The Life — How to
How to make a matcha latte
A matcha latte is a bowl of matcha with milk around it, and the order matters: make the tea first, then add the milk. The Kyoto house Ippodo publishes its own ratio — 3 g of matcha, 100 ml of hot water, 100 ml of milk — and it is a good place to start, because it is stronger than most café lattes and the tea is still audible in it. Here is that recipe, the variations, and what to change when it tastes like green milk.
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In short
- Ippodo's recipe: sift 3 g of matcha, add 100 ml of water at 80°C, whisk 15 seconds in an M, then add 100 ml of warm or foamed milk. Iced: pour the same matcha over 100 ml of cold milk and ice.
- Paste first, milk second. Powder stirred straight into milk clumps, because milk fat coats the particles.
- Use a thin-tea blend with a little astringency — Ippodo recommends its light and medium blends for lattes; a delicate top blend vanishes behind milk, a cooking grade tastes sharp.
How do you make a matcha latte? The short answer
Sift 3 g of matcha into a bowl or mug. Add 100 ml of water at about 80°C — boiled water poured once into a cup and then into the bowl lands there — and whisk vigorously for 15 seconds in an M pattern until smooth and lightly foamed. Pour in 100 ml of warm or foamed milk. That is the recipe Ippodo, the Kyoto house founded in 1717, publishes for its own matcha, and it makes a latte in which the tea is still the point.
The recipe, step by step
This is Ippodo’s published method, with the reasons filled in.
- Sift 3 g of matcha. Two heaping bamboo scoops, or 1.5 level teaspoons. Sifting through a fine strainer removes the clumps that static and humidity form in the tin; unsifted powder is the single most common cause of a lumpy latte.
- Add 100 ml of water at 80°C. Pour boiling water into a teacup first to cool it, then into the bowl. Hotter water pulls bitterness forward; cooler water leaves the base flat.
- Whisk 15 seconds. Fast, from the wrist, in an M shape, with the tines just off the bottom. The base should be smooth, bright green and lightly foamed. A handheld frother does the same job a little more coarsely.
- Add 100 ml of milk. Warm or foamed, poured into the base. If you foam it, do so before pouring. Sweeten, if you like, in the base before the milk.
The whole thing takes two minutes once the kettle has boiled, and the result is a 200 ml latte at one part tea to one part milk — stronger and greener than most café versions, which is why Ippodo’s ratio is the one to learn first. You can thin it from there; you cannot rescue a thin one.
Paste first, milk second
The one rule that separates a smooth latte from a lumpy one. Matcha is powder, and powder stirred into milk clumps: the fat in milk coats the dry particles and water cannot reach them, so the lumps stay. Whisked into hot water first, the powder disperses completely, and the milk can be added at any temperature without trouble. This is why every method on this page begins with the same 15 seconds of whisking in water, and why “matcha latte powder” mixes that dissolve in milk contain sugar and milk solids to make it possible.
The ratios
| Latte | Matcha | Water | Milk | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ippodo’s house recipe | 3 g | 100 ml at 80°C | 100 ml warm or foamed | Strong, green, tea-forward; 1:1 |
| Café-style, hot | 2–3 g | 30–40 ml at 80°C | 150–250 ml steamed | Milk-forward; the coffee-shop cup |
| Light, hot | 2 g | 30 ml | 150 ml | Gentle; for a delicate blend or a second cup |
| Iced (Ippodo) | 3 g | 100 ml at 80°C | 100 ml cold, plus ice | Hot base over cold milk and ice, unstirred |
| Iced, café-style | 2–3 g | 30–40 ml | 200 ml cold, plus ice | Milk-forward; sweeten the base |
| Shaken, no milk | 2 g | 200 ml cold | — | Not a latte; a light iced matcha |
Ippodo's ratios are from its published recipes. Café-style and light quantities are common practice rather than a standard. Below about 1 g of matcha per 100 ml of milk, the tea reads as color rather than taste.
Which matcha
A latte hides half of what a good matcha does — the fine bitterness, the aroma, the foam — and exposes the other half: body, and whether the tea can be tasted through milk. That changes the choice of tin.
Ippodo says this plainly on its own site. For lattes it recommends its light and medium categories: light blends such as Wakaki have less body and more astringency, which balances the milk’s sweetness; medium blends such as Ikuyo, one of its top latte recommendations, add body while keeping a slight astringency that pairs with milk; rich blends such as Seiun have less astringency and more sweetness on their own, and suit a latte only if you want an exceptionally creamy, full-bodied cup. Its product pages give the same serving sizes across the range — 2 g for usucha, 3 g for a latte, 4 g for koicha — so the latte is always the bowl plus a gram.
The same logic applies to any house. Marukyu Koyamaen’s thin-tea names at the foot of its ladder — Aoarashi, Isuzu — are the ones most used in milk; its koicha-tagged blends are wasted there. A cooking grade works in milk but tastes sharp and flat; a delicate top usucha vanishes. The tin to buy for lattes is a first-harvest thin-tea blend from the lower half of a maker’s range, and it is usually the better value as well.
