Sainsbury’s Shoppers Excited by New Starbucks Matcha Drinks

Published: 11 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

Sainsbury’s shoppers are being encouraged to keep an eye on the chilled drinks aisle after two new Starbucks flavours sparked excitement among fans online.

Starbucks has expanded its ready-to-drink range with Matcha Latte and Strawberry Matcha Latte, giving shoppers an alternative to the brand’s familiar chilled coffee products. The drinks have already been spotted in supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, where social-media users have been sharing their excitement at the prospect of trying the new flavours.

The two drinks are particularly notable because matcha has moved well beyond its traditional niche in recent years. What was once a specialist tea drink has become a familiar feature of high-street cafés, restaurant menus and supermarket shelves, with its distinctive green colour and earthy flavour attracting a growing following.

For Starbucks fans, the arrival of chilled versions means the matcha trend can now be enjoyed without a visit to a coffee shop. The products are designed to be kept refrigerated and consumed as ready-to-drink beverages, making them convenient for shoppers looking for something they can pick up during a normal supermarket trip.

The new products have been listed at a recommended retail price of around £2, although the price customers actually pay can vary between retailers and promotional offers. As with many supermarket launches, availability can also differ from one store to another.

The excitement surrounding the drinks has been amplified by New Foods UK, a popular food and drink social-media account that regularly highlights newly launched products appearing in British supermarkets. A post featuring the Strawberry Matcha Latte quickly attracted comments from users keen to find out where they could buy the drinks.

One commenter suggested that the new product was a matcha they might finally be willing to try, while others said they had been unable to find the drinks in their local shops. Several users tagged friends and declared that they needed to try them, while others simply responded with enthusiastic comments about the flavour.

Such reactions demonstrate the influence that supermarket discovery accounts can have on the way new food and drink products spread online. A product can move from an unfamiliar bottle on a supermarket shelf to a widely discussed item within hours when shoppers begin sharing photographs, reviews and recommendations.

For Starbucks, the new flavours also fit into a wider shift in consumer interest towards matcha. The company already has an established matcha offering in its UK cafés. Its current menu includes Matcha Latte, Iced Matcha Latte and other matcha-based beverages, showing how firmly the ingredient has become part of the brand’s UK drinks portfolio.

The chilled products offer something different from ordering a freshly prepared drink in a Starbucks café. Rather than customising a beverage with different milks, syrups or toppings, shoppers can simply take a bottle from the supermarket refrigerator and enjoy it at home, at work or while travelling.

That convenience is one of the reasons ready-to-drink coffee and tea products have become such an important part of the wider drinks market. Consumers increasingly expect familiar café flavours to be available in formats that fit around busy routines.

The new Starbucks Matcha Latte is likely to appeal to traditional matcha drinkers who prefer its relatively straightforward flavour profile. The Strawberry Matcha Latte, meanwhile, introduces a sweeter and fruitier direction that may appeal to people who enjoy flavoured drinks but are less accustomed to the earthy character of plain matcha.

Matcha itself is made from specially grown and processed green tea leaves that are ground into a fine powder. Unlike conventional tea, where the leaves are infused in water and removed, matcha is consumed as part of the drink. This gives it a distinctive flavour and appearance and has helped establish it as an ingredient associated with both traditional tea culture and contemporary café trends.

The ingredient has also become increasingly visible on social media, where its bright green colour makes it particularly suited to photographs and short-form videos. Matcha drinks frequently feature in food-content posts, café reviews and supermarket-product discoveries.

Starbucks has been part of that wider evolution for years. The company, which began in Seattle in 1971, initially operated as a retailer of whole-bean coffee, tea and spices before developing into the international coffeehouse business recognised today.

Howard Schultz played a major role in the company’s transformation and expansion, helping establish the espresso-based coffeehouse model that became central to Starbucks’ identity. The company subsequently expanded internationally and became one of the best-known coffee brands in the world.

Its product strategy has increasingly extended beyond conventional hot coffee. Alongside espresso-based drinks, Starbucks has developed Frappuccino beverages, refreshers, teas, cold coffees and a growing collection of matcha drinks.

The ready-to-drink supermarket range gives the brand another way to reach consumers who may not regularly visit its cafés. Starbucks products are already sold through supermarkets in several formats, while the company’s chilled range provides an additional opportunity to turn familiar café flavours into everyday grocery purchases.

Sainsbury’s already stocks a selection of Starbucks chilled beverages, although availability varies by store and online range. Its current iced-coffee section includes Starbucks products alongside other chilled coffee and matcha brands.

The supermarket environment also creates a different kind of buying decision. In a coffee shop, a customer may choose a drink because they specifically want Starbucks. In a supermarket, the same customer is confronted with competing brands, prices and flavours on the same shelf.

That makes product familiarity and social-media interest particularly important. A shopper who has already seen the Strawberry Matcha Latte discussed online may be more likely to recognise it when passing the chilled drinks section.

At the same time, consumers should not assume that a ready-to-drink supermarket beverage will taste exactly like a freshly prepared Starbucks café drink. Differences in formulation, storage and preparation can affect the texture and flavour of a product.

The excitement around the new drinks nevertheless reflects a broader change in the way people discover food. Supermarket launches are no longer confined to traditional advertising campaigns. Increasingly, customers encounter new products through Facebook posts, TikTok videos, Instagram photographs and online food communities before they ever notice them in a shop.

The response to the Starbucks drinks illustrates that pattern particularly clearly. Rather than simply discussing whether the products are good value, social-media users were sharing information about where they had seen them and encouraging friends to look out for them.

For Sainsbury’s customers, the most important factor may ultimately be availability. A product appearing on a supermarket shelf does not necessarily mean every branch will have it at the same time, and newly launched items can be difficult to find when demand is high.

Shoppers interested in the new Starbucks flavours may therefore want to check their local store or Sainsbury’s online grocery service before making a special trip. Prices can also change when supermarkets introduce promotions.

The arrival of the Matcha Latte and Strawberry Matcha Latte gives Starbucks another way to capitalise on the continuing popularity of matcha while giving supermarket shoppers more choice in the chilled drinks aisle.

For longtime Starbucks customers, the launch provides a convenient alternative to visiting a café. For matcha enthusiasts, it offers two more flavours to explore. And for people who have never tried matcha before, the Strawberry Matcha Latte could provide a sweeter introduction to the distinctive green tea drink.

Whether the products become long-term favourites will ultimately depend on taste, price and availability. But the early online reaction suggests that curiosity is already high.

As consumers increasingly look for café-style drinks they can enjoy away from coffee shops, supermarket shelves are becoming an important battleground for major beverage brands. Starbucks’ latest chilled additions show how established coffee companies are adapting to that changing market, while the enthusiastic reaction from Sainsbury’s shoppers demonstrates just how quickly a new flavour can become an online talking point.

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