Matcha Latte Recipe: Hot, Iced and the Best Milk to Use
Updated · by Andriy Lytvyn
A matcha latte that tastes of warm milk and dry hay usually gets blamed on matcha. Matcha itself is not the problem. A tired or low-grade powder is. Good matcha powder is sweet, fresh and grassy, with a savoury edge that still comes through the milk. Old powder tastes bitter and earthy, and no amount of milk fixes it. The quickest way to tell the two apart sounds backwards: taste the matcha with water alone, before any milk goes near it.
The two recipes come first. The rest of this guide covers milk, sweetening, choosing a matcha that holds up under milk, and why a good tin deserves a bowl without milk too. To browse as you read, open our matcha collection.
In this guide
- The short answer: how to make a matcha latte
- Hot matcha latte recipe
- Iced matcha latte recipe
- How much matcha for a latte
- The best milk for a matcha latte
- Sweetening and flavouring
- How to choose matcha for a latte
- Matcha without milk is worth trying
- When it comes out clumpy or bitter
- Caffeine, L-theanine and calories
- Is a matcha latte good for you?
- Where to start
- Frequently asked questions
The short answer: how to make a matcha latte
A matcha latte is matcha powder whisked into a little hot water, then topped with milk. Sift 2 g of matcha, whisk it with 50 ml of water at 80 °C until it foams, then pour in 150 ml of milk warmed to 40 to 50 °C and frothed. For an iced matcha latte, make the same base and pour it over ice and cold milk. Either way it takes about five minutes. Dairy gives the most foam on a hot latte, and oat milk holds its foam longest over ice.
Three details decide whether the cup tastes of tea or only of milk: a sieve against clumps, water no hotter than 80 °C, and a matcha powder that is bright green and fresh. For the latte itself, our Tokusei Matcha is the one to reach for, a stone-milled Uji powder blended to hold its own under milk.
Hot matcha latte recipe
A hot matcha latte takes three moves: sift, whisk with hot water, add warm frothed milk. Matcha powder is milled so fine that it clumps in the tin, so keep the sieve step even in a hurry.
Makes 1 cup (200 ml). Prep 3 minutes, cook 2 minutes, total 5 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 g matcha powder (about 1 level teaspoon)
- 50 ml water at 80 °C
- 150 ml milk, dairy or plant-based
- Honey or syrup to taste (optional)
Method
- Sift 2 g of matcha through a small tea strainer into a bowl or a wide mug.
- Pour in 50 ml of water at 80 °C and whisk in a quick zigzag for about 15 seconds, until fine foam covers the surface and no powder is left on the bottom.
- Heat 150 ml of milk to about 40 to 50 °C, warm to the touch.
- Froth it until it is thick and glossy on top.
- Pour the frothed milk into the matcha, spoon the foam over it and sweeten if you like.
Water at 80 °C, milk at 40 to 50 °C
In Japan, matcha is whisked with water at 70 to 80 °C. The Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute gives that range for a standard bowl of about 2 g and tells you to sift the powder first. Without a thermometer, boil the kettle, pour the water into a cup and let it stand until it stops steaming hard.
Milk has its own sweet spot. Dairy foaming research finds skim-milk foam most stable when it is formed at 40 to 50 °C, and a separate study put the peak at 45 °C. A latte made in that band is warm enough to drink straight away. Heat the milk further if you like it hotter, and the foam will settle sooner.
Without a bamboo whisk: frother or jar
A handheld milk frother or a lidded jar will get you a smooth latte. Matcha is traditionally whisked with a chasen, the bamboo whisk, but a drink with milk in it does not need one. A frother gives coarser foam, which a latte hides. Use the frother in a tall mug, lower it to the bottom before you switch it on, and run it until no dry powder clings to the sides.
A jam jar suits the iced version better than a frother. Shake the sifted matcha hard with a little cold or room-temperature water, then pour in the cold milk and shake again. Never shake hot water in a sealed jar, because the lid can pop.
Iced matcha latte recipe
An iced matcha latte starts with the same hot base, poured over ice and cold milk. Powder tipped straight into a cold glass of dairy or oat clumps, so it is mixed with a little water first.
