Portland has quietly become a very good matcha city. We are obviously not neutral, but we drink a lot of tea that is not ours, and we think a genuinely useful guide is more valuable than a sales pitch. Here is where we go, what to order, and what to know before you do.
What separates a good matcha from a mediocre one
Before the list, a few things worth watching for. They will tell you more about a cafe than the menu does.
The color of the powder. If you can see it, a vivid saturated green means fresh, shade grown, early harvest leaf. Dull or olive means the opposite.
Whether they sift. Cafes that sift are cafes that care. It takes ten seconds and it is the difference between a smooth drink and a gritty one.
Water temperature. Boiling water scorches matcha and turns it bitter. Around 175 degrees Fahrenheit is right.
Whether they will tell you the origin. Ask where the matcha comes from. Somewhere good will know the region, and often the farm.
Tea Bar
Ours, at 1055 Northwest Northrup. We source single origin, first flush matcha from one small family farm in Uji, Japan, and it is stone ground fresh and shipped to us every month rather than sitting in storage.
Order the ceremonial whisked with water if you want to taste the tea itself. Order a matcha latte with housemade almond if you want the version people come back for. In summer, ask for it iced.
Explore the whole city
Portland rewards wandering. The Pearl District, Northwest 23rd, Alberta Street, Division, and Southeast Hawthorne all have cafes worth a detour, and new ones open regularly. If a place lists the origin of its matcha on the menu, that is usually a very good sign about everything else they do.
We would rather you drink good matcha anywhere than mediocre matcha from us.
How to order like you know what you are doing
Ask for it less sweet. Most cafes sweeten heavily by default. Good matcha does not need much, and sweetness masks the very thing you are paying for.
Try it with oat milk before dairy. Oat milk has a natural sweetness and a body that flatters matcha. Dairy can flatten the more delicate notes.
Order a usucha at least once. Usucha is matcha whisked with water alone, no milk and nothing added. It is the only way to know what a cafe is actually working with.
Take some home
If you want to make it yourself, our Ceremonial Matcha and Daily Matcha are the same tea we pour in the shop, and our Ceremonial Matcha Gift Set includes the whisk, holder, and bowl to go with it.
Come find us at 1055 Northwest Northrup. Tell us where else you have been drinking, we genuinely want to know.