HEYTEA Cloud Matcha Latte

The HEYTEA Cloud Matcha Latte is $10.49 and 315 calories. What the menu calls 1000 mesh matcha with real dairy milk under an original cheese cloud cap.

The mesh number is a grind specification and it is worth understanding, because it is the difference between good matcha and the powder that turns gritty at the bottom of a cup. A 1000 mesh sieve passes particles around 13 microns. At that fineness the matcha suspends in milk rather than settling, which is why this drink stays green all the way down instead of separating while you hold it.

Matcha and cheese cloud is a better pairing than it sounds. Matcha carries a natural bitterness and a savoury, almost marine edge that most drinks try to sweeten away. The salt in the cloud does the opposite, meeting that savoury note and amplifying it, so what you taste is more matcha rather than less.

Underneath, real dairy milk rounds off the sharpest edges without burying the tea. The result reads closer to a matcha latte from a serious coffee shop than to the sweet green drinks sold in most bubble tea chains, and the 25g of sugar is restrained for something this rich.

At 315 calories with 14g of fat it sits in the middle of the matcha range, lighter than the Triple Supreme Matcha Latte at 395 and heavier than the Matcha Cloud Coconut Blue at 260. There is 9g of protein from the milk.

Both milk and coconut are declared. All three matcha drinks cost the same $10.49, so the choice between them is entirely about how much matcha you want and in what form.

This is the one to order first. It shows you what the matcha itself tastes like against a familiar build, which makes the triple version make sense afterwards rather than arriving as an unexplained wall of green.

Matcha is also the one ingredient on this menu where a busy shop shows. Whisked properly it foams and suspends; whisked in a hurry it streaks, and you can see the difference through the side of the cup before you taste it. A drink with visible green sediment at the bottom was rushed rather than badly made.

For more matcha in more forms, the Triple Supreme Matcha Latte layers cloud, mochi and jelly. For a lighter matcha over coconut, the Matcha Cloud Coconut Blue drops the dairy base.