The Best Matcha in Vancouver
Matcha in Vancouver has grown from a niche order into a café culture of its own, with dedicated tea bars and coffee shops alike whisking it to order. The city’s long-standing ties to Japan, from the historic Japantown along Powell Street to a large Japanese-Canadian community, have made it a natural home for this green tea. Today, matcha lattes appear on menus from Kitsilano to Main Street, and several cafés have built their entire identity around it.
Matcha is made from shade-grown green tea leaves that are steamed, dried and stone-ground into a fine powder. Whisked with water using a bamboo chasen, it becomes a bright green drink with vegetal, slightly bitter notes, a rounded umami and a creamy foam. Ceremonial grades, usually from the first harvest, are meant to be drunk straight, while culinary grades hold their own in lattes and desserts. The most sought-after powders come from Japanese regions with a long tea tradition, such as Uji near Kyoto and Nishio in Aichi.
Vancouver’s matcha cafés serve it in every form: straight in a bowl, as a latte with dairy or oat milk, iced with fruit, or folded into soft serve, tiramisu, cookies and pastries. This list brings together the counters where matcha is prepared with care, from the choice of tea to the whisking, and where the rest of the menu holds up just as well.
A tip when ordering: ask where the powder comes from and which grade is used, since origin and grade shape the colour, sweetness and bitterness in the cup. A vivid green and a fine, lasting foam are good signs. Adjust the sweetness to your taste, and try matcha straight at least once to taste the tea itself. For another caffeine ritual, our list of the best coffee shops in Vancouver covers the city’s espresso and filter coffee counters.
Restaurant selections and local editorial insight provided by Michelle Sproule of Scout Magazine. Descriptions written and edited by Tastet.
Doe Coffee Roasters
Doe is first and foremost a coffee shop and bakery, but the tea side of the menu deserves attention. Matcha and hojicha lattes sit alongside the espresso program, and the real advantage here is that you can pair your drink with one of the café’s laminated pastries. The café on East Hastings has become especially known for croissants in flavours that move beyond the classic butter version, so this is less of a ceremonial matcha stop and more of a very good afternoon combination: something green to drink, something flaky to eat.
Vancouver
O5 Rare Tea Bar
O5 is the place on this list for people who want to go deeper. The Kitsilano tea bar works with rare teas and treats the experience more like a tasting than a conventional café stop. Matcha can be prepared traditionally, and the team is particularly good at explaining what is in the bowl, where it comes from and why it tastes the way it does. It is also one of the few addresses where ordering koicha, the thicker and more concentrated preparation of matcha, makes complete sense. Come here when you want to taste the tea itself rather than cover it with milk and syrup. O5 also offers guided tea tastings and an extensive selection of loose-leaf teas and teaware.
Vancouver
Cultivate Tea
Cultivate turns matcha into something to sit with. The Main Street shop specializes in small-batch teas and guided tastings, including comparative matcha sessions designed to explore differences in origin, cultivar, terroir and preparation. Rather than handing you one house matcha and calling it a day, the experience can involve tasting several side by side. Sessions generally run around 45 minutes to an hour, making Cultivate one of the best choices in Vancouver if your interest in matcha goes beyond the latte.
Vancouver
Slo Coffee Fraser St.
Slo is a coffee shop with a surprisingly convincing tea program. The Fraser Street café serves both matcha and hojicha, but it is the flavoured matcha drinks that tend to make the stop memorable. The pistachio matcha has become one of the signatures people return for. This is not where we would send someone looking for a traditional bowl of matcha; it is where we would send someone who wants the café version to be fun without losing the tea entirely.
Vancouver
NOMAD Coffee & Bakery
Nomad is much more coffee-driven than matcha-driven, and that distinction is worth making. The Kitsilano café is known for its specialty coffee program and its commitment to eliminating single-use cups, but there is also matcha on the menu. What makes it worth including is the setting: a bright, deliberately slower café where laptops and disposable cups are not the centre of the experience. Bring your own cup if you can, sit down, and stay for one of the Korean-influenced bakes, particularly the gochujang scone.
North Vancouver
Steam Teahouse
Tucked into Kerrisdale, Steam feels more like a neighbourhood tea shop than a matcha destination built for Instagram. That is part of its charm. The shop works across loose-leaf teas and Japanese tea drinks, with matcha and hojicha both represented. One of the more distinctive orders is the matcha affogato, where hot, bitter matcha meets vanilla ice cream. There is also a matcha latte and a more stripped-back matcha-cano. Come here if you want a quiet tea stop and something a little different from another iced matcha latte.
Vancouver
Yama Cafe
Yama is one of our favourite versions of this category because the matcha makes sense within the rest of the place. This small Japanese café on East Hastings serves homestyle breakfast and lunch alongside Japanese teas, sweets and specialty drinks. The menu distinguishes between a matcha latte, a matcha café latte and straight matcha, while hojicha, sencha and genmaicha are also available. You can turn the stop into a full meal with one of the Japanese breakfast or rice-bowl sets, or add one of the café’s mochi-based baked treats.
Vancouver
Whisk Matcha Cafe
Whisk is one of the addresses where matcha is not an alternative to coffee: it is the reason the café exists. The Vancouver-born company sources Japanese matcha from independent farms and established tea producers, and opened its Mount Pleasant café in 2020. Its range spans matcha meant to be enjoyed straight and powders selected specifically for lattes, while the café also plays with seasonal drinks, hojicha and plant-based desserts. Whisk says it has built relationships with producers including Marukyu Koyamaen, AOI Seicha and Hoshino Seichaen. There is also oat-based soft serve, which means this is an especially good stop when you cannot decide whether you want to drink your matcha or eat it.
Vancouver
Propaganda coffee
Propaganda has long been better known for its coffee, particularly the rotating multi-roaster selection and pour-overs, but its matcha is not an afterthought. The Chinatown café sources its matcha and teas through O5, giving the non-coffee side of the menu a stronger foundation than you find at many coffee-first shops. Its current matcha latte uses organic Kirishima matcha with steamed milk. This is the address to keep in mind when one person wants a carefully made pour-over and the other wants matcha without compromising.
Vancouver
BAM BAM
Bam Bam is the all-day café and comfort-food spot from the team behind Nemesis, with a beverage menu that leans into playful, nostalgic flavours. Alongside a classic matcha latte, they serve an Orange Creamsicle Matcha made with house orange creamsicle syrup, milk and matcha, which fits perfectly with the place’s colourful personality.
Vancouver
