How I managed a 94% discount on my latte
And rethought everything.
This is a story about how I went from spending almost $2 per cup on my daily homemade matcha latte to just 12 cents.
It’s also a story about social media, consumerism, managing family relationships, sustainability, health and probably a lot more. In other words, when you spend most of your day at home with a toddler, you start reading a lot into an innocuous tin of green tea powder.
It all started with a quest to reduce my caffeine intake for, y’know, health. I’d been told matcha tea has less caffeine than coffee plus offers other healthful compounds. I figured, Ok great. I’ll drink that. But now to select which kind of matcha…
As soon as I had this thought, Instagram started blitzing me with ads for matcha tea (thanks, robot spies). I started hearing a lot from a brand called Pique. I do not mean to pick on this brand — their products are lovely — it’s really just a symbol of all the beautifully packaged stuff I fall for on Instagram.
Though if any brand has my number it’s this one. Nature! Artisans! Science! Orchids!
My mom had been drinking this stuff for ages, trendsetter that she is, and gave me some to try. It tasted good, so I went to their site to order more. And goodness, it cost $68 PER TIN. Which was 35 servings, but let’s be real, I definitely have at least 2 servings a day, so that’s not even a 3 week supply. So, I guess, matcha was going to be a large percent of my household budget now? It seemed inevitable.
I hit “order.” This did not feel great, I have to tell you.
I did notice my grocery store sold similar-looking tins for less than half the cost, but the marketing—the amazing marketing—made me question the quality of these tins. They looked suspect to me. No artisans! No science! And definitely no orchids. Reject.
Eventually I was shaken from my delusional state.