For years, matcha has been a espresso store add-on, a wellness flourish or a inexperienced drink for the Instagram grid. Now, with devoted matcha bars multiplying and shopper urge for food deepening, the class is starting to construct a world of its personal. Claudia Boyer, co-founder of Jenki, explains why matcha goes from espresso store passenger to cafรฉ pilot
Jenki was constructed as a matcha cafรฉ enterprise from the very begin, and for some time, espresso felt like a secure guess to return alongside for the trip. Nevertheless, espresso-based drinks made up simply 4% of Jenkiโs gross sales when it dropped espresso fully in 2023.
The London-based operator hasnโt appeared again. Lower than three years on, Jenki now operates six matcha bars throughout London โ in Canary Wharf, Battersea Energy Station and inside Selfridges on Oxford Road โ and is opening 5 extra earlier than the tip of 2026.
In the meantime, espresso outlets have embraced matcha as a menu mainstay, they usuallyโre nonetheless the place most customers get their first style of revered Japanese inexperienced tea. Nevertheless, such is the power of demand, matcha is now carving a market area of interest of its personal.
Having infiltrated espresso store menus globally, might matcha problem the cafรฉ format itself? There are indicators that is already occurring.
Clean Road, which dropped โespressoโ from its identify in late 2025, reviews that matcha now accounts for greater than 50% of its beverage gross sales within the US and UK. In early 2026, Starbucks reported tea gross sales at US company-owned shops rose 70% since 2022.