Makes 1 glass (200 ml plus ice). Prep 5 minutes, total 5 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 g matcha powder (about 1 level teaspoon), or 3 g for a stronger glass
- 50 ml water at 80 °C
- 150 ml cold milk
- A glass of ice
- Syrup to taste (optional)
Method
- Sift the matcha powder into a bowl or jug.
- Add 50 ml of water at 80 °C and whisk for about 15 seconds until smooth and foamy.
- Fill a tall glass with ice.
- Pour in 150 ml of cold milk, and stir in syrup now if you use it.
- Pour the matcha slowly over the back of a spoon so it floats in a green layer, then stir before you drink.
Keeping an iced latte strong to the last sip
Ice melts as you drink, and a glass left on the desk for half an hour turns thin and pale. If you sip slowly, use 3 g of matcha and fill the glass with large ice cubes, which melt more slowly than small ones.
How much matcha for a latte
Most cups need 2 g of matcha, about one level teaspoon. Go up to 3 g for a glass full of ice or a plant drink with a strong taste of its own. Recipes from Japanese tea producers and home cooks sit in the same 2 to 3 g range.
| Style | Matcha | Water at 80 °C | Milk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | 2 g | 50 ml | 180 ml |
| Standard | 2 g | 50 ml | 150 ml |
| Strong | 3 g | 50 ml | 150 ml |
| Iced | 2 to 3 g | 50 ml | 150 ml cold, plus ice |
Teaspoons vary, and a heaped one holds far more than a level one. If you make matcha lattes every day, a kitchen scale that reads to 0.1 g ends the guessing.
The best milk for a matcha latte
Dairy makes the most foam on a hot matcha latte, and oat milk holds its foam longest in an iced one. That is what a 2024 lab test of eight milks found when it frothed dairy and plant drinks side by side. Hot, cow's milk gave the most foam. Cold, the oat, soy and almond drinks all kept their foam better than cow's milk, and oat lasted longest.
The results depend on the protein and fat in each carton, so two oat brands can behave quite differently. Taste first, and let foam settle a tie.
Dairy milk
Cow's milk has a natural sweetness that sits well with the grassy side of matcha. Whole milk makes a rich, creamy cup that softens it, but its extra fat makes a looser foam. Semi-skimmed foams tighter, so it is the better pick for a hot latte. Over ice, its cold foam fades quickly, so a dairy iced latte is best stirred well and drunk smooth.
Matcha latte with oat milk
An oat milk matcha latte needs 3 g of matcha. The cereal taste of oat covers a smaller dose, and at 2 g the cup can end up tasting of oats and little else. The extra gram brings the green back.
In the cup, oat milk gives a soft, creamy latte with a gentle cereal note under the green. Some oat drinks are sweetened as well, and a latte made with one may need no syrup at all.
Soy, almond and coconut milk
Soy makes a fuller cup with a beany note that some people like with matcha, and it carries more protein than most plant drinks. Almond gives a thinner, lighter latte, slightly nutty. Coconut tastes so strongly of itself that you end up with a coconut drink with some matcha in it. Vanilla and sweetened versions of all three already contain sugar or another sweetener, so taste before you add syrup.
Sweetening and flavouring
Taste a matcha latte before you sweeten it, because good matcha brings some sweetness of its own. High-grade powder carries more amino acids and fewer catechins, the bitter, astringent antioxidants of green tea. The main amino acids are theanine and arginine, and they give the savoury, brothy taste the Japanese call umami.
Honey, syrup and sugar-free sweeteners
If honey is your sweetener, pick a mild one, because a strong honey brings its own flavour. Plain, maple or vanilla syrup dissolves in cold drinks where sugar and honey sink, so it is the easy choice for an iced matcha latte. A sugar-free sweetener goes in last and a little at a time, because some leave a bitter aftertaste.
Vanilla and strawberry matcha lattes
For a vanilla matcha latte, add a few drops of vanilla extract or a little vanilla syrup before you froth. Vanilla rounds off the grassy edge of a plain latte. For a strawberry matcha latte, mash a few strawberries in the bottom of the glass and build the iced recipe on top.
How to choose matcha for a latte
The best matcha for a latte is bright green, finely milled and sweet in plain water. Once milk goes in, colour and a clean sweetness count for more than any word printed on the tin, "ceremonial grade" included.
