Bengaluru runs on caffeine. Mornings begin with filter kaapi poured from steel tumblers. Afternoons are for single origin brews and slow conversations. But lately, between the tech parks of Bellandur and the leafy lanes of Indiranagar, a different cup has quietly crashed the party. It is green, frothy and here to stay: matcha. Also read | Matcha gets a desi makeover: Assam brews India’s first homegrown batch
Event Context
When I had my first proper bowl of matcha in the city at Sakura Matcha Bar in Victoria Layout back in 2025, it felt like an anomaly. Today, matcha bars are opening faster than bakeries. And almost all of them are run by women.
In a city loyal to filter kaapi, were they gambling on a powdered leaf? Or riding an internet-fueled, pastel-green aesthetic? To find out, I spoke with the women quietly reshaping Bengaluru’s beverage landscape — one whisk at a time.
At TEKA in Indiranagar, founder Haruka Nagahashi meets the ‘girly drink’ narrative with a mix of patient understanding and cultural context. “Matcha is often called a ‘girly drink’ because of Instagram aesthetics. I can understand why people see it that way. Matcha has become very popular on social media because of its vibrant green colour and beautiful presentation,” Haruka said.
“But in Japan, matcha has been enjoyed for centuries and is simply a part of our culture. It’s something everyone enjoys, regardless of age or gender. I hope people will look beyond its Instagram appeal and discover the history, craftsmanship, and authentic flavour behind every bowl of matcha,” she added.
While the demographics at TEKA still skew female — Haruka shared ‘around 70 percent of customers are women and 30 percent are men’ — she noted a subtle cultural shift underway. Haruka said, “When we first opened, many men would choose coffee instead of matcha. Now, it’s becoming much more common for male customers to walk in and say, ‘I’m here for a matcha.’”
The split, interestingly, often lies in the flavour profiles. Haruka shared: “Among our female customers, strawberry matcha latte and mango matcha latte are especially popular. Men, on the other hand, often go for a classic matcha latte or our dirty matcha.”
Haruka, who traded an IT career in Japan to build TEKA, chose Bengaluru intentionally. To her, it is ‘a city that’s incredibly open to new ideas and different cultures’, with Indiranagar offering ‘one of the most vibrant cafe scenes’ to launch her vision.
TEKA’s menu bridges traditionalism with local curiosity, offering speciality coffee, hojicha, Japanese-style sandwiches, onigiri, and desserts, all paired with matcha. The core ethos? “To share matcha not just as a trend, but as an authentic part of Japanese culture,” Haruka said. Also read | Matcha tea cake: Step-by-step guide to make a delicious and healthy dessert at home
Over at Ela Matcha in Indiranagar, actor and founder Rachel David dismissed the idea that gender had anything to do with her venture. If anything, her pivot was driven by sharp market intuition.
“So, actually, I’m a coffee girl. I remember drinking coffee from when I was a little child,” Rachel shared. “Matcha happened during covid-19 pandemic, and that’s how the experimentation began… right around the time when I wanted to start a place of my own, the coffee culture was a little saturated,” she added.
For her, differentiation was paramount: “The beverage was the medium, and getting people together to work on making a really good product was what I had in mind.” Rather than copying traditional Japanese tea houses, Ela boldly leans into local flavour palettes, offering banana matcha, filter kaapi matcha, and blue pea matcha.
“I was like, I need to find a niche in the market where I’m different from my peers, doing something differently with the same product. So, that’s how it happened. It had nothing to do with the fact that I’m a girl,” Rachel said.
For Karishma Lala, founder of Turtle Matcha in Indiranagar, the journey began purely by accident. She first tasted matcha ‘by mistake in a chocolate’ during a family trip to Vietnam four years ago. Returning to Bengaluru, she found a void.
“My uncle, he went to Japan. And he knew I loved matcha so much, so he got a lot of matcha for me. Like, he got six tins of various grades,” she recalled. That stash triggered a wave of kitchen experimentation: “One day I’m like, ‘Strawberry matcha banate hai (Let’s make strawberry matcha),’ it’s strawberry season… the other time I’m like, ‘Let’s try something with banana.’”
A disappointing visit to a local cafe provided the final push. Karishma and her partner, Sachin Rathod, decided to test the waters informally. She recalled, “What if we make our friends taste my matcha? Or… we just go to Cubbon Park and start giving matchas for free?”
