Maca vs Matcha

One letter apart, and not related in any way. Maca is a root with no caffeine; matcha is a tea leaf with plenty.

A lot of the traffic to this question is somebody checking they have not bought the wrong thing. The names are one letter apart, both turn up in the same corner of the same shops, both get stirred into lattes and smoothies by the same people — and they have nothing whatsoever in common. Maca is a root, grown at altitude in the Peruvian Andes, dried and milled into a beige-brown powder. Matcha is a leaf, grown under shade in Japan, steamed and stone-ground into a green one. They do not taste alike, they do not look alike once you have the bags open, and only one of them will keep you awake.

The short answer

Maca is a caffeine-free root powder from Lepidium meyenii, a Peruvian plant related to radish and cress, with a malty, butterscotch-like flavour. Matcha is a caffeinated Japanese green tea containing roughly 60–70 mg of caffeine per 2 g serving. They are unrelated plants and unrelated products — the similarity is entirely in the spelling of their names.

Updated Sep 3, 2026· We don't sell either of these and take no commission on them.

Side by side

Maca and matcha compared
	MatchaCamellia sinensis — shade-grown Japanese green tea	MacaLepidium meyenii — Andean root powder
Part of the plant	Leaf	Root
Plant	Camellia sinensis — tea	Lepidium meyenii — a brassica, related to radish
Origin	Japan — chiefly Uji, Nishio, Kagoshima	Peruvian Andes, above 4,000 m
Colour	Vivid jade green	Beige to light brown
Caffeine	≈60–70 mg per 2 g	None
Taste	Umami, grassy, sweet-bitter	Malty, nutty, butterscotch, faintly earthy
Standard serving	2 g	1–3 tsp (roughly 3–9 g)
Drunk on its own?	Yes — that is the traditional form	Rarely — almost always blended into something
Whisks into water?	Yes, into a stable suspension	No — it is a starchy root flour and settles
Typical reason people buy it	Caffeine, focus, flavour	Energy and endurance claims — evidence is limited

Maca is sold as yellow, red and black, which refers to the colour of the root rather than a processing grade. Gelatinised maca has been heat-treated to break down its starch and is easier on the stomach than raw.

Who wins what

For alertness
Matcha
Caffeine and L-theanine, with a measurable and well-understood effect. Maca contains no stimulant.
For a caffeine-free option
Maca
No caffeine at all, so it will not touch your sleep whatever time you drink it.
As a drink in its own right
Matcha
Matcha is made to be drunk plain. Maca is a starchy flour that needs carrying by milk, cocoa or fruit.
In a smoothie or a bake
Maca
Its malty, butterscotch character genuinely improves a smoothie or an oat bake. Matcha in a blender is money poorly spent.
Predictability of what you are buying
Matcha
Grades, prefectures and harvest dates give you something to read. Maca's colour categories tell you far less about what is in the bag.

The differences that actually matter

Root versus leaf, and everything follows

Maca is a root vegetable — closer, botanically, to a radish or a turnip than to anything in the tea aisle. Roots store energy as starch, which is why maca powder is heavy, beige and faintly sweet, and why it behaves like a flour in liquid rather than like a tea. Matcha is a leaf, and leaves store amino acids and chlorophyll rather than starch, which is why matcha is light, green and drinkable on its own. Nearly every practical difference between the two comes back to this one fact.

Only one of them does anything you will notice within the hour

Matcha's effect is immediate and uncontroversial: caffeine, moderated by L-theanine, arriving over thirty to forty-five minutes. Maca's reputation is built on energy, stamina and hormonal claims, and the evidence behind those is thin — most studies are small, short and not consistently replicated. Whatever maca does, it is not a stimulant, it will not be obvious on the first day, and it should not be bought as a substitute for one.

Raw versus gelatinised maca is the choice that actually matters

If you do buy maca, this is the decision worth understanding. Raw maca retains its starch, and a lot of people find it bloating or hard on the stomach in any real quantity. Gelatinised maca has been gently heated to break that starch down; it dissolves more easily, tastes less raw, and is markedly easier to digest. The yellow, red and black distinction that dominates the marketing tells you about the root's colour, not about how it will sit — this one tells you how it will sit.

