Pique vs Jade Leaf matcha: which one should you actually buy

This is the comparison most people are actually making when they look at Pique. On one side, single-serve sachets with published toxin screening at a premium price. On the other, the tin that most matcha drinkers eventually settle on.

I have used both for months. They are not competing for the same buyer, and once you see why, the choice gets easy.

Price, which is most of the story

Pique Sun Goddess runs about two dollars forty a serving at the one-time price. Jade Leaf ceremonial comes in a tin and works out to well under a dollar a serving depending on the size you buy. Check both before ordering, since matcha pricing moves with the harvest and with the yen.

Call it a two to three times difference. Over a year of daily drinking that is a few hundred dollars, which is enough that it should not be decided on packaging aesthetics.

Taste

Pique is better. Not dramatically, but consistently. It is sweeter, thicker in the mouth, with more of the savoury quality that makes good matcha interesting plain. Jade Leaf ceremonial is clean and perfectly pleasant and slightly more astringent, and it is very good matcha for the money.

Drunk plain with water, side by side, I would pick Pique every time. Drunk as a latte with oat milk, I could not reliably tell them apart, and neither could anyone I asked. That single fact decides this comparison for most people, because most people drink matcha lattes.

Testing

Both brands publish testing, which already puts them ahead of most of the market. Pique screen for heavy metals, pesticides, toxic mould and radioactive isotopes. Jade Leaf test for heavy metals and pesticides and publish results.

Pique’s screening is broader. Whether the extra categories matter to you is a judgement call, and I would not pay two times the price for the mould and isotope screening alone. The lead testing is the one that counts, and both do it.

Format

Sachets versus a tin is the real fork.

The tin is cheaper per gram, produces almost no waste, and lets you vary how strong you make it. It also needs a scoop, ideally a sifter, a whisk or a frother, and a sink to clean up in. That is a two minute ritual, and plenty of people enjoy it.

The sachet needs a bottle of cold water. That is the entire equipment list. If your matcha habit happens at a desk, in a car or in hotel rooms, the tin does not travel and the sachet does, and no amount of price advantage fixes that.

Which one

• Jade Leaf if you drink it at home, you own or will buy a whisk, and you care about cost per serving. This is most people, and it is the recommendation I give most often.
• Pique if you travel, your matcha happens away from a kitchen, or you drink it plain and can taste the difference and want to.
• Neither, buy culinary grade if your matcha always ends up in a sweetened latte. You are paying ceremonial prices for a flavour you are covering up.