The remarkable ascent of matcha in coffee shops

For the first time, a tea product is the darling of the coffee shop industry. But could matcha usurp espresso’s dominance on the high street, and if it does, will there be enough to go around? Asks Tobias Pearce

22 August 2025

10 min read

A wooden frame for tourist photos of the famous Obuchi Sasaba tea fields with Mount Fuji in the background in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan | Photo credit: Pakpoom Hummed/Shutterstock

For the first time, a tea product is the darling of the coffee industry. But could matcha usurp espresso’s dominance on the high street, and if it does, will there be enough to go around? Asks Tobias Pearce

If a coffee shop sells more tea than coffee, is it still a coffee shop? Amid the meteoric rise of matcha around the world, a growing number will be wrestling with this existential quandary.

It’s easy to see why. Matcha is highly caffeinated, visually appealing, a versatile flavour canvas and boasts health benefits that would make a kale smoothie blush.

Until now, coffee has long outshone tea in hospitality venues. Espresso-based beverages captured the cultural zeitgeist in the 1990s and successfully continued to pique consumer interest with latte art, single-origin and ready-to-drink (RTD).