They are wanted for opposite times of day

Matcha is a morning and early-afternoon drink, because 60–70 mg of caffeine at 6pm is a sleep problem for most people. Maca has no such constraint and is often taken in the evening without consequence. If you have been looking for 'matcha but at night', maca is the shape of thing you were looking for — with the caveat that it is not going to taste like matcha or feel like it.

Neither substitutes for the other in a recipe

A recipe calling for matcha wants its colour, its bitterness and its fine suspension. Maca gives you none of those — it will turn a matcha cake beige and make it taste of malt. Going the other way is just as bad: matcha in a maca smoothie adds bitterness where the recipe wanted sweetness. The one-letter difference in the names has caused a genuinely large number of ruined bakes.

How they actually taste

Maca tastes surprisingly pleasant on its own terms and nothing like what its beige colour suggests — malty and nutty, with a distinct butterscotch or caramel note and an earthy, slightly radish-adjacent finish underneath. It is closer to a malted milk powder than to a green superfood. Matcha is savoury where maca is sweet: umami first, then grass and steamed vegetables, then a bitterness that clears. Maca suits cocoa, banana, oats and cinnamon, which is why it turns up in smoothies. Matcha suits milk and very little else, which is why it turns up in bowls. Anyone who has tasted both will never mistake one for the other again — the confusion is entirely a shelf-and-spelling problem.

Which one should you drink?

If you picked up the wrong bag and want to know if it will do
It will not
If you wanted caffeine and bought maca, there is none in it. If you wanted a smoothie base and bought matcha, you have bought something more expensive and more bitter than the recipe wants.
If you want energy in the morning
Matcha
It contains an actual stimulant. Maca does not, whatever the packaging implies.
If you want something in the evening
Maca
No caffeine, no sleep cost. Matcha at 8pm is a bad idea for most people.
If you are making a smoothie or baking
Maca
Malty and sweet, it works with cocoa, banana and oats. Matcha's delicacy is wasted in a blender and its bitterness fights sweet bakes.
If you have a sensitive stomach
Matcha, or gelatinised maca
Raw maca's starch content causes bloating for a lot of people. If you want maca, buy it gelatinised.

Can you drink both — or mix them?

These two do combine, and unusually the result is better than either half suggests — maca's malt and butterscotch sit under matcha's grassiness rather than fighting it, in roughly the way a caramel note works in a coffee. If you want to try it, use a level teaspoon of gelatinised maca to a 2 g serving of matcha, whisk the matcha properly first and stir the maca into the milk rather than the bowl, so you do not disrupt the suspension. Do not use raw maca for this — it will not dissolve cleanly and the texture will be gritty on top of matcha's own fine body.

Frequently asked

Is maca the same as matcha?

No, and they are not related in any way. Maca is a root from the Peruvian Andes, related to radish and cress, with no caffeine. Matcha is a Japanese green tea leaf, ground to powder, with roughly 60–70 mg of caffeine per 2 g serving. The similarity is entirely in the spelling.

Does maca have caffeine?

No. Maca contains no caffeine at all. Any energising effect people report from it is not stimulant-driven, and the evidence for it is limited.

What colour is maca powder?

Beige to light brown. If the powder in your bag is green, it is not maca — it is matcha, moringa, wheatgrass or a green blend. This is the fastest way to check you bought what you meant to.

Can I use maca instead of matcha in a latte?

You can make a maca latte and many people do, but it is a different drink — malty and beige rather than grassy and green, with no caffeine. It is not a substitute for a matcha latte, it is an alternative to one.

Should I buy raw or gelatinised maca?

Gelatinised, for most people. The heat treatment breaks down the root's starch, which makes it dissolve better, taste less raw and sit much more easily on the stomach. Raw maca causes bloating in a meaningful number of people who try it.

Sources

Figures on this page are drawn from the following. Each was last opened and verified on the date shown — if one has moved or changed, please tell us.

[1] U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine is Too Much? (2023).Used for: The 400 mg per day figure cited as a general ceiling for healthy adults, and the note that sensitivity varies by individual. · Verified 15 August 2026

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