Reviewed by: Takahiro Sugiyama (CEO, meguri Inc.)
Matcha pudding can be made with the same matcha as your lattes, and in a glass cup it shows off the green colour. How you make it, how it tastes and the temperature it can sit at all change depending on whether you set it with gelatin or bake it with eggs. We checked official recipes from food and tea companies, material from an agar company and universities, and standards from authorities in the US, Japan and Singapore.
Types of matcha pudding
Matcha pudding falls into 2 groups: puddings set cold with gelatin or agar, and puddings set by heating eggs. Of the 6 official Japanese recipes compared in this article, 4 use gelatin, and the one baked with eggs is described as a “rich” pudding.
Chilled puddings (gelatin and agar)
Milk and cream are warmed, sugar and matcha are dissolved in, gelatin is added, and the pudding sets in the fridge. The recipes from Meiji, Morinaga Milk, Ito En and cotta (a Japanese online baking supplies shop) all follow this method and use no eggs. Setting it with agar instead of gelatin lets you make it with soy milk or other plant milks. Ina Food Industry publishes a recipe that sets matcha and unsweetened soy milk with agar.
Baked or steamed egg puddings
Matcha is dissolved in a mixture of eggs, milk and sugar (appareil), poured into moulds, and baked in a water bath or steamed. Tomizawa Shoten’s “rich matcha pudding” bakes at 140°C for 25 to 30 minutes, and the recipe from Sugimoto America, the US arm of a Japanese tea company, bakes at 320°F (about 160°C) for 30 minutes, both in a tray of hot water.
Smoothness depends on the egg and cream balance
Recipes for a richer pudding sometimes replace part of the milk with cream and part of the whole eggs with yolks. Kataoka & Co. and Tsuji Riichi Honten write that replacing half the milk with cream gives a richer taste. In a 2004 study in the Journal of Cookery Science of Japan, replacing part of the milk with dairy cream lowered the force needed to break the pudding, and tasters rated it softer, sweeter and better overall. In a 2009 presentation to the same society, a pudding in which milk was replaced with cream and whole eggs with yolks set only weakly and separated into 2 layers. Tomizawa Shoten’s recipe uses 2 yolks and 2 whole eggs, with 150g of milk and 100g of cream.
How gelatin, agar and egg set
Gelatin sets at fridge temperature and melts at room temperature; agar sets at room temperature and does not melt until close to boiling. Eggs set when heated. Which type a shop chooses depends largely on these temperature differences.
Gelatin and agar temperatures
According to the agar maker Ina Food Industry, gelatin sets at 15 to 20°C and starts to melt at 20 to 30°C, so it melts in summer temperatures. Agar sets at 35 to 40°C and does not melt until 85 to 95°C.
| Agar | Gelatin | |
|---|---|---|
| Made from | Seaweed such as tengusa and ogonori | Collagen from cattle, pigs and others |
| Melts at | 85 to 95°C and above | 20 to 30°C and above |
| Sets at | 35 to 40°C (room temperature) | 15 to 20°C and below (fridge) |
Source: Ina Food Industry, “寒天の疑問解決！” (Agar questions answered, in Japanese) https://www.kantenpp.co.jp/kanten/faq
The company explains that agar’s melting point is about 90°C and its setting point about 40°C, so agar that has been boiled and dissolved sets at room temperature without going into the fridge.
A guide for choosing in a shop (our view)
- Gelatin: the most common type in Japanese food company recipes. Keep the time out of the chilled case short
- Agar: keeps its shape even at room temperature, suited to takeaway and terrace seating
- Egg: keeps its shape after baking and has a strong egg and dairy taste. Needs temperature control when heating
In hot places such as Singapore and Bangkok, plan the menu on the basis that gelatin puddings do not stay outside the chilled case for long. Temperatures in both cities are covered in Matcha shelf life and storage.
Matcha amounts in official recipes
Of 6 official recipes that give matcha in grams, the 5 that state a number of servings use about 1.5 to 3.5g of matcha per serving. The 4 gelatin recipes all use 400ml (g) of milk and cream combined, with matcha at 1.5 to 3.5% of that, a difference of more than 2 times between recipes.
