We Sampled Matcha Beverages from 10 Popular Coffee Chains and Ranked Them from Best to Worst

Matcha sure seems to be everywhere these days, and it’s about time. In Japan, matcha has been around since the 12th century but it’s only in recent years that people in the United States started to regularly drink matcha. Now, you can find matcha lattes at various coffee shops and matcha-flavored baked goods at restaurants and bakeries. Matcha is different from regular green tea: To make matcha, the green tea leaves are grown into a fine powder that is then whisked to make tea. Since you’re essentially drinking ground tea leaves instead of brewed leaves, matcha contains more caffeine than green tea and it tends to have a grassier flavor.

The popularity of the drink was partially thanks to matcha’s health benefits, but consumers around the world have grown to love the grassy, nutty, and slightly bitter flavor of matcha. Naturally, coffee chains in the United States have jumped on the trend. Many coffee chains in the country are now offering matcha lattes on their menus, from major players like Starbucks to specialty coffee shops like Blue Bottle Coffee. We set out to personally taste them, rank them and find the best one. 

Paris Baguette is a bakery and cafe chain from South Korea. The chain started in 1988 and now has more than 4000 locations around the world, including around 200 locations across 20 different U.S. states. On the cafe side, Paris Baguette serves coffee drinks made using Lavazza coffee, but it also offers tea drinks, including matcha latte.

I ordered the matcha latte using regular or whole milk. Unfortunately, despite the promising green color, the latte didn’t really taste like matcha. Although based on TikTok videos, Paris Baguette’s matcha latte has its fair share of fans, it ended up being my least favorite of the ones that I tried. The latte was quite sweet, but it didn’t have a strong matcha flavor. In the end, the drink just tasted like sweetened milk to me. Perhaps customers who don’t like the grassy bitterness of matcha would prefer this latte, but I personally want to taste the flavor of the tea. 

I also thought the drink was way too sweet, though I can see how it would appeal to people who like their lattes very sweet. A 12 ounce matcha latte here apparently has 49 grams of sugar. Getting the iced matcha latte at Paris Baguette instead of the hot version is also probably the better move. The ice would help dilute all the sugar, at least.

Founded in 1963, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is certainly one of the most well-established coffee chains in the United States. Today, the company has 1100 coffee shops around the world with a big presence in Asia. According to The Coffee Bean’s website, the chain uses a blend of ceremonial grade matcha and its signature French Deluxe vanilla powder combined with milk to make its matcha latte. Because the matcha and vanilla powders are already blended together, you can’t adjust or customize the sweetness of the latte at The Coffee Bean. 

I opted for the matcha latte with whole milk. The matcha flavor is pretty mild, but the latte overall is creamy and sweet. There’s a distinct vanilla flavor from the powder mix and only a very slight bitterness from the matcha. It’s a decent, sweet drink but it could use a stronger matcha flavor. After I drank the latte halfway through, it started to taste a little too sweet for my personal taste. According to FatSecret, a 12 ounce matcha latte from The Coffee Bean has 40 grams of sugar. Fans of The Coffee Bean’s matcha latte can purchase the latte powder to make the drink at home, and the product description indicates that the matcha used in the mix is grown in Japan’s Shizuoka prefecture.

Peet’s Coffee is a long-standing coffee chain that first opened in 1966 in Berkeley, California. The company now has 370 locations around the United States, China, and Dubai. It has also acquired other coffee brands like Stumptown and Intelligentsia. In 2023, it became the largest coffee company in the world. 

Peet’s Coffee first introduced matcha latte to its menus back in 2013. According to the company’s own blog, Peet’s Coffee organic, ceremonial matcha in all the coffee shops. The matcha comes from Kagoshima and Shizuoka and you can purchase the matcha powder on its own. The matcha powder is sold under the Mighty Leaf brand, which Peet’s Coffee acquired in 2014. 

