La Colombe is extending its ready-to-drink franchise beyond coffee with the launch of La Colombe Matcha Lattes, a three-SKU lineup hitting major retailers nationwide in September 2026. The move positions the Chobani-owned brand as an early premium player in a fast-moving RTD matcha segment that has yet to attract a clear category leader.

The lineup includes Everyday Matcha Latte, Strawberry Matcha Latte, and Vanilla Matcha Latte, each in an 11 oz can delivering 65 mg of natural caffeine. The formulation pairs single-origin matcha sourced from Japan with farm-fresh, lactose-free whole milk from Michigan — a spec sheet designed to undercut the perception that canned matcha skews toward artificial sweetness and low-grade tea.

The Numbers

The category case is hard to ignore at the brand's own café locations. La Colombe reports matcha sales at its brick-and-mortar cafés have grown 188% since 2023, a trajectory that mirrors broader foodservice data showing matcha displacing some espresso occasions among younger consumers. Translating that café demand into a chilled-door format follows the same playbook the brand ran with its Draft Latte® more than a decade ago, when carbonated nitrogen-charged lattes were a novel concept in the RTD set.

"We challenged ourselves to create a product with the highest quality ingredients that raises the bar for what consumers should expect from RTD matcha," said Niel Sandfort, Chief Innovation Officer at Chobani and La Colombe. "The result is a thoughtfully crafted matcha latte made with exceptional ingredients and the same care and precision we bring to every beverage."

C-Store Relevance

For c-store buyers, the launch lands inside a dispensed-and-packaged beverage corridor that has seen consistent growth in premium, functional ready-to-drink offerings. Energy drinks still dominate the cold vault, but grab-and-go coffee and tea hybrids — particularly those with a protein or clean-caffeine angle — have demonstrated strong single-serve velocity at the forecourt. La Colombe's existing Draft Latte distribution footprint gives it a working relationship with the chilled-DSD infrastructure that feeds convenience chains, reducing friction for incremental SKU placement.

The "good source of protein" positioning on each can also aligns the product with the better-for-you functional trend driving foodservice and packaged beverage growth at convenience retail. Operators who have added premium cold-brew and energy-coffee hybrids to their cooler sets in recent years will recognize the consumer profile La Colombe is targeting: the morning commuter willing to trade up from a $2 energy drink to a $4-plus craft beverage with a cleaner ingredient story.

Parent company Chobani — which acquired La Colombe in 2023 — brings substantial retail distribution muscle and better-for-you brand credibility that should support placement negotiations with regional and national chains. The cans are also available direct-to-consumer online for operators evaluating trial before committing shelf space.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.