Comparing the 6 recipes
| Source | Set with | Matcha | Milk and cream (soy milk) | Matcha vs liquid | Servings | Matcha per serving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tsuji Riichi Honten (Kyoto tea company) | Gelatin 5g | 6g | Milk 400ml | 1.5% | 4 servings | 1.5g |
| Ina Food Industry (agar maker) | Agar 2g | 5g | Unsweetened soy milk 300g | about 1.7% | 1 container | — |
| Kataoka & Co. (sells Tsujiri products) | Gelatin 5g | 12g (its own easy-dissolving matcha product) | Milk 400cc | 3.0% | 6 cups | 2.0g |
| Meiji (dairy) | Gelatin 7g | 10g | Milk 350ml, cream 50ml | 2.5% | 4 servings | 2.5g |
| cotta (online baking supplies) | Gelatin 8g | 14g | Milk 300g, cream 100g | 3.5% | 4 cups | 3.5g |
| Tomizawa Shoten (baking supplies shop) | Egg (2 whole eggs, 2 yolks) | 12g | Milk 150g, cream 100g | 4.8% | 6 cups | 2.0g |
The percentages and per-serving amounts are our own calculation, dividing the weight of matcha by the liquid and by the number of servings. We treated ml and g as equal, and for Tomizawa Shoten did not count the 30g of condensed milk, 40g of hot water or the eggs as liquid. Kataoka’s figure is the amount of its own product, made to dissolve easily in water and milk; the recipe does not say whether the same amount of plain matcha powder can be used instead.
Recipes that give matcha in tablespoons
Ito En (4 cups), Morinaga Milk (6 cups) and Sugimoto (baked with eggs, 6 cups) use 1 tablespoon of matcha, and AIYA America, a US tea company (oat milk, 4 cups), uses 1.5 tablespoons. None of these recipes says how many grams a tablespoon is, so they are not in the table. When you turn a recipe into a shop recipe, weigh the matcha in grams and record it.
What the table shows
Tomizawa Shoten’s baked pudding has the most matcha relative to dairy, at 4.8%, and the company describes it as a rich pudding that uses plenty of matcha. The 4 gelatin recipes use 6 to 14g of matcha in the same 400ml (g) of liquid. Starting at around 2.5% and moving up or down in 1% steps while checking colour and bitterness lets you settle on your shop’s amount in a few trials (our suggestion). Matcha ratios across sweets are compared in Choosing matcha for baking.
How to make it
Dissolve gelatin without boiling, heat agar to its melting temperature (about 90°C) to dissolve it, and bake egg puddings in a tray of hot water. Many recipes mix the matcha with sugar or work it into a paste with a little liquid before adding it.
Setting with gelatin
Meiji’s recipe goes like this:
- Soak 7g of powdered gelatin in 20ml of water
- Sift the matcha through a tea strainer and mix it with granulated sugar
- Warm the milk, turn off the heat just before it boils, add the gelatin and the matcha sugar and dissolve them, then add the cream
- Strain through a sieve and cool the bowl over iced water until the mixture thickens
- Pour into cups and chill in the fridge until set
cotta says to “turn off the heat when the edges start to bubble,” and Meiji, Ito En and Morinaga Milk say to “turn off the heat just before it boils”; none of the 4 boils the gelatin mixture. Chilling time is 2 to 3 hours for Kataoka and Tsuji Riichi Honten and about half a day for cotta. cotta uses 8g of gelatin, the most of the 4 in the table, and turns the set pudding out of its mould onto a plate. Change the amount of gelatin depending on whether you serve it in the cup or turn it out (our suggestion).
Setting with agar
Ina Food Industry’s soy milk recipe mixes 300g of unsweetened soy milk with 2g of powdered agar (Kanten Cook granules), heats it in a 600W microwave for 3 minutes, and adds it a little at a time to a bowl of 5g of matcha mixed with 25g of sugar. It sets in the fridge in about 1 hour. The company’s matcha jelly (which uses its gelling agent “Ina Agar L,” not agar) also boils the liquid, stirs it for about 1 minute, turns off the heat and only then adds the matcha. In both recipes, the matcha goes into liquid that has finished heating.
Baking with eggs
In Tomizawa Shoten’s method, matcha and granulated sugar are mixed well and dissolved in hot water, beaten eggs are added a little at a time, and the warmed milk, cream and condensed milk are poured in a little at a time. The recipe warns that adding it all at once may set the eggs. The mixture is strained twice, poured into moulds and baked in a water bath.