According to the barista I spoke to, a regular order of a 12 ounce latte comes with three pumps of syrup and uses 2% milk, so that’s what I ordered. The latte was sweet, but thankfully not overly so (27 grams of sugar in a small size matcha latte). However, like with many of the drinks from these chains, I found the matcha flavor rather mild. 

7 Leaves Cafe is a Vietnamese-American-owned chain of coffee shops that started in Southern California. The first locations opened in Little Saigon in Orange County back in 2012. Today, the brand has 45 locations across four different states, having expanded into Nevada, Arizona, and Texas. 7 Leaves offers Asian-style drinks like Vietnamese coffee, Thai tea, and milk tea, and it also has a hot matcha latte on the menu.

The matcha latte here is pretty creamy and not too sweet. Plus, you can distinctly taste the matcha flavor, with the signature notes of bitterness. Though I wasn’t able to find out the details about the matcha the company uses, I thought the flavor was pretty good, even if it was not the best I’ve had. The coffee shop actually uses pre-sweetened matcha mix for the drinks, and they use less of the powder for customers who ask for the drinks less sweet. Unfortunately, that would also mean the drink would end up having milder matcha taste. On the other hand, as typical of Asian-owned coffee and dessert shops, even the standard order isn’t typically too sweet. 

The Australian-style coffee shop chain Bluestone Lane actually started in the United States, opening its first location in New York City back in 2013. Bluestone Lane now has around 55 locations around the country. At this particular chain, the matcha latte is listed under the “wellness” section of the menu. The matcha latte, along with the other two lattes (turmeric and beet) in the wellness section, were introduced to the menu in 2016. According to the barista I spoke to, all “wellness” drinks are made with almond milk by default unless the customer asks otherwise.

While Bluestone Lane currently has some limited-time drinks like banana cream matcha latte and strawberry cheesecake matcha that sound great for those looking for a sweeter drink, I opted for the standard matcha latte with almond milk for comparison purposes. Bluestone Lane’s matcha latte is not sweetened, but it has a nice grassy flavor. I thought the flavor of the matcha came through more in this latte compared to some of the other chains. According to the brand’s Instagram account, it uses ceremonial grade matcha for all the matcha drinks. Because it’s made with almond milk, it’s not as rich as some of the other matcha lattes, as well. My main complaint would be that the drink came out too hot.

The founders of La Colombe Coffee Roasters started off by roasting coffee in their apartment back in 1994. The company now has 30 locations across six states and a line of ready-to-drink canned lattes. It’s also known for its contributions to various social and environmental causes. La Colombe was wholly focused on coffee for a long time, so matcha was introduced rather late to the menu and only made an appearance starting in 2023.

La Colombe doesn’t offer an unsweetened matcha latte. The standard offering is the vanilla matcha latte, which was what I ordered for the purpose of this side-by-side comparison.  The standard matcha latte tasted very smooth and creamy. While I could taste the earthy flavor of the matcha and enjoyed the latte itself, I found the flavor rather mild. I could definitely have used an extra school of matcha powder. As a seasonal special, La Colombe also currently offers a strawberry matcha latte made with oat milk. I think this is the better order here (while it’s available), as the strawberry flavor really comes through nicely in that drink. 

Starbucks needs no introduction. The Seattle-based company has grown to perhaps the most recognizable coffee brand in the world. There are more than 40,000 Starbucks locations globally, with representation in almost every country in the world. 

Starbucks was an early adopter of matcha, having introduced the tea latte back in 2006. Back then, Starbucks called the drink Green Tea Latte, although it was made with matcha powder. The drink was later renamed as matcha latte, perhaps once matcha became well-known enough among its customer base. 

In January of 2025, Starbucks actually changed its matcha powder — for the better, in my opinion. Before the switch, Starbucks’ matcha powder was mixed in with sugar, so the drink was sweet from the get-go with no option to reduce the sweetness level. Now, Starbucks uses unsweetened matcha powder, allowing customers to adjust the sweetness level (the standard drink would have two pumps of syrup in a 12 ounce drink, which is a total of 21 grams of sugar). There’s a nice flavor from the matcha, as well, with the signature grassy notes and bitterness. I ordered my matcha latte to be made with regular milk, and the latte does seem a little watery for a drink that is supposedly made with whole milk. Otherwise, Starbucks serves up a pretty good matcha latte that I would happily order again.

