams into hot water and you have a matcha shot: the whole leaf, in your cup. Pour that over milk and you have your latte. ^[1]

There is no coffee in it, and no espresso machine. The word latte came along because your drink is built the way a café latte is, a concentrated shot topped with milk, and because that is how it is sold to you. Hot, the milk is steamed; iced, it is poured cold over ice and the matcha goes on top so you see the green sitting on the white.

How much caffeine is in a matcha latte?

Count the grams of powder, because nothing else in the glass has any. A 2024 composition study cites a survey of matchas at 14.4 to 34.1 mg of caffeine per gram, a wide range that reflects how much the leaf, the shading and the grade you buy vary. At 2 g, the standard home shot, your latte carries about 28 to 68 mg. At 3 to 4 g, which is what the café-strength tutorials use, you are at 43 to 136 mg, and the top of that range passes a cup of coffee. ^[1]

Two things follow from the chart. First, your matcha latte is a tea-strength drink by default and a coffee-strength one only when the barista doubles the scoop, so if you switched to matcha to cut caffeine, ask how many grams go in. Second, the range is honest: two tins of matcha can differ by more than two to one in caffeine, so no page can give you a single number, including this one. ^[1]

The other thing in the leaf is L-theanine, the amino acid that shading increases and that the small clinical trials on matcha are about. If you want the comparison with coffee, including what those trials do and do not show, it is on the matcha vs coffee page.

What does the milk add?

Everything except caffeine. Your matcha shot on its own is a few calories; the milk you pour on it sets the rest. Here is a 180 mL pour, which is what a standard latte uses, by USDA's figures per 100 g.

The sugar in dairy milk is lactose, the same 5 g per 100 g whether you pick whole or skim; what changes between those rows is the fat you get. Oat milk is the café favourite because it foams and tastes sweet, but its sugar varies by brand and the barista editions add oil, so read the carton. ^[2]

Then there is what the café adds to yours. Starbucks describes its matcha latte as matcha, milk and classic syrup, so your drink is sweetened unless you ask for no syrup, and many shops use a pre-sweetened matcha blend rather than plain powder. The green colour tells you nothing about the sugar. If you want to know what you are drinking, ask whether the matcha is plain and whether syrup goes in. ^[4]

What does a matcha latte taste like?

Grassy, savoury and a little sweet, with the bitterness sitting underneath the milk instead of on top of it, so you taste it last. Good shaded matcha has an umami depth that people call rich or brothy, and a clean, sweet finish; that is what the ceremonial grade label on your tin is pointing at. Culinary grades taste more like a strong green tea and lean bitter, which is fine under milk and syrup and less fine if you drink them plain. ^[1]

The milk changes it more than you would expect. Oat makes it creamy and sweet, almond thin and nutty, dairy rounder. Iced, the bitterness drops and the drink reads as fresh; hot, you get the grassiness up front. If your first matcha latte tasted like a lawn, the matcha was probably culinary grade and the water too hot.

How do you make a matcha latte at home?

You need matcha, a small whisk or frother, a sieve, and milk. The maker's ratio is 1 to 2 g of matcha in 2 oz of water for the shot, then a cup of milk; the tutorials that chase café strength go to 3 or 4 g with 40 g of water and 100 to 120 g of milk. Start yourself at 2 g and move up. ^[3]

1. Sift. Push the matcha through a small sieve into your bowl or mug. This is the step that stops clumps, and it matters more than the whisk you use.
2. Water, not boiling. Pour in about 60 mL of water off the boil, around 80 C. Boiling water makes your matcha bitter.
3. Whisk. Use a bamboo whisk or a handheld frother in a fast zigzag until the surface is smooth and lightly foamed, about 20 seconds. Do not stir in circles; you will get clumps.
4. Milk. Hot: steam or warm 180 mL and pour the matcha over it. Iced: fill your glass with ice, add cold milk, and pour the matcha on top.
5. Sweeten last, if at all. Taste it first. A teaspoon of honey or maple syrup is plenty; the café version has more than that in it before you taste it.

Never whisk matcha straight into cold milk. It will not dissolve and you will drink clumps. The small amount of hot water is what does the work for you.

What to do

• Want tea-strength caffeine? 2 g of matcha. That is 28 to 68 mg, under a cup of green tea at the low end and under a cup of coffee at the high end.
• Want it to replace your coffee? 4 g, or ask the café for a double scoop. You are then in espresso-shot to brewed-coffee territory.
• Watching sugar? Order it unsweetened, ask whether the matcha blend itself is sweetened, and pick dairy or unsweetened almond over oat.
• Making it at home? Sift, 80 C water, whisk until smooth, then milk. Buy a ceremonial grade if you drink it unsweetened and a culinary grade if you always add syrup.
• Want the strawberry version? Muddled strawberries and a teaspoon of sugar in the glass, ice, milk, matcha on top.

The short version

Your matcha latte is 2 g of whisked green tea powder topped with milk, hot or iced. The caffeine comes only from the powder, 28 to 68 mg at 2 g and up to 136 mg at 4 g, against 95 mg in a cup of coffee. The milk sets your calories, about 90 for 180 mL of 2 percent, and cafés add syrup by default. Sift it, whisk it in 80 C water, pour it over the milk, and sweeten after you taste it.