The recipe’s steps 12 to 16: pour the appareil into the moulds while still warm, pour hot water to half the height of the moulds, cover the tray with baking paper or foil, and bake at 140°C for 25 to 30 minutes, until the centre puffs slightly and wobbles with some spring. Let it cool, then chill in the fridge for 4 to 8 hours.
Source: Tomizawa Shoten, “濃い抹茶プリン” (Rich matcha pudding, in Japanese) https://tomiz.com/recipe/pro/detail/20250516153322
The company advises keeping the caramel light in colour, because a bitter caramel makes the matcha’s flavour and bitterness harder to taste.
Preventing lumps, separation and colour change
Mix the matcha with sugar first and strain it, and cool the pudding mixture until it thickens before pouring it into cups. Heat changes the colour, so baked puddings show the effects of the matcha’s condition and the baking most.
Preventing lumps
Yamamasa Koyamaen in Kyoto explains that matcha is a fine powder of about 10 microns that lumps easily from static and from its own weight in storage, and that sifting just before use prevents this. Official recipes use these 3 steps:
- Mix with sugar first: Meiji says that mixing matcha and granulated sugar in advance makes the matcha less likely to lump, and Morinaga Milk also says to mix matcha with sugar because it dissolves poorly
- Make a paste with a little liquid: Ito En works the matcha into a paste with 1 tablespoon of water, then adds warm milk a little at a time. cotta also says to add liquid a little at a time
- Strain: Meiji uses a sieve, and Tomizawa Shoten strains twice, through a sieve and a tea strainer
Preventing separation
cotta writes that pouring the pudding mixture into cups before it thickens can make the matcha settle and separate. Meiji, Morinaga Milk and cotta all stir the mixture over iced water and pour it only after it thickens. Morinaga Milk says that dissolving the matcha and gelatin in half the milk and adding the rest cold makes it thicken faster.
Heat changes the colour
Yamamasa Koyamaen explains that heating can turn matcha a reddish colour, giving the colour change of matcha pudding before and after heating as an example. Light also fades it, so the company advises not leaving it under display case lights for long. How the colour changes, and ways to keep it, are covered in Choosing matcha for baking. The more you want the green to show, the more it pays to use freshly opened, brightly coloured matcha (our view).
Heating and cooling egg puddings
Heat egg puddings so the centre reaches the US FDA temperature without heating the egg mixture above 90°C, and cool them within set times after baking. The official documents we checked had no heating standard specific to pudding.
Core temperature standards
The FDA Food Code (the US model food safety code for restaurants and food retail), in the new edition published on 17 September 2026, requires dishes with raw eggs, other than eggs prepared to a customer’s order for immediate service, to reach 68°C for 17 seconds, or 63°C for 3 minutes, 66°C for 1 minute or 70°C instantaneously. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) manual for large-scale cooking facilities says to confirm and record that the centre of heated foods reaches 75°C for at least 1 minute. That manual covers facilities serving the same menu 300 or more meals at a time or 750 or more meals a day.
The temperature at which holes form
A 1995 research bulletin from Tokyo Kasei University cites the explanation that when egg mixture is heated, at 90°C or above the gelled protein releases water, which evaporates and leaves su (small holes). Once holes form, the pudding becomes firmer and less smooth on the tongue. The usual advice is to warm the egg mixture to about 60°C and then steam it at 85 to 90°C. Check with a probe thermometer in your own oven that the centre reaches the standard temperature while the egg mixture is not heated above 90°C (our suggestion).
How fast to cool
The Food Code requires cooked refrigerated foods to cool from 57°C to 21°C within 2 hours, and from 57°C to 5°C or below within 6 hours in total. The MHLW manual says to aim to bring the centre to around 20°C within 30 minutes (or around 10°C within 60 minutes), and to record the start and end times of cooling. A Food Code annex lists puddings among foods associated with Bacillus cereus (a food poisoning bacterium that can produce a heat-stable toxin), and lists cooking, cooling and cold holding among the controls. Gelatin puddings are also made by warming milk, so set a cooling time for them too (our suggestion).
Storage and shelf life
We found no official document giving a shelf life in days for matcha pudding, so set and record a shorter period for your shop based on the US Food Code limit (up to 7 days at 5°C or below). For gelatin puddings, decide how long they can sit outside the fridge before deciding the number of days.
