This Couple Are on a Quest To Find Perth’s Best Matcha – and They’re Already More Than 150 Cups Deep

Lots of people are very into matcha, but there aren’t many who love the green stuff as much as Paris and her partner Dan (who asked to be identified by their first names).

Following in the footsteps of singularly focused food influencers – like Sydney’s hot chip guy and the retired couple visiting every pub in Australia – the couple are on a quest to try every matcha in Perth and are documenting their journey on Instagram.

“We’ve loved matcha for a number of years, [but] we found it increasingly frustrating and difficult to find a good matcha in Perth. We [realised] early on that people like their matcha served in different ways, just like they do with coffee. Our Little Matcha Cup journey officially kicked off earlier this year. My partner and I would go on weekend matcha adventures, trying out a new cafe every weekend, when we had a lightbulb moment to share and document our experiences with other matcha fans,” Paris tells Broadsheet.

So far, they’re over 150 matcha spots deep into the journey. The pair orders an unsweetened matcha latte at every cafe as a control. They know matcha preferences are very subjective, but they both “love an unsweetened, rich, ceremonial-grade matcha served up usucha -style.”

While they’ve been pounding the pavement, they’ve picked up on a few trends. “Local cafes are becoming more experimental with their menus and jumping on the two-toned drink trend, especially with the cold foams. We’ve also seen more cafes getting onboard serving up sweet dessert-style matcha drinks, which we are seeing are consumed in droves,” Paris says.

She attributes some of these pivots to the global matcha shortage. “We’ve definitely experienced the shortage first-hand, especially with online purchasing of our own matcha reserves. We’ve noticed our favourite brands are consistently out of stock.”

“We had a funny experience the other day, arriving at a specialist Japanese matcha cafe only to be informed that they had run out of matcha. We had to settle for a hojicha latte and laughed (and cried) about it with the cafe owner.”

With caffeine spiking and 150 cups of matcha downed, they’re slowly building a shortlist of their favourite spots to pick up a cup.

“We love Kith Eatery, for both their traditional matcha lattes and iced matcha variants; Berry Bae in Leederville makes a killer Bueno-matcha drink; Magic Apple in Cottesloe serves an earthy matcha and great scenery; Blacklist Coffee Roasters in Subiaco serves traditional, high-quality [teas] every time; and Eight Bites in Claremont, which makes a damn good matcha einspanner.”

Keep up with their journey on @littlematchacup.