So we read every page we could open: website, menu, socials. Then quoted exactly what they do say, dated and linked.
Of 1,147 cafes found, 447 had a page we could read.
Only 100 of them name a region, farm or supplier.
1 in 7 tells you.
Of the 588 cafés we could read, across Sydney and Melbourne.
No law requires a country, a farm, or a grade on the label, so most cafes leave it blank and you fill the gap yourself. Sometimes that assumption is right. Often nobody knows, the cafe included.
Iced or hot · oat milk available
Illustrative example of a typical Australian cafe menu
No law requires cafes to say where their matcha comes from
So most menus just say "matcha", never where it's from
Cheaper powder from outside Japan still sold as "matcha"
You have no way to know if it's actually from Japan
Honest farms in Uji and Nishio lose the premium a real harvest earns, undercut by leaf nobody can trace back to them.
Watch the proofYou pay ceremonial-grade prices for matcha nobody verified, with no way to check whether it's real.
Japanese tea producers speak directly on camera about Chinese counterfeits flooding global markets including Australia.
Watch videoAustralian TV networks report a global matcha shortage is directly driving counterfeit products into cafes and retail — consumers are paying premium prices for fake product.
Watch videoJapan's agriculture ministry registered 'Japanese tea' under GI protection specifically to combat intellectual property infringement by counterfeit imitation products amid the global matcha boom.
Read articleNames a specific Japanese region, farm or supplier, and links to proof.
Says the matcha is Japanese, but not which region, farm or supplier.
Serves matcha, but says nothing about where it's from.
Could not verify enough information across website, menu, or social media.
Legal commitment: We never say “fake” or “bad”.
We only report what cafes publicly disclose, or don't. “No disclosure found” is a factual observation, not an accusation. Every classification can be independently verified.
A strict, repeatable process with zero guesswork.
We search Google's own business listings for matcha-related cafes across Sydney and Melbourne.
Every claim is cross-checked against official websites, menu pages, about sections, and public social media. No guessing allowed.
Each cafe receives a level A–D based solely on publicly verifiable evidence. Never opinion, never taste tests.
Every listing shows the exact quote, source URL, and verification date. You can check it yourself.
Each dot is a real cafe you can open, read and check for yourself.
Suggest a cafe or submit sourcing evidence. If the evidence checks out, they'll be added and classified.