Matcha is powdered green tea, stone-ground from shade-grown leaves and whisked into water or milk until it foams jade green. Japanese tea masters have prepared it this way since the 12th century, in grades ranging from delicate to robust. When matcha first showed up on Sarasota coffee menus, it was often a single latte option wedged between the flat white and the chai. Then consumers started rethinking caffeine. Gen Z gravitated toward matcha for its steady lift and discovered that the layered green drinks looked striking on camera. Gen X found the health research compelling. TikTok and Insta took over. U.S. retail sales surged 86 percent between 2021 and 2024. By late 2025, the #matcha had crossed sixteen billion views. Three spots across Sarasota-Lakewood Ranch take matcha seriously, each with a distinct approach.

PALMA COFFEE

You could drive past Palma Coffee without noticing. Co-owners Amanda Govic and Manuel Montenegro describe their own address, tucked inside Coral Cove Mall on South Tamiami Trail, as “obscure.” Inside, tropical-retro decór with mint and orange accents creates a beachy listening lounge. Pale wooden crates hold vinyls from Habibi Funk to Brazilian Samba. Palma sources spring-harvest ceremonial grade from Kagoshima, Japan, through a wholesaler that buys straight from growers. Japanese tencha trading prices across regions climbed 265 percent in the last two years, making that level of sourcing increasingly competitive. “We don’t skimp on our matcha,” Govic says.

Order the Kokoro Cloud, which begins with a glass of coconut water. On top: a matcha float made with coconut milk and pineapple salt syrup, pulled through an ISI pressurized whipper, finished with lava salt and toasted coconut flakes. “People love the visuals of just clear, with a green cloud over it,” Govic says. When the Adriatic Summer pops up on the seasonal board, it’s an instant social media hit: a smooth layer of lavender-blueberry sauce beneath matcha, capped with lemon cream.

While the matcha has gained traction, the cafe formed its reputation from single-origin espresso and Kyoto cold brew. Montenegro grew up in Colombia. “We drink coffee from very early on,” he says. “It’s part of our identity.” He and Govic met while she was living in Sarasota and he was in Miami, connecting somewhere along I-75 on weekends. They got engaged, moved to California and planned trips around coffeehouses and record stores. Montenegro, an aircraft technician, says, “COVID was a pivoting point. If planes don’t fly, they don’t need parts.” The couple ran an e-commerce coffee business while hunting for a space until opening Palma in 2022. The attention happened organically. “People come here, take a picture,” Montenegro says. The emphasis is not only on tasting good but on looking good. Everything we put out.”  

7362 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 941-923-9923, palmacoffee.com

ROOT AND SEED BAKERY

Root and Seed Bakery in San Marco Plaza, Lakewood Ranch, opened nearly two years ago. Earth-toned walls, botanical touches and softly curved seating make the space feel like your stylish friend’s Scandi living room. Owner Irem Meric trained as a veterinarian in Istanbul and later attended culinary school, studying traditional Turkish pastry and bread. Then her undiagnosed celiac disease demanded a new direction. “I had to change my whole lifestyle,” Meric says. She turned to yoga and Ayurvedic eating, and altered how she baked: no gluten; no refined sugar; olive oil instead of butter; dates, maple and fruit paste for sweetness. Online courses from the UK and the US taught her new techniques in plant-based cooking. But, really, her menu grew out of experimentation. “I wanted to make something with clean ingredients that’s also delicious,” Meric says. The kitchen operates plant-based and certified gluten-free. Many regulars come for the avocado toast, served on buckwheat bread that Meric makes from red buckwheat seeds, psyllium husk, water and olive oil. It’s spread with a fresh whipped cashew cream cheese, “just fermented cashew, probiotics, fiber. And salt and lemon.”

The matcha to order: Double Cream Cinnamon latte made with vanilla cashew cream and cinnamon, poured over oat milk, served hot or iced. Meric sources single-origin matcha from Uji, Japan, through a direct importer. “Many coffee shops choose barista-grade matcha, designed mainly for lattes,” she says. “We use tea-grade ceremonial matcha that is high enough quality to be enjoyed on its own.”

For maximum matcha, order the baked version: “a matcha latte that decided to become a cookie,” Meric says. An oven-friendly matcha keeps its green color and intensifies the flavor. Her flour blends are mixed in-house from brown rice, tapioca, sorghum and millet, sweetened with coconut sugar, and made with coconut oil and yogurt. No allergen symbols clutter the menu for guests. “They came here,” Meric says. “So they know they can get anything.”

8209 Natures Way, Suite 107, Lakewood Ranch, 941-362-2006, rootandseed.com

KITA MATCHA

Kita Reilly of Kita Matcha started making matcha at home for her husband, Bryan, after his doctor suggested green tea for elevated triglycerides instead of medication. Studies link matcha’s catechins, particularly one called EGCG, to cardiovascular support. L-theanine, an amino acid, slows caffeine absorption and steadies alertness without the crash. Reilly blended flavored versions to soften the grassiness Bryan didn’t love: strawberry first, then blueberry, then whatever fruit she had on hand. Friends tried some. They wanted more. Bryan suggested a truck, and Kita Matcha was born. “You pop up in different places and people follow you,” says Reilly, who likes the flexibility around parenting. “You set your own hours, time and day.”

Kita’s cream-colored mobile bar has retro charm with a single nostalgic color: fittingly, green. But Reilly’s connection to food predates the trailer by decades. Her mom is Lao; her dad, Thai, and her family runs Pacific Rim, where she worked from age 14. Owner and cousin Veth helps at the Sarasota Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings, while Reilly pops up at the restaurant on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The matcha hails from Uji, Japan, an Okumidori cultivar grown by a third-generation organic tea farmer who ships it once a month. The tea comes from the season’s first spring harvest. “Mine is very clean,” she says. “Not as grassy.” She purees real fruit into her syrups with minimal organic raw sugar, skipping gums entirely. Recent collaborations have paired her with Sarasota Honey Company for a blueberry lavender latte made with French lavender honey, and with 5-0 Donuts for a matcha-and-cake-donut mashup riffing on the matcha dots trend.

Order Kita’s Blackberry Pie Matcha: organic ceremonial matcha combined with a housemade blackberry vanilla pie syrup, finished with your choice of dairy or oat milk. The syrup tastes like cooked blackberries rather than candy, putting matcha at the center. Bryan’s triglyceride levels dropped enough that he never needed medication. “His doctor says it’s because of the matcha,” Reilly says. “But we’re not scientists.”

Mobile bar, Sat at Sarasota Farmers Market; Wed & Fri at Pacific Rim, kitamatcha.com

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