Dunkin’, formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts, is a Massachusetts-based chain that’s very popular in New England. It was founded in 1950 and it’s certainly the largest coffee and donut brand in the country. Dunkin’ has more than 14,000 locations around the world. The brand is typically known as a place to grab a quick cup of coffee (and donuts, of course), but Dunkin’ also introduced matcha to its menus in 2020. The company uses matcha produced in the Aichi prefecture of Japan.

The matcha latte at Dunkin’ is pre-sweetened with cane sugar, but fortunately, I did not find it too sweet. In fact, I found the Dunkin’s matcha latte to have surprisingly good flavor with distinctly grassy notes, even if it isn’t as complex as higher-quality matcha. Dunkin’s matcha latte is sweet enough to be approachable for people who aren’t regular matcha drinkers yet strong enough in flavor to satisfy people looking for that distinct matcha taste. The matcha latte here isn’t that creamy, but I still enjoyed it. For customers who want the drink to be sweeter, the latte is customizable with different flavored sweeteners, though I opted to stick with the standard order.

The first Stumptown Coffee Roasters’ location opened in Portland in 1999. Today, the company operates coffee shops in Portland, New York, Pasadena (California), and Kyoto (Japan). This coffee company is considered one of the best coffee roasters in the country, but how is the matcha?

At Stumptown, the staff will ask whether you want the matcha latte sweet at all. If you don’t ask for sweeteners, the matcha latte here comes completely unsweetened. Even compared to other unsweetened lattes I had on this list, Stumptown’s matcha latte definitely tasted the least sweet. The matcha flavor comes through in this drink, and it is earthy. 

Stumptown uses matcha from Spirit Tea, a specialty tea importer that sources matcha from different parts of Japan. According to Spirit Tea’s website, Stumptown started carrying Spirit Tea’s products in 2019. Stumptown hand-whisks the matcha to order. Since 2023, Stumptown has used Oatly oat milk as the default milk for all orders. While I’m generally a fan of Oatly, I found the oat milk a little too rich and overwhelming against the earthy matcha. The choice of milk, in this case, is my only complaint about Stumptown’s matcha latte.

Blue Bottle Coffee was started by a struggling musician who was roasting coffee beans in his apartment. The company’s reputation grew because of its commitment to selling freshly roasted coffee and it’s now also known for sourcing high-quality, sustainable coffee from around the world. Nestlé purchased a majority stake in the company in 2017, and Blue Bottle now has around 100 locations in the U.S. and in Asia.

Blue Bottle started serving matcha in 2023. The company uses ceremonial grade matcha that has been stone-ground. The matcha here comes from Uji, the region of Japan that is most famous for matcha. The latte is rich and creamy as it was made with whole milk. Although I personally would prefer a stronger matcha flavor profile, I could certainly still taste the flavor of the matcha and tell that it was of good quality. This latte was overall a very smooth drink without being too sweet. On another note, Blue Bottle’s matcha latte was the perfect temperature to drink right off the bat. Overall, this was a well-crafted and well-balanced matcha latte made with high-quality ingredients. Blue Bottle’s matcha latte deserves the top spot on this list. 

I personally visited and tasted matcha latte at each coffee chain that has a location around Los Angeles. For this list, I chose coffee chains that have locations in more than one state rather than including LA-specific chains. At each coffee shop, I made sure to order the standard matcha latte that the brand offers. While all of the coffee shops I visited offered matcha lattes, both iced and hot, all the lattes were ordered hot so I could make a consistent comparison. I made no adjustment to the sweetness level, and I opted for the default milk each time, making sure to taste the drinks as the brand regularly serves them. The drinks are ranked according to: 1) the quality of the matcha used, 2) whether you can actually taste the matcha in the final drink, and 3) the overall taste of the latte.