Refrigeration temperature
The Food Code sets cold holding of refrigerated foods at 5°C or below. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) advises refrigerating dishes containing eggs promptly below 4°C. The MHLW manual says that foods not served within 30 minutes of cooking should be kept at 10°C or below until served. Morinaga Milk also writes that dairy products need refrigeration.
Date marking
The Food Code says that refrigerated foods made on site and kept for more than 24 hours must be marked with the date by which they must be eaten on site, sold or discarded, for up to 7 days at 5°C or below, counting the day of preparation as day 1. 7 days is an upper limit, so also check the date labels on the milk, cream and eggs you use when setting your shop’s number of days. How to set the days for cold egg desserts is also covered in Matcha tiramisu and Matcha cheesecake.
Display cases and takeaway
According to Ina Food Industry, gelatin starts to melt at 20 to 30°C. Gelatin puddings set out of the chilled case, or carried for a long time as takeaway, may lose their shape. Add an ice pack for takeaway, and use agar or egg puddings for terrace seating or room-temperature shelves (our suggestion). Yamamasa Koyamaen also explains that display case lighting fades matcha’s colour.
Allergens and gelatin
Matcha pudding usually contains milk, egg puddings also contain egg, and for gelatin puddings check which animal the gelatin comes from. Made with agar and soy milk, a pudding can be free of milk, egg and gelatin.
Allergens
The gelatin recipes compared in this article use milk (most also use cream), and the baked pudding uses eggs and dairy. Ina Food Industry’s soy milk recipe uses no milk or eggs but contains soy. Toppings such as sweet azuki beans, shiratama (rice flour dumplings) and whipped cream have their own ingredients. Allergens that must be labelled in Singapore, Thailand, the US and Japan are listed in the table in Matcha tiramisu.
Gelatin and halal
Ina Food Industry explains that gelatin is an animal protein made from the skin and bones of cattle and pigs, while agar is a plant-based dietary fibre made from seaweed. In the ingredient categories that the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) sets out in its certification conditions for eating establishments, gelatin is in High, the highest risk category, and needs a halal certificate recognised by MUIS. Dairy products are Medium-High and eggs are Low. How certification works and which documents to ask suppliers for are covered in Halal matcha.
Matching grade and matcha per cup
Matcha per matcha pudding is about 1.5 to 3.5g, and Yamamasa Koyamaen’s guide puts suitable grades from drinking grade down to its processing grade Toku-B. If you pour a matcha sauce over it, add that matcha to the per-cup amount.
Suitable grades
In Yamamasa Koyamaen’s chart by use, jellies and puddings range from drinking grade to the processing grade Toku-B. The company explains that heating can weaken matcha’s flavour. Chilled puddings are heated only briefly, so matcha’s aroma and colour come through more easily, and starting with a drinking grade makes the differences easier to see (our view). Grade differences are explained in Matcha grades.
Working out matcha cost per cup
Matcha cost per cup can be worked out as “purchase price per 1kg ÷ 1,000 × grams of matcha per cup.” Matcha per serving in the official recipes is as follows (our calculation).
| Recipe | Matcha per batch | Servings | Matcha per serving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tsuji Riichi Honten (gelatin) | 6g | 4 servings | 1.5g |
| Meiji (gelatin) | 10g | 4 servings | 2.5g |
| cotta (gelatin) | 14g | 4 cups | 3.5g |
| cotta matcha syrup (sauce poured over the pudding) | 13.5g | assumed 4 cups | about 3.4g |
| Tomizawa Shoten (baked with eggs) | 12g | 6 cups | 2.0g |
With the matcha syrup poured over cotta’s pudding, matcha per cup becomes about 6.9g, about 2 times the pudding alone. Besides matcha, include milk, cream, eggs, sugar, gelatin or agar, containers, and anything left unsold and thrown away within your set number of days in the cost. How matcha prices are set is explained in How matcha prices are determined, and recipes for cold desserts using the same matcha are in Matcha ice cream and soft serve.
Omakase Matcha supplies matcha from Uji, Yame, Shizuoka, Kagoshima and Miyazaki, with orders from 1kg and up to 3 samples. To compare colour and bitterness in test puddings, request matcha from Samples.
