11 Vibrant Bay Area Matcha Cafes to Keep You Well Caffeinated

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These days, every young person in the Bay Area seems to be walking around with some variation of the same green drink: matcha. Traditionally made by whisking finely ground green tea leaves with hot water, the beverage has been used for ceremonial practices in Japan for thousands of years. Over the past decade, however, the vibrant drink has taken America by storm. The United States now imports over 2,000 tons of matcha per year, turning the tea powder into drinks, ice cream treats and even skin care products.

Here in the Bay, it feels like a new matcha cafe or matcha-forward coffee shop opens almost every day. Each place offers its own take on the drink, whether it be a latte with your choice of milk, an obsessively sweet concoction of cookie butters and banana puddings, or a simple americano.

Matcha, like life, is all about balance. I spent the past several weeks trying many of the Bay Area’s hundreds of matcha cafes. Here are some of my favorites. 

2319 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

Jazz plays inside this minimalist cafe located in a line of popular matcha cafes near UC Berkeley. The spot is hard to miss because there is always a crowd of people waiting outside — tweens holding mom’s spot in line while she searches for a parking space.

Yume Mori is one of the few shops where customers get to choose a specific regional variety of matcha for your drink, each one boasting a different flavor profile. The cafe also serves matcha soft serve, matcha crepes and house specialties like clear matcha (made with coconut water and topped with matcha cream) and genmaicha lattes (made with green tea blended with roasted rice). The matcha here has a vibrant color and taste, but if you don’t care for those intense nutty and astringent flavors, there are also sweeter options like tiramisu, yuzu miso and cold brew options.

1816 Euclid Ave., Berkeley

Away from the traffic of the busier parts of Berkeley sits Mind Coffee, a popular study spot for students on the north side of campus. Mind has a large selection of coffee, teas and pastries, and the matcha drinks, in particular, are some of the most creative in the Bay. 

The Einspänners are especially popular here. These froth-topped drinks, named after a type of horse-drawn carriage, originated in Vienna, Austria. But they’d been a fixture in Korean dramas for years by the time they made their way to the States. Einspänners are traditionally a coffee drink, but Mind features less common versions like an Earl Grey matcha Einspänner latte (which tastes a bit like a sweet, syrupy bowl of cereal) and an iced matcha sakura Einspänner with pink milk, which transports you into a forest of cherry blossom trees.

590 2nd St., Oakland

Kitsch Coffee shares space with a vintage furniture and home goods store in Jack London Square. The big open space is always full with people working behind laptops, chatting with friends or sifting through racks of vintage clothes. 

Kitsch is a coffee shop, but the place takes matcha seriously. Matcha here is bright green and can be amped up with housemade syrups with flavors like ginger and lavender. The carrot cake matcha even comes with a cream cheese foam to mimic the frosting on a slice of cake. 

Grand Lake Farmers Market (Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue, Oakland)
Temescal Farmers Market (5300 Claremont Ave., Oakland)

This weekly pop-up at the Grand Lake and Temescal farmers markets closes once it sells out, so it’s best to arrive early. 

The menu rotates based on the season. For summer, they have sweet corn, fig, vanilla and the forever favorite strawberry matcha latte. The farmers market stand is popular, so oftentimes you’ll find many of the flavors crossed out in permanent marker. The Matchacano is my go-to drink, but you can always up the flavor with their seasonal syrups and cream tops.

3311 Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley

A hidden gem in suburban Castro Valley, Urban Matcha provides a matcha oasis in a somewhat unlikely part of the Bay. At 7 p.m. on a recent Tuesday evening, the cafe was full of chatty teens,  people finding a calm place to get work done and families ending their night with their favorite sweet treats. 

Part of a chain that extends from California to Las Vegas, the cafe is especially notable for its matcha-flavored desserts. This is the kind of place where every other customer walks out with their hands full of matcha parfaits loaded with agar jelly, corn flakes, matcha gelato, red bean paste, mochi balls and a big scoop of matcha soft serve. 

3512 Balboa St., San Francisco

Located on Balboa Street, in the Outer Richmond, Constance Tea is the only place in San Francisco where tea leaves are stone-milled into matcha in house. This new shop isn’t the place to find the drinks that satisfy your sweet tooth. Instead, Constance focuses on the basics: a small selection of hōjicha (roasted green tea), Einspänners and traditional matcha drinks made with matcha sourced from various regions in Japan, showcasing different flavor profiles.

During a recent visit, my matcha americano was a vivid green, perfectly balanced between earthiness and a nutty aftertaste, with a cream top that provided just the right amount of milkiness to complement the grassy taste of the tea.

1186 Valencia St., San Francisco (and other locations)

This popular matcha spot in the Mission, with locations throughout the Bay Area, has all the makings for a viral cafe, with its full-body selfie mirror and minimalist design. The menu puts matcha and hōjicha at the forefront, featuring drinks infused with yuzu, ube, guava and more.

The matcha leans toward the brighter and more bitter side, but you can always sweeten the deal with a banana or crème brûlée cream top. Trendy offerings like Einspänners and cheese cream toppings are also available.

1581 Webster St., San Francisco (and other locations)

This wildly popular Honolulu-based chain has become a Bay Area mall staple. It’s a quick, convenient and portable way to take your matcha to go. Big chains often don’t maintain their quality, but Maiko is always consistent, offering a convenient option to grab your matcha on the go. 

Perfect for a matcha beginner, the shop is known for its wide variety of matcha desserts:soft serves, shaved ices, parfaits, frappes and floats. The matcha here strikes just the right balance of sweetness and rich matcha flavor, providing the best caffeine boost after a day at the mall.

180 E. 3rd Ave. Unit 100A, San Mateo

With three locations in the Peninsula and South Bay, Izumi is one of the only cafes in the US that sources its matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen, a highly regarded producer in Uji, Japan. Inside, the walls are lined with tins of the Marukyu matcha powder, along with tea kettles, matcha serving bowls and matcha whisks.

The broad menu of teas and desserts really highlight the quality of the matcha itself. The matcha latte options include trendy flavors like a crème brûlée swirl that adds an element of creaminess as a counterpoint to the bright matcha flavor. In addition to the drinks, the shop also offers a diverse selection of matcha- and tea-flavored ice creams — everything from ube to “intense matcha.”

3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 150, San José 

This East San José tea, coffee and chè shop sells a wide variety of Vietnamese-inspired coffee and tea drinks. Matcha is the powerhouse of the menu, available in 10 different flavors, many of them featuring Southeast Asian ingredients like pandan, guava, banana cream and mango sticky rice. 

The matcha at Aroma is strong, but not overpoweringly bitter. The quality of the tea shines through even when paired with thick, sweet, syrupy banana, mango and yuzu puddings.

3030 El Camino Real, Santa Clara

A calm oasis located inside a busy shopping plaza in Santa Clara, Matsu serves bright green matcha in many different formats. The cafe’s extensive menu offers matcha gelato (available in five levels of increasing intensity, plus a seasonal flavor), matcha floats, matcha flights and much more.

The matcha flights are a good option for customers who have trouble deciding. They feature a triple dose of matcha, a matcha latte with matcha cream on top, a seasonal matcha (guava during my recent visit) and a matcha float (available in flavors like grape and dark chocolate).