Which milk
Whichever you like, and Ippodo’s own answer is soy, for its round taste. In practice: whole dairy milk foams best and tastes fullest, and its fat softens the tea most; oat milk is the plant milk that holds up most reliably and foams well; soy is round and slightly sweet; almond is thin and lets more of the tea through, which some people prefer. Steam or froth the milk before pouring, not after — foaming a finished latte breaks the base. For an iced latte the milk goes in cold and unfoamed, and the contrast of green over white is half the pleasure; look at it before you stir.
Sweetening
Taste it plain first. Milk supplies most of the softness a latte needs, and a good thin-tea blend at Ippodo’s ratio is sweet enough for many people without anything added. If you want sugar, honey or syrup, stir it into the whisked base before the milk, where it dissolves; a teaspoon is plenty. Sweeteners added to the finished cup sink and stay.
Without a whisk
A bamboo whisk makes the smoothest base, and a handheld electric frother makes a good one: powder and 100 ml of hot water in a mug, frother in for thirty seconds. A jar with a tight lid, shaken hard, makes an acceptable base for an iced latte. A spoon does not; the lumps survive. If you use a frother often, keep it out of a ceramic bowl, which it scratches, and rinse it after every use.
What goes wrong
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Lumps | Powder into milk, or unsifted | Sift; whisk into water first |
| Green milk, no tea | Too little powder for the milk | 3 g to 100 ml milk, or add a gram |
| Sharp, flat, bitter | Cooking-grade powder, or water too hot | A thin-tea blend; water at 80°C |
| Nothing but milk | A delicate top blend | A lighter blend with some astringency |
| Grainy bottom | Base not whisked smooth | 15 seconds, fast, from the wrist |
| Foam collapses | Milk foamed after pouring | Foam first, then pour |
Caffeine
A latte is not a lighter drink than a bowl; it is a bowl with milk around it. Caffeine follows the powder — about 32 mg per gram by Japan’s food composition tables — so Ippodo’s 3 g latte carries about 96 mg, a 2 g one about 64 mg, and a two-teaspoon café latte at 4 g about 128 mg, against 80–100 mg for an 8-ounce coffee by the FDA’s figure. Milk, ice and the size of the cup change nothing. If you want the ritual with less of the dose, use 2 g, or make the latte earlier in the day; a half-life of about five to six hours puts half of a 3 p.m. latte still in your blood at bedtime.
Numbers at a glance
- Ippodo’s recipe: 3 g matcha, 100 ml water at 80°C, 15 seconds whisking, 100 ml milk. Iced: the same base over 100 ml cold milk and ice.
- Serving sizes (Ippodo): usucha 2 g, latte 3 g, koicha 4 g.
- Café-style: 2–3 g, 30–40 ml water, 150–250 ml milk.
- Floor: about 1 g of matcha per 100 ml of milk before the tea becomes a color.
- Matcha for lattes: light or medium thin-tea blends with some astringency; Ippodo names Wakaki and Ikuyo.
- Caffeine: about 32 mg per gram — 96 mg at 3 g, 64 at 2 g, 128 at 4 g.
Sources
- Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine Is Too Much? — U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2023)
- Ippodo Tea — official site — Ippodo Tea
- Marukyu Koyamaen — official site — Marukyu Koyamaen
Questions people actually ask
What is the ratio of matcha to milk for a latte?
Ippodo's house recipe is 3 g of matcha to 100 ml of hot water and 100 ml of milk — one part matcha base to one part milk. Café-style lattes run thinner: 2–3 g to 30–40 ml of water and 150–250 ml of milk. Below about 1 g of matcha per 100 ml of milk, the tea becomes a color rather than a taste.
Why does my matcha latte clump?
The powder went into the milk, or into the water unsifted. Sift the matcha, whisk it into hot water until smooth, and only then add milk. Milk fat coats dry powder and water cannot reach it, which is why milk-first lattes are lumpy.
Which matcha is best for lattes?
A thin-tea (usucha) blend with a little astringency. Ippodo recommends its light category (such as Wakaki) for a latte that balances the milk's sweetness, its medium category (Ikuyo) for more body, and its rich category (Seiun) only if you want an exceptionally creamy, full-bodied cup. Delicate top blends are wasted in milk; cooking grades taste sharp.
What milk is best for a matcha latte?
Whichever you like; Ippodo often uses soy for its round taste. Whole dairy milk foams best and tastes fullest; oat milk holds up well and foams; almond is thin. Froth the milk before pouring, not after.
How do I make an iced matcha latte?
Make the matcha base the same way — 3 g in 100 ml of 80°C water, whisked — then pour it over 100 ml of cold milk and a glass of ice. Ippodo's rule: one part hot matcha, one part cold milk, topped with ice. Do not stir until you have looked at it.
How much caffeine is in a matcha latte?
It follows the grams of powder, about 32 mg per gram by Japan's food tables: a 3 g latte is about 96 mg, a 2 g one about 64 mg, a two-teaspoon café latte at 4 g about 128 mg. Milk, ice and cup size change nothing.
Can I make a matcha latte without a whisk?
Yes. A handheld milk frother in a cup with the powder and a splash of hot water makes a smooth base in thirty seconds, and a jar shaken hard works for iced. The bamboo whisk makes a finer base; the frother is the honest substitute.
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