Colour comes first
Japan grades matcha informally, and colour is one of the main quality cues. Greener powder usually means a higher grade. The dull olive or khaki tone of a tired powder is chlorophyll breaking down into pheophytin, and you can see it the moment the lid comes off.
Shading, L-theanine and price
Matcha shares one step with gyokuro. Shading the tea bushes before harvest raises theanine and chlorophyll in the leaf and lowers several catechins. High-grade samples also carry less EGC, the catechin behind much of green tea's astringency.
Grade shows up in the lab too. A 2018 comparison of powdered green teas sold in the US found that the more expensive matchas had more than 15 mg of L-theanine per gram, and the cheap ones under 7 mg. Two green powders that look alike on a shelf can differ more than twice over in one of the amino acids behind matcha's savoury sweetness.
What "ceremonial grade" means on a tin
"Ceremonial grade" is not an official Japanese grade. Japan sets no official chemical requirements for grading matcha, and the term is an export label, found mostly on matcha sold outside Japan. The closest thing to a rule is a 2019 labelling standard from the Japan Tea Central Association, which describes matcha as tencha ground fine, for example in a stone mill.
Most tins carry the ceremonial grade label anyway, ours included. For our stone-milled Uji matcha, it means first-harvest spring leaf, long shading, stone milling, and a powder made to be drunk with water alone. The rarest tin is wasted under milk, so the latte tin and the water tin are two different powders.
A matcha made for milk
Tokusei Matcha blends two cultivars: Okumidori gives the deep green and a mellow sweetness, and Samidori adds a brighter edge. The bushes grow at about 200 m in Ujitawara, southeast of Kyoto, where the Nishide family has refined tea since the 1860s. They are shaded for about three weeks before picking, and the leaf is ground in a granite stone mill. Under milk it stays creamy and sweet at 2 to 3 g, which is the job a latte matcha has to do.
For grade names, origin and what the price of a tin tells you, read our guide on how to choose a good matcha powder.
Matcha without milk is worth trying
Good matcha tastes sweet and savoury with water alone, and the tin that makes your latte makes a bowl too. Tokusei Matcha whisked with water gives a creamy, gently sweet cup with a soft, faintly nutty finish. That bowl is also the fairest test of any tin: a matcha that tastes sweet in plain water is the one that still tastes of matcha under milk.
A thin bowl with water (usucha)
Usucha, the thin everyday bowl, is 2 g of matcha in 60 ml of water at 80 °C. Sift the powder into a warm bowl, add the water and whisk in a quick zigzag for about 15 seconds, until fine foam covers the surface. On a morning when the milk carton is empty, it is a drink in its own right.
Iced matcha with cold water
Cold milk makes matcha clump, but cold water works. Whisked hard, 2 g mixes into 60 ml of fridge-cold water, about 5 °C, in around 15 seconds. Pour it over ice, or top it up with cold water for a longer drink. Whisked cold, matcha tastes greener and fresher than it does hot, and on a hot afternoon it makes a lighter drink than an iced matcha latte.
Koicha, the thick bowl
Koicha doubles the matcha and halves the water: 4 g kneaded slowly into 30 ml of water at 80 °C. Instead of whisking fast, you work the paste with the whisk until it turns smooth and syrupy. Thick tea shows every fault, so only high-grade matcha works at this ratio.
This is where Syuppin Matcha belongs. The name means "exhibition grade", and the tin has won a Prix d'Argent in Paris. It is a single cultivar, Samidori, and leaf fragments and veins are sorted out by hand before milling. It tastes of warm roasted chestnut, the kind of flavour milk would bury. A 30 g tin gives about 15 thin bowls or 7 thick ones.
When it comes out clumpy or bitter
Most lumpy or bitter matcha lattes come down to a skipped sieve, water that is too hot or powder past its best.
Clumps
Sift the matcha powder every time. Dry powder that hits liquid all at once forms lumps, and stirring afterwards rarely gets them all. If lumps still appear, stir a spoonful of the hot water into a smooth paste first, then add the rest and whisk.
Bitterness
Water that is too hot or powder that has gone dull is behind most bitter cups. Japanese producers whisk matcha at 70 to 80 °C, so if a cup at 80 °C still tastes bitter, drop to 70 °C. If the powder already looks olive or khaki in the tin, no temperature will rescue it.
