BEEN SUCKED INTO the new matcha tea craze in South Africa but not sure which brand you should start with?
You’re in luck…
…I spent over R2,000 on every Matcha tea product I could get my hands on in South Africa so that I can share my experience with you, to help you make the right choice with your very first purchase!
But first, what EXACTLY is matcha tea?
Very briefly, matcha tea is grown in East Asia and is made from green tea leaves that have been shaded for an entire month once harvested! What also makes matcha unique is that instead of just dipping tea leaves into hot water, you’re actually consuming the entire grounded-up leaf, which offers tons of more antioxidants when compared to regular green tea.
According to HealthLine, these benefits include improved metabolism, increased energy, and even a boost in brain function, just to name a few.
That said, not all matchas are equal. There are three types to be exact.
- Ceremonial blend – Supposed to be the highest quality and the most expensive! Ceremonial blend should taste a lot less bitter than the others. This allows people to drink it plain, without adding it to recipes to cover the strong flavour.
- Premium-grade – Known as everyday matcha, this grade has a medium amount of bitterness that can be handled by most people. Premium-grade matcha is usually mixed in with smoothies, lattes or protein shakes etc.
- Culinary-grade – This is the lowest grade of matcha with the most bitterness. That said, this is also usually your cheapest. People generally use culinary grade to add to baked goods as the name suggests because the bitterness is too strong to handle.
DISCLAIMER: When we say ‘best,’ this is only our team’s personal opinion based on our experience with getting our hands on the actual products on this list, our research, as well as survey data that we conducted. Your opinion and experience with these, or other products in South Africa may differ!
Now that you have a better idea of what matcha is, how exactly did I decide on the ‘best’ matcha in South Africa?
I narrowed my favorite South African matcha teas down to these six based on:
- Product Quality – I looked at the quality of the matcha powder to see if it stuck together or if it has a smooth consistency. I also checked the packaging and website to make sure that there are ZERO sugars, preservatives or additives. We’re buying matcha to be healthier here, we don’t want additives, we just want pure matcha tea powder.
- Taste – As mentioned above, the bitterness level rates the grade of the product. To help me judge the bitterness level, I asked 5 of my colleagues to take part in a survey and rate the level of bitterness from 1-5 aswell as the overall taste. For overall taste, the higher the score the better, for bitterness level, the lower the score the better.
- Price – First, I made sure the bitterness level matched with the claimed grade of the product, this way you won’t buy a product that claims to be ceremonial, but actually tastes extremely bitter. On top of that, I took some other factors into consideration. Such as, did the company send a freebie? How much am I paying per serving? Etc. We want you to get the most bang for your buck!
- Guarentee – I feel passionate about this. A good company will offer a strong guarantee. If they don’t, in my experience, its usually because they’re trying to hide something. I’ll take a very close look at all company return policies diving deep into every hidden T&C.
With all that taken into consideration and based on my personal experience and research, which product do I personally feel is the best?
Tealy Matcha is the best matcha tea in South Africa. According to our survey data involving 6 people, Tealy Matcha got an overall taste score of 4.2/5. This taste survey was based on taste and bitterness of the product. Tealy Matcha is also reasonably prices at R249 for 100g which is also the most affordable product on the list.
With that said, here’s a table that summarizes all the data on my 6 selected matcha teas in South Africa.
| Product | Overall Taste Rating (Higher the better) | Bitterness Rating (Lower is less bitter) | Free Gift | Product Price | Price/Gram | Guarantee | Website Link | Takealot Link |
| Tealy Matcha | 4.2/5 | 1.8/5 | No | R249 | R2.49 | 30-day return policy. Voided when open. | N/A | VIEW |
| myMatcha | 4.3/5 | 2.2/5 | Free Electric Frother | R369 | R3.69 | 60-day without returning the product. | VIEW | VIEW |
| Just Matcha | 1.5 | 4.6/5 | No | R469 | R4.69 | 30-day return policy. Voided when used. | VIEW | N/A |
| 100% Organic Matcha | 2/5 | 3.7/5 | Free Wooden Spoon | R249 | R2.49 | 30-day return policy. Voided when open. | N/A | VIEW |
| Tea Oasis- 100% Organic Matcha | 3.3\5 | 4.5\5 | Free Wooden Spoon | R239 | R2.39 | 30-day return policy. Voided when open. | N/A | VIEW |
| Organic Matcha Green Tea | 1.3/5 | 4.8/5 | No | R199 | R3.98 | 30-day return policy. Voided when open. | N/A | VIEW |
If you would like more information on the above research, make sure you keep reading! In the rest of the comparative article, I’ll be diving deeper into each product one by one.
01. Tealy Matcha Tea
100 grams
I ordered Tealy Matcha from TakeAlot. The ordering and delivery process went smoothly, I got my product nearly a week later. The packaging of this product is simple and easy to use.
