the best matcha latte golden ratio (updated 2026) 🍵⭐️ no cuts tutorial, strong & creamy

Happy Matcha Mondays with Michelle. Today I'm going to share my updated golden ratio iced matcha latte routine. Every day that I wake up, I cannot wait to enjoy this exact drink. So I'm going to walk you through the exact steps that I do every single morning and I'm going to do this with minimal cuts, that way it's easy to follow along with, especially if you're just starting out. And at the end, I'm going to share a few more important tips and notes that I have. But also, what is a golden ratio? A golden ratio is basically just a trendy term for your go-to ratio, your go-to recipe. How much matcha powder do you use? How much water? How much milk? How much sweetener? And I like my matcha lattes to be very strong and creamy, so that's what I'm going to show you how to make today. Okay, so we're at my matcha station. This is basically everything that I use every day to make my matcha latte. So let me walk you through everything. First we have your matcha of choice. Today I'm going to be using Kyo Matcha's Ritual Grade Matcha. This is also called Wakkyo, it's just that mine is an older packaging, so it doesn't have the new name on it yet. But I love this matcha powder, it is so good. I think this is my favorite one from Kyo Matcha right now. It's a great color, it's really high quality, especially for the price. It's under $1 per gram, which is what I usually aim for. And it's also very accessible because this brand is on Amazon. It's nutty, chocolatey, umami, it's nice and bold, a little bit sweet, so I'll have it linked in my bio. I also always use my Cha Sen. I just added a little star charm on it to accessorize it. This is my favorite whisk from Zen Kyo Matcha. I just love the shape and how slim it is. It makes it so easy to whisk and get a nice microfoam. And I like to soak my Cha Sen in hot water before I use it to soften the bristles. And I just put it in this tiny little kinto cup. Then I also use a scale every time. I love using a scale. I just think it's fast and convenient so that I can make sure that I get the perfect ratio every time. And this is my favorite scale, it's by the brand Maestri House. Then I also use a sieve. This one is just a really inexpensive one from Daiso, but I love how fine the mesh is, so it really helps to get rid of any clumps in the matcha. And this is my chawan, or more specifically, a katakuchi chawan. Traditionally chawans are not glass, they're ceramic, and they traditionally don't come with a spout, but if it does have a spout, then it's called a katakuchi. So this is just a very modern take on the traditional chawan, but I love it. It's double-walled, it's glass, it is heat-resistant, dishwasher, microwave-safe. And this one is from David's Tea. Then to scoop the matcha, I always use my stainless steel chashaku. This one is from Fellow. They're known for their kettles, which I do have their kettle as well. But I just love how sleek this stainless steel chashaku is. I don't really like using the traditional bamboo ones. Those are just flimsy and harder to clean. So the stainless steel one is amazing. And I just rest it on this little dango chopstick rest, and that I found in Japan at Nakamise Dori. Then I have the cup that I'm gonna put my matcha inside of. This one is similar to the Kinto cup, but it's actually from the brand Pharaoh Chef, and they're available on Amazon. It's a slightly more affordable option than the Kinto ones, but it looks exactly the same. And it's the perfect size for the amount of matcha that I like. And I also like to use a shorter glass straw. This is, I think, a 6-inch straw, and it's just the perfect size for these cups. I know, everyone says, don't use glass straws, but I think as long as you take care of it and you're not mashing your ice in your cup with it, then you will be okay. I always also check the straw before I use it every time. And again, just don't be crushing your ice and mixing it aggressively. I also always use a temperature-controlled kettle. This one allows you to control the temperature up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, but I have it set to 170 degrees Fahrenheit right now, or about 77 Celsius, and that's the temperature I always use to whisk my matcha. And lastly, of course, we have ice and milk. So I love a good square ice cube. So I got this tray from Target, and this is my favorite milk, the Calpheon Farms Oat Barista Blend. My body and skin don't really like dairy, so I like to drink dairy-free milk, and oat is just my personal preference. You can use whatever milk you prefer, though. But I just like this one because it doesn't overpower the flavor of the matcha. Okay, so the first thing that I'm going to do, actually, is soak my whisk. So I'm just going to take my water that is set to 170 degrees Fahrenheit and fill the cup with water. So just make sure that your cup is heat-resistant and keep the water level below the thread line. And I just let it soak for one to two minutes to help soften the bristles. That way, they don't break as easily when we're whisking. So I'm going to set that aside, and now we can start making the matcha. And here's where you can follow along. So I'm going to take 4 grams of matcha. In my previous tutorial, I just took 3 grams, but I've been liking a little bit more lately. So lately, I've been doing 4 grams. And I'm going to sift it, tear the scale, and now I'm going to add 40 grams of water. It doesn't need to be exact, but I do like to use a 1 to 10 ratio. So for every gram of matcha, I