How to Build a Profitable Matcha Menu for Your Growing Café?

If your matcha menu isn't doing more than just adding a green drink to your café menu, then it is not as good as it could be. It should greatly appeal to potential visitors, encourage reorders, be adaptable to your processes, and have room for expansion. Matchia assists cafes in comparing the taste, color, milk pairing, use case, and budget of their matcha wholesale purchases.

7 Tips To Make a Profitable Matcha Menu for Your Growing Café

If you're looking to expand your café business and are interested in creating a successful matcha menu, you've come to the right place.

Create a profitable matcha menu by focusing on a small selection of drinks with similar ingredients, ensuring that the appropriate grade of matcha is used for each recipe, and that they are simple to prepare when serving.

1. Start With a Focused Matcha Menu

The first step is to create a focused matcha menu. The initial step is to develop a clear matcha menu.

With so many latte options, desserts, toppings and seasonal specials, a new matcha cafe can easily get overwhelmed with latte options. A more concise opening menu will be more manageable in training, pricing, photo and service.

Start each with a traditional hot or iced matcha latte, one of the many specialty matcha drinks (e.g., strawberry matcha) and one of the signature drinks. Seasonal options are added later.

If you need to refresh your menu without changing the station, coconut milk or matcha cream, condensed milk or fruit puree or light tea jelly would do the trick.

For more information on the selection of matcha for use in a café or restaurant, see Matchia's guide.

2. Choose the Best Matcha for Each Drink

Not all matcha is fit for a café; the highest grade matcha is not always the best. The appropriate selection will depend on the recipe, method of preparation, flavor, and selling price.

Traditional service, straight tea and where Japanese matcha is the primary flavor are all suitable for ceremonial matcha. When there is milk, cream, syrup or fruit, latte matcha might be a good choice.

Matcha can be used in a variety of culinary ways, such as in cake, matcha ice cream, matcha parfait, sauces, and bakery recipes, where culinary matcha is better.

Matchia provides you with Ultra Ceremonial Matcha, Ceremonial Matcha, Premium Matcha, Latte Matcha, Culinary Matcha, single-origin, organic and conventional Matcha. Cafés can choose a product to use, instead of having to choose a matcha for every recipe!

The grades guide for matcha helps to understand the difference between the grades of matcha, celebrating, making and cooking.

3. Make Every Matcha Latte Repeatable

It's important that a matcha latte be repeatable by any trained employee, as this will ensure it will be a profitable match. Use a measuring cup to weigh and/or measure matcha, water, milk, sweetener, ice and toppings.

You should track:

• The price of matcha per serving.
• The additional cost of milk, syrup and topping.
• An additional cup and packaging fee will be charged.
• Preparation time
• The recycling and reusing rates of waste.
• Selling price and profit earned.

It's also worth considering the possibility of offering a double matcha option that can help increase the average order value, while also providing a reasonable price for the additional cost of the matcha. With coconut, oat or any other milk alternatives.

To start, Matchia's basic latte grade matcha wholesale page is a convenient option for milk-based beverages.

4. Develop “Signature” Drinks for Quick Service by Staff

When a unique drink can is featured in a photo or Instagram post, it's sure to catch people's eyes online. The key to profit remains quick service, the right balance of tastes and demand for repeat business.

Signature concepts that incorporate the use of familiar ingredients are:

• Matcha latte topped with a fruit layer of strawberries.
• Matcha drizzled with soft matcha cream on top of coconut.
• Hojicha coffee served with a latte has a nutty, aromatic roast profile.
• Cold foam matcha cream on coffee.
• Serve matcha parfait on top of red beans, jelly, or shiratama mochi.

Matcha soft serve can be used to serve dessert goods and to provide a true Japanese experience. But equipment, holding time, staff training, textures and flavors and product waste should be considered before launching.

If the item is popular but does not fit into the market, it's of no commercial value and requires ingredients that are not commercially used.

Cafes that are considering selling roasted tea would be interested in Matchia's wholesale hojicha powder.

5. Price the Menu From Real Costs

Never set a price on matcha drinks based on other cafes. There are a multitude of factors that could be different in your case, such as your rent, labor, cup size, ingredient quality and your local community.