The overall design isn’t necessarily eye-catching, but I liked that it gives directions on how you can make a cup of matcha because not everybody knows how to make the perfect matcha tea.
When I opened the packet, the first thing that caught my attention was the strong matcha scent.
Product Quality.
Tealy Matcha claims to be ceremonial grade matcha tea, this means that it has the highest quality grade of matcha. It’s advisable to drink it alone and not in lattes so that you don’t miss out on the unique matcha flavor, however, you can still drink it in lattes, etc.
The overall feel of the matcha powder is very soft and it doesn’t necessarily have a smooth consistency because there were a few hard chunks. That said, while I was using the product, these chunks were easily flattened.
Taste.
Overall I believe it’s the best-tasting matcha because it’s not extremely bitter compared to most matcha teas. The green matcha smell was not overpowering and you can really get the full flavour from just half a spoon.
I did a survey with 5 of my colleagues including myself on the taste and the levels of bitterness that they tasted from drinking matcha tea.
All of my colleagues, including myself, gave an overall rating of 4.2/5 for the taste. 5 people rated the taste as 4/5 while one colleague absolutely loved Tealy Matcha, giving it a rating of 5/5.
Bitterness rating. When it comes to the bitterness levels, we were divided because half of us gave it a rating of 2/5, while the other half rated 1.5/5.
| Colleague | Bitterness Rating | Overall Taste Rating |
| Thabile | 1.5/5 | 4/5 |
| Yeshmika | 2/5 | 5/5 |
| Luandri | 2/5 | 4./5 |
| Musa | 1.5/5 | 4./5 |
| Alka | 1.5/5 | 4./5 |
| Bonnie | 2/5 | 4/5 |
| Average | 1.8/5 | 4.2/5 |
Price.
I purchased Tealy matcha on Takealot for R249. I had a look to see if you could buy from their official website, however, the product is only available on Takalot.
The recommended serving is 1g of matcha per cup and the packet holds 100 grams, which works out to be around 1000 servings.
Guarantee.
Tealy Tea is covered by Takealot’s 30-day money-back guarantee. When looking at the fine print, Takealot mentions that the guarantee voids if you open the product. On top of that, the guarantee doesn’t cover food items “a foodstuff, beverage, or other product intended for everyday consumption,” so I’m honestly not sure if Takealots guarantee even covers this product since it’s classified as a food item.
No official website
02. myMatcha Tea
100 grams
This product caught my eye while I was ordering because of the packaging. It stands out from all the other matchas on Takealot because of the graphics on the packaging. When I turned it over it showed the directions of how to make matcha and it tells you that you can make smoothies, cakes, and even Ice cream with this product.
I also liked how there are nutritional facts at the back and it includes the companies details should I need to contact them unlike most of the other brands.
The best thing about my order is that it came with a free electric whisk which is an important tool to have when drinking green matcha tea!
Product Quality.
myMatcha has an overall smooth consistency, it also has little chunks that are easy to flatten but it’s not as hard as the Tealy Matcha chunks. I prefer it this way because if there’s more smoothness than chunkiness, then it means that when you blend it out with the whisk it will easily dissolve and be ready to drink!
Taste.
We did a survey on myMatcha and the overall score for taste was 4.3/5. 4 of us gave the taste a rating of 4/5, while my other two colleagues gave it a 5/5.
The overall consensus is it tasted just as good as the Tealy Green Matcha, the only difference was the levels of bitterness which got an overall rating of 2.2/5, meaning that it’s slightly more bitter than Tealy Matcha. But even with that, it’s not an overwhelming bitter taste like most other matches on the market.
Bitterness rating. Two of my colleagues found myMatcha to be quite bitter, giving it a rating of 3/5, while two of my colleagues, including myself, felt as though the bitter taste is somewhere in the middle, and gave it a 2/5. One colleague said that the bitterness is manageable and it tastes similar to Tealy Matcha, so she gave it a 1/5.
When making the tea, the powder dissolved within seconds and it was ready for use!
| Colleague | Bitterness Rating | Overall Taste Rating |
| Thabile | 2/5 | 4/5 |
| Yeshmika | 3/5 | 4/5 |
| Luandri | 3/5 | 4./5 |
| Musa | 2/5 | 5./5 |
| Alka | 1/5 | 4./5 |
| Bonnie | 2/5 | 5./5 |
| Average | 2.2/5 | 4.3/5 |
Price.
myMatcha can be purchased on Takealot for R399 for 100 grams, but they also have a website that sells for much cheaper for R369! The bonus about purchasing it from their website is that it also comes with a free electric whisk retailed at R199, so if you’re looking to buy from myMatcha make sure you purchase from the website.
Guarantee.