use 10 grams of water. For water, grams and milliliters are pretty much the same. So 40 grams, 40 milliliters is the same. But that ratio just helps to keep the matcha flavor nice and strong, which is what I want. So now I'm going to whisk off of my scale, because you don't want to whisk on top of your scale. Otherwise, it could eventually put too much pressure on your scale and break it and cause it to be, I don't know, less accurate. But now that the whisk is nice and soaked and softened, I'm going to whisk the matcha just like so. So I start pretty vigorously like this, just going in a back and forth W motion. I want to get some nice, big, frothy bubbles at the surface. And once I see those big bubbles, then I'll just slow down and focus on whisking only the surface. So now I'm just breaking up those big bubbles. I'll do this for another 30 seconds about, and then eventually you get a beautiful microfoam. I wanted to bring you in a little bit closer, but there's that gorgeous, fluffy foam, and I love it. I feel like the whisk really does make a difference. Now I'm going to put my cup back on the scale, fill my cup with ice. I like to fill it up as much as possible, which is usually about eight ice cubes for me. And if you're wondering how many grams that is, it's about 108 grams of ice. All right, then for the milk, give it a shake and I'm going to add 100 grams of milk. I'll usually do between 90 and 100, depending on if I want a little bit more to drink or not. We don't need the scale anymore. And now my favorite part, pouring the matcha. Here we go. Wow. This one is so thick. Look at that layer. That is a thick layer of matcha. And then to pick up the extra matcha in the bowl, I'll just add a splash of water, swirl it around. And before I used to just pour it back into my cup, but that does kind of like dilute it a little bit more. And again, I'm trying to not dilute it as much as possible. So what I realized is after I pick up all the extra matcha in the bowl, you can just drink it like ustucha, like just drink it straight from the bowl. Just like that. But yeah, if you don't want to dilute your drink anymore, just drink it straight from your chawan. And just for pretty presentation purposes, I'm going to switch out my coaster. And here we have my golden ratio matcha latte, nice, strong, creamy. So now let's give it a mix. That color is beautiful. Cheers. This matcha is so good because it's so nutty, umami, creamy, sweet. It's slightly grassy and astringent too. But just overall, it hits so many different notes. So it's very well balanced and it's a great price. It is so high quality for the price. So like I mentioned, I do also want to share some helpful tips and notes that I have. I shared a bunch in my previous video actually, so you can check that out for even more. But there's a few that I want to mention here that I didn't mention in that one. So first of all, as you may have noticed in today's latte, I did not add any sweetener and I usually don't. I don't like to add too much extra sweetener because I just want to enjoy the matcha powder on its own as much as possible. Obviously, in order to really do that, you should just drink it the traditional way with just water. But when I make a matcha latte, I try to not use any sweeteners because I just love the flavor of the matcha itself. I feel like the milk is already pretty sweet anyway, so I don't feel the need to use any sweeteners. But if you do want to use sweeteners, that is totally fine. You can use any sweetener that you want. My sweetener of choice though, if I do use sweetener, is just pure maple syrup. And it's, you know, a healthier, natural sweetener, I guess. And I'll usually only use like 5 grams. But if you want to add more, you can always adjust it to taste. It really is just up to you. The other thing is that not all matcha powders are made equally. That's just how it is. So that's why I kind of have a range for my ratio now, specifically for the milk, because some matcha powders just aren't as bold or as strong as some others, and that's okay. So yes, this is my golden ratio, but it's also not exact. It doesn't have to be exact every single time. I think it's okay to play around with the ratios a little bit to really help the matcha powder shine. Let's say the matcha powder is not as bold. Maybe you can add a little bit more powder, or reduce the amount of water, reduce the amount of milk. Maybe it's really astringent and bitter, you can add more sweetener or more milk to combat that. So there's lots of different tiny tweaks that you can do to really make the matcha powder taste as best as it can. You just need to try it out for yourself and see what works. But I do think this ratio is a good starting point for people that have no idea where to start. And the last thing that I want to leave off on is a little reminder that you can just enjoy matcha however you want. Use whatever ratios you want, whatever ingredients you want, it really is up to you. I do still encourage you to learn about the traditional ways of drinking matcha, and especially try it out for yourself if you've never done it before. I do have videos talking all about that as well if you're curious. But yeah, at the end of the day, I think you should just enjoy matcha however you desire. And this is my preferred way. I did also just film a hot matcha latte tutorial, so if you want to see what I do for that, you can check out my short that I just posted. So thank you guys so much for watching, like and subscribe for more Matcha Mondays, and I'll see you next week. Bye!