Make a calculation for the total variable cost of each drink and compare with the selling price. A strawberry latte with the addition of matcha cream may cost more than a regular latte, but it's also more complicated to prepare, due to the extra ingredients and preparation time.

Traditional matcha can incorporate a higher level of ceremonial matcha and may need less amount of auxiliary ingredients.

Check the order data on a monthly basis. Eliminate slow-moving items, one-time use items and items that are frequently remade. Ensure that the top drinks are easily accessible on the printed menu, the counter board and on the online ordering page.

6. Add Matcha Dessert Without Adding Too Much Waste

Taste the recipe and adjust the seasoning and sweetness to your preference. Try the recipe and add seasoning and sweetness as needed.

Matcha cake, matcha ice cream, soft serve and parfait can make for a great afternoon sales opportunity! They can also bring in waste if the demand is not even.

Use one dessert item that is common to the drink items. Matcha can be used in culinary applications such as batters, creams, sauces, and frozen desserts, which require a stronger matcha flavour to accompany the sugar and milk.

This matcha wholesale is Matchia's culinary grade matcha option, which is designed for food establishments that will use matcha as an ingredient.

7. Refresh the Menu With Seasonal Treats

Caffeinated beverages can provide a fresh injection to the café without having to refresh the entire menu.

For regular visitors, a matcha with strawberries in the spring, a coconut latte in the summer, a hojicha drink in the fall, or a matcha latte with cream in the winter provides an excuse to try something new and return.

Test one thing at a time. Monitor sales numbers, time taken to prepare, waste, customer feedback and repeat orders. Use a picture, an Instagram post and a brief description about taste to advertise the new drink.

Don't expect to make a lot of café sales by having a popular post on your website; try this out for a limited time before introducing it as a permanent offering.

Why Matchia Is a Strong Matcha Partner for Cafés?

Matchia is a wholesale supplier of matcha in the U.S., located in Hayward, CA. It provides coffee shops, cafés, boba shops, restaurants, beverage brands, manufacturers, and distributors.

It is important for businesses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, the state of California, and the West Coast, in particular.

Orders of at least 1kg can be placed as wholesale orders. Matchia also provides volume discounts, sample kits, local U.S. inventory, cold storage, and weekly/monthly repeat supply.

Matchia's matcha is sourced from the majority of it from Japan, particularly Shizuoka. There are choices for different beverage and food applications, such as blended or single-origin.

Through Matchia, rather than forcing all of the cafés to be the highest priced, they are able to help buyers compare the flavor, color, preparation method, menu use, and cost.

Customers are able to check Matchia's wholesale matcha supply for cafés prior to making a sample request.

Conclusion

The key to creating a successful, profitable matcha menu is to have a clear menu, coordinate the grade to the recipe, standardize the preparations, charge based on cost, and update the menu with a controlled seasonal test.

It's not about the bigger matcha menu! To formulate a stable line of beverages and desserts that are customer favorites, easy for staff to prepare, and that the business will be able to serve increasing numbers of customers.

Looking to create your own matcha menu for your café or coffee shop? Contact us to order samples, ask for a comparison of matcha for lattes, ceremonial service, signature drinks, desserts and repeat wholesale supply.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How many matcha drinks should a café serve at opening?

Typically, three to five pints should be served. Use a basic, a flavored, and a signature latte. Integrate new beverages from sales information and customer feedback.

Is ceremonial matcha always best for a matcha latte?

No. Ceremonial grade is suitable for lightly flavored or high-quality drinks, while a careful selection of latte grade might be the best option for milk, cream and sweeteners.

Is it possible to make use of one matcha for beverages and dishes?

Maybe; it may not be cost-effective. Most cafes serve drinks with latte or high-quality matcha, and serve matcha in cakes, cream, soft-serve or parfaits.

Should a café offer organic matcha?

When it aligns with customer demand and brand positioning, it can make sense to use organic matcha. Many commercial menus may require conventional matcha for greater flexibility.

How should a café test matcha before a bulk order?

Test each sample in the same recipe you will be using to make it. Make comparisons between taste, colour, smell, milk balance, cost per cup, staff preparation and customer response.