This is where myMatcha shines. They’re the only company on this list that offers a genuine money-back guarantee. If you buy a packet and don’t like it for ANY reason, you have 60 days to contact them and they will refund you without asking you to return the opened packet.
To get access to this guarantee you have to buy from their website, Takealot has their own guarantee in place that can’t be controlled by the myMatcha brand.
View this product on their website
03. Just Matcha
100 grams
I purchased the Culinary Grade matcha tea from Just Matcha. The first thought is I really loved the feel of the packaging, it’s very smooth and makes the product feel extra light.
That said, the overall look of the packaging is not that impressive. It has little-to-no information about the product or how to use it. Another downside is that there’s no nutritional information at the back which always leaves a bit of doubt in my mind whether this product is completely natural or not.
When I opened the product I was immediately greeted by the strong matcha scent. Compared to the other matcha powders, this particular one has an overpowering matcha smell that I personally didn’t like.
Product Quality.
Out of all the matcha products I ordered, Just Matcha powder has the smoothest consistency and it has little-to-no chunks. I love this because it made it a lot easier when I created the tea for us to taste.
Taste.
When It comes to tastes, Just Matcha did not seem to be the crowd’s favorite. It got the worst rating for the taste out of all the matcha teas!
Three of my colleagues and I gave it an overall taste rating of 1/5, while two other colleagues rated it a 2/5. The main reason for such a low rating is because when you drink Just Matcha, it has a grainy taste which puts a lot of people off.
Bitterness rating. Just Matcha also had a high rating for bitterness. The four of us gave it a rating of 5/5 for bitterness while 2 of my colleagues gave it a 4/5. If you’re a fan of extremely bitter matcha, then this product would be more suited to you.
If you’re like me and you’re not into bitter matcha, I recommend you trying either Tealy Matcha or myMatcha.
| Colleague | Bitterness Rating | Overall Taste Rating |
| Thabile | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Yeshmika | 4/5 | 2/5 |
| Luandri | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Musa | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Alka | 4/5 | 2/5 |
| Bonnie | 5/5 | 2/5 |
| Average | 4.6/5 | 1.5/5 |
Price.
I couldn’t find this product on Takealot, but when I googled the best matcha teas in South Africa, the Just Matcha official website popped up. I ordered this matcha powder from their website for R469 for 100 grams which is probably the most expensive of the bunch.
Guarantee.
The website did offer information on a 30-day return policy but when looking deeper into the terms and conditions, the guarantee is only valid if the product is unused. I think defeats the purpose, how will you know if you like the product or not if you can’t taste it?!
View this product on their website
No Takealot listing
04. 100% Organic Matcha
100 grams
When I first held 100% Organic Matcha, the powder inside the bag felt really hard, almost as if it’s stuck together. I had to squash the packet to make the matcha more smooth.
When opening the packet, I noticed they included a wooden spoon inside. This was a nice addition because some brands don’t bother with including free little gifts, so it’s always nice when you get surprised with something useful.
A downside to this product is that it doesn’t show you how to make matcha tea and it also doesn’t mention the nutritional facts. The only thing that’s included on the back of the packaging is the benefits of matcha tea.
Product Quality.
This product was pretty hard inside the packet. After squashing the packet and opening it, the matcha powder consistency confirmed my suspicion. The powder wasn’t smooth at all and it had little hard chunks still stuck together. This isn’t a major problem but it will take a bit longer to smooth out the powder when you mix it with water.
Taste.
In terms of taste, this product didn’t do as badly as Just Matcha. I got really conflicting results from my colleagues about this brand.
The overall consensus is that it doesn’t taste that great. Two of my colleagues rated it 1/5, another colleague and I thought that it wasn’t the worst tasting matcha but it definitely wasn’t the best either, so we gave a rating of 2/5. The remaining 2 of my colleagues were somewhere in the middle with regards to the taste, and they gave it a rating of 3/5. This particular matcha powder was quite bitter, similar to Just Matcha which is why it didn’t get a higher score.
Bitterness rating. Three colleagues including myself found this matcha tea to be very bitter and gave it a rating of 5/5 on the bitterness scale. One colleague thought it wasn’t too bitter and rated it 3/5, while two other colleagues thought it was not bitter at all and gave it a rating of 2/5.
One thing we noticed is that it did not have a nice smell, one of my colleagues said it smelt like dirt. So if you want to try a matcha tea that’s not as strong as Just matcha, but has a strong bitter taste, then I recommend giving this product a try.
| Colleague | Bitterness Rating | Overall Taste Rating |
| Thabile | 5/5 | 2/5 |
| Yeshmika | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Luandri | 3/5 | 2/5 |
| Musa | 2/5 | 1/5 |
| Alka | 5/5 | 3/5 |
| Bonnie | 2/5 | 3/5 |
| Average | 3.7/5 | 2/5 |
Price.
