Reference
Two different people search for matcha green color. One is picking a colour for a brand or a wall and wants hex codes. The other is staring into a newly opened tin wondering whether the dull olive powder inside means they were sold something bad. Both questions are answerable, so this page does both, starting with the codes.
There is no single official matcha green, because real matcha spans a range and no standards body has fixed a value. The swatches below are the shades commonly used to represent matcha in design work, alongside the greens this site actually uses. They are illustrative reference values, not instrument measurements of any particular tin.
| Swatch | Name | Hex | Reads as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matcha green | #8AB661 | The common design-world default, a yellow-leaning mid green | |
| Matcha latte | #A8C686 | Muted, milk-softened, the colour of the drink not the powder | |
| Know Your Matcha mid green | #74C69D | Cooler and bluer, our most-used brand green | |
| Know Your Matcha deep green | #40916C | Our link and rule colour | |
| Deep tea green | #1B4332 | Near-black green, koicha in a dark bowl | |
| Pale matcha foam | #D8F3DC | The froth on a well-whisked bowl |
If you want one number, #8AB661 is the value most people mean by matcha green. If you are building something and want it to look like real matcha rather than the idea of matcha, use a slightly desaturated green and let the yellow through. Genuine matcha is less saturated than the internet believes.
Chlorophyll, and a farming decision. For the last three to four weeks before harvest, tencha bushes are covered with shade cloth. Deprived of full sun, the plant produces more chlorophyll to capture what light remains, and it also accumulates more amino acids including L-theanine. Shading is therefore the reason matcha is both unusually green and unusually savoury. The two travel together, which is a useful thing to know, because it means colour carries real information about how the leaf was grown.
Steaming immediately after picking is the second half of the story. Heat deactivates the enzymes that would otherwise oxidise the leaf and turn it brown, which is precisely what is allowed to happen when the same plant is made into black tea. Stone milling then keeps the powder cool enough not to undo that work.
Colour is the most reliable signal you can read without tasting, which is why the good vendors photograph the powder and the poor ones photograph a whisked bowl with the lighting pushed.
Tip a small amount onto a white plate in daylight, near a window and not under warm indoor lighting, which flatters everything green. Spread it thin with the back of a spoon, because a heap looks darker than it is. Compare against white, never against a wooden or coloured surface. If you have two tins, put them side by side, since colour is far easier to judge comparatively than in isolation.
Matcha is a fine powder with enormous surface area, so it oxidises quickly once air reaches it. Three things drive the fade: oxygen, light, and heat. Keep the tin airtight, cool and dark, and finish it within four to eight weeks of opening. Not the fridge, despite the common advice: every time you take a cold tin out, condensation forms inside it, and moisture does more damage to an opened tin than ambient warmth does. A tin that has visibly gone from jade to olive in your own cupboard is telling you about your storage rather than about the farm.
Cooking changes it too, and legitimately. Heat and acid both degrade chlorophyll, which is why matcha ice cream is sage rather than jade and why matcha baked into a cake comes out browner than the batter went in. That is chemistry, not a defect.
Colour tells you about freshness, harvest and shading. It cannot tell you about origin, contaminants, or whether the tin is blended from several farms, and it can be gamed with additives. It is a good first filter and a bad final judgement. For the things colour cannot show you, what a brand actually discloses matters more, which is what our India rankings and our testing methodology are built around.
FAQ
#8AB661 is the value most commonly used to mean matcha green in design work. There is no official standard, since real matcha spans a range of greens. For a milk-softened matcha latte shade use #A8C686, and for a deep koicha green use #1B4332.
Chlorophyll, concentrated deliberately. The bushes are covered with shade cloth for three to four weeks before harvest, so the plant produces more chlorophyll to capture the reduced light, and more amino acids at the same time. Steaming the leaf immediately after picking then stops the enzymes that would oxidise it brown.
A vivid, slightly cool jade green for a ceremonial grade, and a brighter yellow-leaning green for a good culinary grade. Dull olive suggests later leaf, more stem or sun-grown tea. Yellow-brown or grey-green means it has oxidised and is old or badly stored.
Oxidation. Matcha is a very fine powder with a large surface area, so oxygen, light and heat fade it quickly. Either the tin is old, it was left open, or it was stored warm and bright. Keep it airtight, cool and dark, out of the fridge, and finish it within four to eight weeks of opening.
No, and very intense neon green should make you suspicious, because real matcha does not glow and colouring is added to some low-grade product. Colour is a good first filter for freshness and harvest, but it says nothing about origin or contaminants and it can be gamed.
Heat and acid degrade chlorophyll. That is why matcha ice cream comes out sage rather than jade and why matcha cake bakes browner than the batter. It is normal chemistry rather than a sign of poor powder.
Health claims about matcha are graded by evidence strength on our benefits page, and anything we have got wrong and fixed is logged on our corrections page. We do not sell matcha and we do not sell rank order, which is explained in our editorial policy.