Supermarket matcha latte: what's in Kaiku and Alpro, is it worth it?

Matcha has officially made it to the supermarket fridge. Between the iced coffees and the plant-based drinks you'll now find Kaiku's Matcha Latte, Alpro's matcha and coconut drink and the odd other one depending on the chain. The first time I saw the full shelf I stood there for a while staring at it with a mix of industry pride and professional curiosity: what exactly is in them? And are they worth the money?

I took a few home, read the labels with a magnifying glass and did the maths. Here's what I found.

What's on the shelf and at what price

Prices checked in August 2026 at DIA, Carrefour, Eroski, Consum, El Corte Inglés, Alcampo and others. As always, they can shift by a few cents depending on the week and the chain.

Right away there's something curious: Kaiku's single-serve format costs almost three times as much per litre as the Alpro carton. You're paying for the convenience of a cold can ready to open, which is exactly what it is: an impulse format for the "I want it now" moment.

The figure almost nobody checks: how much matcha they contain

This is where it gets interesting. In the ingredients list of the Alpro drink, matcha green tea powder appears at 0.5 per cent.

Half a percentage point. In a one-litre carton, that's about 5 grams of matcha... for the whole litre. A latte you make yourself at home has 2 grams in a single glass. In other words, a homemade glass packs more than three times the matcha of the carton's ratio.

The rest of the Alpro carton, according to its own label, is water, coconut base (5.7 per cent), sugar and soya (3.8 per cent). There's no trick: it's declared and perfectly legal. It's just worth knowing that when you buy these drinks you're mainly buying a sweet plant-based drink with a touch of matcha, not matcha with a plant-based drink.

I can't give you the breakdown for the Kaiku can because I don't have its product sheet in front of me as I write this, and we don't make up data here. When you have one in your hand, turn the can round and look for two things: the percentage of matcha and where sugar sits in the list. Ingredients are always listed in order of quantity, so if sugar appears before matcha, you know who's in charge of that glass.

The numbers: supermarket vs home

Let's get practical. Say you have one matcha latte a day.

The surprise is that homemade with first harvest ceremonial matcha costs practically the same as the supermarket carton. With one difference that doesn't show up in the table: in the homemade version, those 2 grams per glass are real matcha, stone-ground, with its full flavour and as much sugar as you decide, including the "no sugar at all" option, which simply doesn't exist on the supermarket shelf.

Our Organic Ceremonial Matcha Tea, 100 g costs 20.99 euros and makes about 50 glasses. And if smoothies and baking are more your thing, where matcha shares the bill with other ingredients, culinary grade does the job perfectly well for less.

So are supermarket drinks bad?

No, and we're not going to pretend otherwise to sell you a tin. They are what they are: refreshing matcha-flavoured drinks, convenient, tasty enough and a great way in. In fact, if you're reading this it's probably because one of them showed you that you like matcha. Good for them.

The logical next step comes afterwards: when you want to know what real matcha tastes like, without sugar and coconut acting as the warm-up band. That's where the carton falls short, not because of a manufacturing fault but by design: at 0.5 per cent, matcha is a guest at its own party.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Kaiku Matcha Latte cost? Between 1.74 and 2.05 euros per 230 ml unit depending on the supermarket (August 2026). That works out at about 7.78 euros per litre.

How much matcha is in Alpro's matcha drink? According to its ingredients list, 0.5 per cent matcha green tea powder. In a 1 litre carton, about 5 grams in total.

Is it cheaper to make matcha latte at home? Compared with the supermarket single-serve format, clearly: a homemade glass with ceremonial matcha costs about 0.70 to 0.85 euros against 1.74 to 2.05 for a can. Compared with the large carton, the cost is similar, but the amount and quality of matcha per glass are not in the same league.

Do supermarket matcha drinks contain sugar? Alpro's declares it in its ingredients list. With any product of this kind, check the label: where sugar sits in the list tells you how much weight it carries in the recipe.

Which matcha should I buy to start making it at home? A first harvest ceremonial if you want to drink it on its own or as a latte, or a culinary grade if it's going to end up in smoothies and baking. Either way, pure matcha, with nothing blended in, and with its origin clearly stated.