As Edmonton hits its matcha moment, experts think the trend may cool
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Matcha's popularity in Edmonton is growing, with at least four pop-ups devoted to the beverage over the summer, and significant social-media attention driving the buzz. But one local tea flavourist said the hype may not be sustainable.
"It looks very trendy online, and eventually everyone has to try it and decide whether it will continue to be a part of their day or not," Sarah Proudlock, owner of tea wholesaler The Tea Girl, said. "This is the top of the bubble, but it will level off."
Matcha is a finely-ground powder made from shade-grown green tea. It was introduced to Japan in the 12th century, and that country produces most of the matcha consumed worldwide today. Matcha is prepared by whisking the powder with water. The ubiquitous matcha latte is made by adding milk and optional flavouring or sweeteners.
This summer, Edmonton saw no less than four matcha-focused pop-ups, including Meet Your Matcha, The Girly Pop Café, Never the Same Company, and Whisked (which just transitioned from a pop-up to being available daily at Kommune Snack Bar). Many other local cafés have added matcha-based drinks to their menus, something Proudlock has found is tied to seasons.
"The whole trend is driven by the summer," Proudlock said. "If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have thought matcha would be considered a winter drink. I would have never expected it to be driven by strawberry matchas. But it is very visual, bright green and red and white. One of my cafés said that some days, they sell more matcha than coffee."
Proudlock has seen the appetite for matcha grow exponentially over the last several years. "No one can ever predict booms," Proudlock said, noting that matcha was once a small part of her work but is now much larger. "Twenty-eight of the cafés I supply to now serve matcha, many of them in small town Alberta."
The Tea Girl supplies matcha to several Edmonton cafés, including Rogue Wave Coffee, Labo Coffee, and Felice Café, plus The Nest with locations in Lamont, St. Paul, and Vegreville, and CAFN8 in Bonnyville. Proudlock said her wholesale quantities have doubled every year since 2020, and that by August, she had already sold more matcha in 2025 than in all of 2024.
Proudlock said the eye-catching appeal of matcha helped it spread on social media, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were glued to their screens. She credits Edmonton's strong café culture for matcha's propagation locally.
"Per capita, we have a lot of cafés for our population," Proudlock said, who ran her own café from 2010 to 2018. "Then people started to ask for matcha. Coffee shops used to have a chai latte, London fog, and now, it's a matcha latte."
At Boa and Hare in Chinatown, Kelly Yu has seen that demand firsthand. Matcha-based drinks (including the café's most popular, a strawberry matcha latte) make up almost two-thirds of its sales. Yu believes attention to process, water temperature, and recipes sets Boa and Hare apart from others.
