"matcha" news and stories

After having successfully brought the coffee shop chain Tully's to Japan and helped to make coffee tremendously popular there, Kouta Matsuda is returning to the United States with the hopes of returning the favor with a different beverage. He has a chain of successful cafes in Japan that specialize in matcha. With his drinks, he is hoping to do for green tea what Starbucks did for coffee.

His company, Foodx Globe, recently opened its first US Koots Green Tea cafe in Bellevue, Washington, just outside of Seattle. Decorated in bamboo and Asian prints, the cafe specializes in a variety of drinks all made with matcha, a powdered green tea, and other Asian drinks. The menu includes offerings such as matcha Americanos and white chocolate matcha lattes, in addition to black sesame smoothies and tapioca pearl teas.

While specialty teas are growing in popularity, matcha is a fairly new player in the US tea scene. It has been helped along by Starbucks green tea lattes and frappuccinos, but bringing a coffee drinker over to the "green side" might be an uphill battle. Matsuda is planning his expansion slowly, with a few choice west coast locations to open over the next year or two.

[Image Seattle Times]

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Starbucks is releasing their new Green Tea Latte in the US today. The green tea lattes are already available at many other Starbucks locations throughout the world. Unlike their Green Tea Frappuccino from last summer, which was made with a premixed base, the tea latte is built just like a regular latte - with freshly steamed milk. They are flavored with matcha, which is powdered green tea, a a splash of melon-flavored syrup. If you like the flavor of the green tea and don't want to cover it up with the melon flavor, take Hungry Girl's advice and ask for your latte to be made with half the amount of syrup. Alternatively, try vanilla syrup instead of the melon altogether.

Just please don't ask the baristas to add a shot of espresso to your tea drink. I know that I have seen a lot of people do it, but it's just not right.

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