Matcha has become one of those ingredients everyone seems to have an opinion about, yet most people have only ever tried it in one form — usually a latte from a café menu. There's a whole other side to matcha that a lot of newcomers never explore: traditional matcha tea, made the way it's been prepared for centuries. Pekoe, a Dubai-based tea brand that sources and sells multiple grades of matcha for both traditional preparation and modern drinks, is a good place to look at how these two versions actually differ, and more importantly, which one genuinely fits a given person's taste and lifestyle. Two Very Different Rituals The most obvious difference between a matcha latte and traditional matcha tea isn't the flavor — it's the ritual behind each one. Traditional matcha tea involves whisking matcha powder directly into hot water using a bamboo whisk until it turns frothy, a method that dates back centuries and is meant to be slow, deliberate, and almost meditati...