It tastes only of milk
Use more matcha or less milk: go from 2 g to 3 g, or pour 120 ml instead of 150 ml. Oat and coconut drinks are the usual cause, and a sweetened or vanilla carton can hide the tea as well. If the powder tastes flat even in plain water, the tin is past its best, and more powder will not help.
Caffeine, L-theanine and calories
A 2 g matcha latte has about 38 to 89 mg of caffeine, and its calories come mostly from the milk. The caffeine range comes from a 2021 review of matcha caffeine studies, which put the powder at 18.9 to 44.4 mg per gram. A strong 3 g latte works out at roughly 57 to 133 mg; our guide to caffeine in tea compares it with other cups.
Single tins spread even wider: in a 2018 analysis of seven matcha samples, caffeine ran from 5.95 to 44.43 mg per gram. Even so, a matcha latte usually has less caffeine than a cup of coffee, and our matcha vs coffee comparison sets the two drinks side by side.
The same cup carries L-theanine, the amino acid that shading keeps in the leaf. High-grade powder holds more than 15 mg per gram, so a 2 g latte gives about 30 mg or more. A cheap powder under 7 mg per gram gives less than 14 mg.
The USDA food database puts 150 ml of whole milk at about 90 kcal. Semi-skimmed comes to about 70, unsweetened oat drink about 70 and unsweetened almond drink about 25. The matcha itself adds very little, so a spoon of honey or syrup moves the total more than the tea does. Your carton lists its own figure per 100 ml, and that is the one to trust.
Is a matcha latte good for you?
In moderation, a matcha latte is a reasonable everyday drink. The powder is drunk whole, so the cup carries everything in the leaf, caffeine and L-theanine included. Milk lowers some green tea antioxidants and raises others.
In a 2013 study, adding milk, casein or soy protein to green tea brought blood levels of two catechins, EGCG and ECG, down to about 63 to 77% of green tea alone, while two others, EGC and EC, rose. The study used a green tea extract, not matcha, and 24 women, so treat it as a rough guide. Soy protein acted just like milk, so a plant drink does not sidestep the effect.
The claim that milk cancels every benefit goes further than that. It usually traces back to a 2007 study in which milk removed black tea's effect on blood-vessel function, in 16 women.
The lift in energy comes from the caffeine. L-theanine is studied for how it works alongside caffeine, but research on matcha itself is small. In one trial, 23 people took 4 g of matcha, twice the amount in a standard latte, and showed slight gains in attention and psychomotor speed, with no change in mood.
Where to start
For a first cup, make the hot recipe with 2 g of Tokusei Matcha and semi-skimmed milk, or whole milk for a rounder, softer cup. After that, move the dose by half a gram at a time until the latte tastes the way you like it.
Before the tin is half gone, whisk one bowl with water alone. If the thin bowl wins you over, Syuppin Matcha is the next step: the tin to keep for water, as usucha in the morning or koicha when there is time to knead it. Every tin in our matcha collection lists its water and temperature on the product page, and those numbers are a sensible place to begin.
Frequently asked questions
What does a matcha latte taste like?
With good powder it is milky and sweet, with a fresh grassy note and a soft, nutty finish. Poor or old powder tastes bitter and earthy, a bit like dry hay, and that is the taste most people blame on matcha itself.
Is there a downside to a matcha latte every day?
Not much beyond caffeine and added sugar. One 2 g latte is a moderate dose, but it adds up with coffee and other tea, and a late cup can cost you sleep. For something milky in the evening, a hojicha latte, made with roasted green tea, carries less caffeine.
What is a dirty matcha latte?
It is a matcha latte with a shot of espresso in it. The roasted, bitter coffee hides most of the matcha, so use 3 g of powder if you make one, and count the espresso's caffeine on top of the tea's.
Tokusei Matcha or Syuppin Matcha for a latte?
Tokusei Matcha, because it holds its own under milk. Syuppin Matcha, the single-cultivar Samidori, is the one to try once you enjoy matcha with plain water, as a thin bowl in the morning or a thick koicha.
How many lattes does a 30 g tin make?
About 15 at 2 g each, or 10 at 3 g. Weigh the first few cups, because a heaped teaspoon goes through a tin much faster than you plan.