Easy Matcha Jelly Recipe (With Video)

Make matcha jelly at home with this easy recipe. Use it in matcha parfaits, drinks, or eat it by itself for a perfect summer dessert.

Summer is in full swing, which for me means I’m always looking for desserts that help me cool down. Last year I attempted making matcha jelly from scratch for the first time, and I had failure after failure! My matcha powder kept sinking to the bottom of the jelly! So finally this year I got smart and looked up how home cooks in Japan make theirs. Turns out, the answer is super simple: use cold water! Duh! This way the entire matcha mixture becomes thick before you even put it in the fridge. The matcha powder is suspended and doesn’t sink! Success!

Serving Ideas

Jellies and jelly-like textures are super popular in Japan, especially for desserts. This matcha jelly is really similar to the classic Japanese sweet, coffee jelly, just with tea instead of coffee. These jellies can be served on its own as the main dessert, or it can be a topping for another sweet dish. Here are some ideas for serving jelly:

• With condensed milk
• Topped with vanilla ice cream
• ​With fruit
• ​At the bottom of a parfait
• In milk with a boba straw

What Type of Matcha to Use?

Let’s be real – a brackish brown jelly that looks like it was made from swamp water is not very appealing. Make sure you are using a good quality matcha powder. However, because this jelly has added sugar to it, you probably want to choose a matcha that’s more on the bitter side. Personally, I use Maeda-en’s universal quality matcha for these kinds of sweets. Your very high quality expensive drinking matcha can work too, but I don’t know if it’s the best use of your money.

As always, I encourage you not to be blinded by labels like culinary grade matcha or ceremonial grade matcha. Go by taste and color. For more about matcha brands, labels, and choosing matcha, check out my Ultimate Guide to Matcha post.

By the way, please make note that green tea powder and matcha are not the same! Matcha is made from the same plant as green tea, but their growing conditions are different. Green tea powder will likely result in a more yellow-ish, brown color and have a very different flavor.

Can I Make it Vegan?

Because this recipe uses gelatin powder, it’s obviously not vegan or vegetarian. If you would like to make it vegan, you can try substituting agar-agar powder for the gelatin. Agar-agar is a thickener like gelatin that is made from seaweed. I find that agar-agar desserts tend to become harder and not as soft or jiggly as gelatin ones, so I personally don’t love it. If you want to give it a try, substitute one teaspoon of agar-agar for the packet of gelatin. Note that since I don’t use it myself, I can’t guarantee the end results.

Playing with Texture

Want your jelly a little more firm? Or a little more squishy? You can change how much this jelly holds its shape by adding or reducing liquid. For more firm cubes that hold their shape, decrease the amount of cold water added to 3/4 to 1 cup. For something more loose and slurpable (is that a word?), add an extra half cup of water.

Can I Make This a Matcha Latte Jelly?

Yes! Substitute whole milk for the cold water. 

More Jelly Recipes

Looking for more jelly desserts for hot weather? I’ve got you covered!

• Almond jello (aka annin doufu or almond float)
• Coconut jelly (Melo Melo copycat)
• Jello mochi

If you liked this recipe, please leave me a review below! And let me know what other recipes you’d like to see in the comments.