Twelve pop-ups later — ranging from Jayanagar pop-ups and Pilates studios to a 300-person corporate event for Amazon Music — they finally anchored themselves in a brick-and-mortar cafe. Also read | Does matcha contain more caffeine than coffee? Doctor reveals truth about its benefits, caffeine content, and risks
Turtle Matcha playfully rejected the pressure to be an authentic Japanese tea house. “We are very experimental. We put everything in the menu that we personally love,” Karishma said. That unpretentious philosophy manifests in white chocolate matchas, popcorn-infused brews, and seasonal creations. “Everything comes from community… I would say the community has built us, completely,” Karishma said.
Operating behind the scenes, however, required raw grit. “First three months, we were washing the dishes. It was just her (Karishma) and me taking orders, serving the drinks,” Sachin revealed, pointing to staffing as their single greatest hurdle. Yet, the gruelling hours paved the way for a thriving space that now plays host to everything from ‘Bedazzles to sip & paint, financial catch-ups, startups, and meetups’.
Ananya, who studied fashion in Milan and worked in Mumbai before returning to Bengaluru during the Covid-19 pandemic, first encountered the city-wide potential of green tea cafes in New York. She shared, “The matcha culture, the cafe culture is quite vast in New York… back then, matcha hadn’t spread as much as it has now in Bengaluru.”
Reflecting on the gendered perceptions of the drink, Ananya was pragmatic: “It’s sort of marketed as a women’s drink, so I think you know that’s one of the reasons why a lot of founders are women.”
The medium’s playful nature also helps. “Coffee is also marketed as a little bit more of a serious drink… I feel like matcha is a little more light-hearted,” she shared. Also read | Are you a frequent matcha drinker? Know how it affects gut, heart and fertility
Sourcing her ceremonial grade directly from Uji, Japan, Ananya prices classic matchas at ₹350 and flavoured iterations at ₹390 — a conscious, slightly lower price point meant to respect ‘your general average Bangalorean spending power’. For matcha sceptics, she recommended starting with gentler gateways, like ‘strawberries and cream matcha or a banana caramel’, before graduating to a classic latte. “It’s an acquired taste and you kind of have to build your way through it,” she said.
Ultimately, Ananya’s ambition is behavioural: “I want to make matcha an everyday habit for everyone. Like how coffee is an everyday habit.” It’s why Purpose functions as a flexible third space, she shared: “A restaurant can be very limiting. People come here and work, people come here for job interviews.”
Ask any of these founders if matcha was merely a fleeting social media fad, and you’ll receive an unequivocal answer: no.
“I don’t believe matcha is just a passing trend,” Haruka said, adding, “Not only is it delicious, but one of its greatest benefits is that you consume the entire tea leaf in powdered form… matcha is well known for its antioxidants, calming properties, and benefits for overall health and wellbeing.”
Ananya highlighted the physiological appeal over caffeine: “When compared to coffee in terms of like the amount of caffeine and the effect it has on you it’s not as, it doesn’t make you as jittery or as anxious.”
Karishma and Sachin plan to refine their niche before expanding to other Indian metros, while Ananya is bringing the beverage to busy office goers via a new kiosk at RMZ Eco World in Bellandur. Also read | London doctor shares easy recipe for high-protein, fibre-rich matcha and coconut energy balls: See step-by-step making
Walk into any of these cafes and it’s clear: this is more than matcha. It’s community. It’s an antidote to coffee fatigue. Pretty to enter, substantial to stay for. As Rachel succinctly put it: “For me, actually, the beverage is just the medium.”
Team Analysis
At Purpose Matcha + Coffee House on Convent Road, founder Ananya Rao approached the movement with architectural and operational ambition. Situated inside a beautifully restored colonial bungalow spanning 3,000 square feet, Purpose was designed as an all-day sanctuary.
“I always knew I didn’t want a really small space where we just do beverages. I wanted to have food as well because what I’ve noticed with a lot of cafes is that most cafes don’t serve fresh food,” Ananya said.
Match Outlook
He also experienced the drink’s functional magic firsthand: “During our pop-up days, when I used to have matcha, I could see its difference in my focus, difference in my energy, what matcha gives compared with coffee.”
If anything, the founders see the market as ripe for expansion. “Matcha is, I think, at the very initial stage at the moment. It’s yet to be explored,” Karishma said. That sense of untapped potential is driving endless experimentation — from Mont Blanc matchas at Turtle to seasonal mango concoctions at Purpose and earthy hojichas at TEKA.
Looking five years into the future, Haruka foresees a landscape where ‘matcha won’t be seen as something special or unfamiliar, but as a natural everyday choice — just like coffee or chai’.
The real story is the culture, the connection, and a city eager for its next sip.