Sources
- Ina Food Industry, “寒天の疑問解決！” (Agar questions answered, in Japanese) https://www.kantenpp.co.jp/kanten/faq
- Ina Food Industry, “寒天ってなに？” (What is agar?, in Japanese) https://www.kantenpp.co.jp/kanten/about
- Ina Food Industry, “抹茶の豆乳あずき寒天” (Matcha soy milk azuki agar, in Japanese) https://www.kantenpp.co.jp/recipe/matchatounyu_azukikanten/
- Ina Food Industry, “抹茶ゼリー” (Matcha jelly, in Japanese) https://www.kantenpp.co.jp/recipe/matchajelly/
- Tomizawa Shoten, “濃い抹茶プリン” (Rich matcha pudding, in Japanese) https://tomiz.com/recipe/pro/detail/20250516153322
- Meiji, “抹茶プリン” (Matcha pudding, in Japanese) https://www.meijioishiigyunyu.com/recipe/detail/202.html
- Morinaga Milk, “抹茶プリン” (Matcha pudding, in Japanese) https://www.morinagamilk.co.jp/recipe/detail/recipe.php?id=80025D
- Ito En, “抹茶プリン黒みつソース” (Matcha pudding with brown sugar syrup, in Japanese) https://www.itoen.jp/recipe/39880/
- cotta, “【濃厚】抹茶プリンのレシピ” (Rich matcha pudding recipe, in Japanese) https://www.cotta.jp/special/article/?p=66223
- Kataoka & Co., “抹茶プリン” (Matcha pudding, Tsujiri recipe, in Japanese) https://www.kataoka.com/tsujiri/enjoy/recipe/pudding.html
- Kataoka & Co., “辻利 商品ラインアップ” (Tsujiri product lineup, in Japanese) https://www.kataoka.com/tsujiri/lineup.html
- TSUJI RIICHI HONTEN, “Matcha Pudding” https://matchadirect.kyoto/blogs/matcha-recipes/matcha-pudding
- Sugimoto America, “Matcha Pudding Recipe” https://www.sugimotousa.com/blog/matcha-pudding-recipe
- AIYA America, “Dairy-Free Matcha Pudding” https://aiya-america.com/dairy-free-matcha-pudding/
- Noriko Koga, “卵液ゲルの品質に及ぼす調製法の影響（第1報）カスタード・プディングの場合” (Effect of preparation method on egg gel quality, part 1: custard pudding), Bulletin of Tokyo Kasei University 35(2), 1995 (in Japanese) https://tokyo-kasei.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/10559/files/2011_k_1221.pdf
- Chie Shimosaka et al., “カスタードプディングの嗜好性と物性に及ぼすクリーム添加の効果” (Effect of adding cream on the palatability and physical properties of custard pudding), Journal of Cookery Science of Japan 37(4), 2004 (in Japanese) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/cookeryscience1995/37/4/37_344/_article/-char/ja
- Tomomi Nomura et al., “卵黄及び生クリームが多く配合されたカスタードプディングの脂質分布とレオロジー特性に対する加熱時間の影響” (Effect of heating time on lipid distribution and rheology of custard pudding rich in yolk and cream), Japan Society of Cookery Science annual meeting abstracts, 2009 (in Japanese) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ajscs/21/0/21_0_1044/_article/-char/ja
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “FDA Food Code 2026” https://www.fda.gov/food/fda-food-code/food-code-2026
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “FDA Releases 2026 Food Code” (17 September 2026) https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-releases-2026-food-code
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, “大量調理施設衛生管理マニュアル” (Hygiene manual for large-scale cooking facilities, last revised 16 June 2017, in Japanese) https://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/06-Seisakujouhou-11130500-Shokuhinanzenbu/0000168026.pdf
- Singapore Food Agency, “Are Raw Eggs Safe to Eat?” https://www.sfa.gov.sg/food-safety-tips/food-risk-concerns/risk-at-a-glance/raw-eggs
- MUIS, “Halal Certification Conditions: Eating Establishment Scheme (Category 1) Version 4.2” https://go.gov.sg/hcc-eec1-v4-2
- Yamamasa Koyamaen, “抹茶の取扱い” (Handling matcha, in Japanese) https://www.yamamasa-koyamaen.co.jp/matcha/basic/handling.html
- Yamamasa Koyamaen, “加工用抹茶・他パウダー（業務用・製菓用）” (Matcha and other powders for processing, in Japanese) https://www.yamamasa-koyamaen.co.jp/product/for-processing.html
