Our menu has three matcha options: Matcha Shot, Matcha Raf with coconut milk, and Iced Matcha, also with coconut milk. One version deliberately does not exist: matcha with cow's milk. That is not an oversight, nor an attempt to turn every cup into a plant-based manifesto.
The reason starts with what we expect from this tea. We do not buy matcha merely for its green colour or because it looks good in a glass. We choose ceremonial-grade tea from Uji for the quality of the leaf, the flavour and the characteristic chemical composition — including catechins such as EGCG. If we are already paying for a better raw material and taking care over how we prepare it, it makes little sense for us to automatically pair it with an ingredient for which data exist suggesting it may reduce the bioavailability of precisely those catechins.
The most useful human experiment on this subject was not conducted directly with matcha, but with green tea — and that caveat matters. In a randomised crossover study, 24 healthy women drank green tea extract either alone or together with skimmed milk, caseinate or soy protein. When the green tea was taken with milk, the overall bioavailability of catechins was lower, and among galloylated catechins the difference was especially pronounced. For EGCG — one of the most studied catechins in green tea — the area under the blood concentration curve fell to approximately 68 percent of the value obtained when the tea was taken without added milk.
That is precisely the kind of data we do not want to ignore. If one of the reasons we choose matcha is its natural catechin profile, it is rational for us to avoid a combination for which a controlled human trial has shown it can significantly reduce absorption of an important portion of those compounds.
The mechanism is also biologically plausible. Catechins, including EGCG, can interact with proteins. Casein, the main protein in cow's milk, can form complexes with tea polyphenols, and researchers have long been investigating whether such interactions change what happens to them during digestion and absorption.
But good scientific policy begins precisely where we stop before the evidence says more than it actually knows.
There is also a second randomised trial — older and smaller — in which adding semi-skimmed milk to black tea did not significantly reduce blood concentrations of total catechins. It is not the same intervention, not the same tea and not the same design as the study where the drop in EGCG was clearly visible. But it is enough to stop us writing the sensationalist sentence that milk nullifies all antioxidants in tea.
The science does not give us so simple a slogan. It gives us something more useful: there is evidence that simultaneous ingestion of proteins, including cow's milk and casein, can reduce the bioavailability of galloylated catechins such as EGCG. How significant that effect is for long-term health outcomes in someone who regularly drinks matcha has not yet been sufficiently established.
For VERA that is enough to make a conservative decision. When we have the choice between serving ceremonial matcha in a way that preserves its native profile as much as possible, and serving it in a way for which there is data suggesting it may reduce the availability of some of its catechins, we choose the first.
Hence no cow's milk.
This is not a claim that cow's milk is unhealthy. It is not. Nor are we suggesting that one matcha with milk will strip someone of all the tea's potential benefits. The question is much narrower: if we are making matcha for the quality and composition of the matcha itself, why would we choose a combination for which we have reason to believe it is not optimal for one of its most interesting groups of compounds?
At VERA, the answer is that we do not.
Matcha Shot is the clearest expression of that idea: ceremonial matcha and water. Matcha Raf we make with coconut milk, as we do Iced Matcha. Coconut milk contains no casein, so we avoid precisely the milk-protein interaction that concerns us here. We do not claim, however, that every plant-based milk is scientifically neutral towards all polyphenols. In the human trial mentioned above, soy protein also reduced the bioavailability of some galloylated catechins. Which is why our principle is not the simplistic "plant good, animal bad," but a much more specific product standard.
We also chose coconut because it works with the flavour of our matcha. Its texture gives the Raf body and keeps the iced version creamy while letting the tea remain recognisable. That matters, because health is never the only criterion for a good drink. If something is to be consumed regularly, it would be useful for it to taste good as well.
There is one more reason for being principled here. The wellness industry is full of products where a large promise about benefits is made first, and then the product itself is submerged in sugar, flavourings and ingredients there to cover its taste. We find the reverse approach more interesting. We begin with a ceremonial matcha we would drink with water alone, and everything we add to it must pass the question: does this preserve what we chose it for?
Cow's milk does not pass that test for us.
Someone may quite legitimately prefer matcha with cow's milk and drink it because they enjoy it. Food and drink are not laboratory protocols, and pleasure is a perfectly sufficient reason to choose something. But a café also has the right to have a standard and to decide what it wants its product to represent.
Our standard is simple: if we say we take matcha seriously, then we take seriously what we mix it with.
That is why VERA has three matcha drinks. Matcha Shot. Matcha Raf with coconut milk. Iced Matcha with coconut milk.
Cow's milk is not a fourth option. Deliberately.
We claim ours is the best matcha in Serbia. If it is not — we will refund you. VERA, Nikole Spasića 4, Stari Grad, Belgrade.
Matcha at VERA →