I purchased this product from Takealot for R249 for 100 grams. I looked to see if the product has an official website, however it seems like its only on Takealot.
Guarantee.
Similar to Tealy Tea, the product is covered by Takealot’s 30-day money-back guarantee which isn’t my favorite. As a reminder, the fine print in Takealots refund terms and conditions for food items states that it doesn’t cover these products; “foodstuff, beverage, or other product intended for everyday consumption.” On top of that, the guarantee voids as soon as you open the product, which makes it pointless for these types of products.
No official website
05. Tea Oasis-100% Organic Matcha
100 grams
Tea Oasis packaging caught my eye because of the colour. That said, the overall graphics are very simple, and not too exciting to look at, to be honest.
When I opened the packet I saw a wooden spoon inside with the matcha powder. I liked the addition of the wooden spoon but I didn’t like that it was inside the matcha powder, because when I took the spoon out it made a mess.
I would have preferred for the spoon to be separate from the matcha powder just like with the previously mentioned brand “100% Organic Matcha.”
Another downside is that there aren’t any directions on how to make matcha, which makes me feel like they put very little effort into the packaging design.
Product Quality.
Tea Oasis supposedly uses a ceremonial grade matcha tea, which is the highest grade of matcha tea available. There were a few hard chunks here and there but it’s not something that’s too noticeable. I pressed it down with my finger and it instantly became smooth, so far I’m happy with how the matcha looked liked, and also how it felt while in the packet.
Taste.
I would put this product in my top 3 because the taste was great, but I didn’t feel like it tasted like a ceremonial blend.
Four of us gave a rating of 3/5 for the overall taste, this is because it wasn’t the worst tasting matcha but it also wasn’t the best. And the other two of my colleagues gave it a rating of 4/5.
Bitterness rating. When it comes to the bitterness levels, this got rated just as bad as Just Matcha. Most of my colleagues said that it tasted like tea without sugar and it got an overall bitter score of 4.5/5 which is the highest bitterness rating on this list.
If you enjoy extremely bitter matchas, then I would highly recommend this product for you.
| Colleague | Bitterness Rating | Overall Taste Rating |
| Thabile | 5\5 | 3/5 |
| Yeshmika | 5\5 | 3/5 |
| Luandri | 4\5 | 3/5 |
| Musa | 3\5 | 3\5 |
| Alka | 5\5 | 4/5 |
| Bonnie | 5\5 | 4/5 |
| Average | 4.5\5 | 3.3\5 |
Price.
This product is only available from Takealot for R239 for 100 grams of matcha powder.
Guarantee.
Tea Oasis is covered by Takealots 30 day money-back guarantee which is questionable after looking at the terms and conditions closely. The two that stand out:
The refund policy does not apply if:
- “The product is opened, unsealed, used or missing any accessories.”
- “The product is a foodstuff, beverage, or other product intended for everyday consumption.”
So as mentioned before, if a decent guarantee is important to you, order from Takealot with caution.
No official website
06. Organic Matcha Green Tea
50 grams
Organic Matcha Green Tea comes in a stainless steel tin container. I prefer the other packaging instead of the container because it doesn’t grab my attention in any way.
When I opened the container I saw the matcha packet inside but unfortunately, it didn’t come with a wooden spoon. I liked that it came with directions and nutritional facts, but other than that this product wouldn’t really stand out to me on a shelf in the stores.
Product Quality.
This product has a very smooth and soft consistency, and it appears as though it will be easy to make because of the smoothness. When I pressed it down it
Taste.
The shocking thing is that it’s advertised as premium-grade matcha which is known for being one of the best-grade matchas. But unfortunately, this matcha, just like Just Matcha got the worst rating for taste.
Four of us gave the overall taste a rating of 1/5, while two of my colleagues gave it a rating of 2/5.
Bitterness rating. When it came to bitterness it also didn’t do that great because five of us gave it a rating of 5/5, while one other colleague rated it 4/5. We couldn’t even finish the cup because of how bitter it tasted.
| Colleague | Bitterness Rating | Overall Taste Rating |
| Thabile | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Julie | 5/5 | 2/5 |
| Luandri | 4/5 | 1/5 |
| Musa | 5/5 | 2/5 |
| Alka | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Cedric | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Average | 4.8 | 1.3 |
Price.
I bought this product from Takealot for R199 for 50 grams of powder but looks like the price has gone up to R222. Unfortunately, they don’t have a website, so you can only buy this product from Takealot.
Guarantee.
If you’re not happy with this matcha powder, you can try to take advantage of Takealot’s 30-Day return policy. However, you know my thoughts on their refund policy by now, so use with caution.
No official website
Your Turn
Do you know of any matcha teas in South Africa that deserve to be on this list? Do you agree with the information I shared? Or do you think I missed a crucial piece of information? Let us know in the comments below so we can start helping each other out!