Doking’s recipe cost card prices a matcha latte at $0.80 in ingredients per 500ml cup, an 87% margin before labour, rent, and cups. That is the number that should decide whether a sushi or Japanese restaurant adds drinks beyond bottled water and canned soda. Matcha is not an import to your menu, it already belongs there, and a latte format needs no barista, no espresso machine, and no new hire. Two more drinks fit the same cuisine without looking bolted on: a jasmine green milk tea and a lemon tea. All three run on a kettle, a shaker or blender, and a fridge, the same equipment most sushi kitchens already use for sauces and dressings. For an operator weighing whether a drinks program is worth the counter space, the short answer is three SKUs, three drinks, and a beverage line that is mostly margin.
Why matcha already fits the menu
A sushi restaurant does not need to convince a guest that matcha belongs on the table. It is already associated with Japanese food, so a matcha latte reads as an extension of the menu rather than a bolt-on soft drink. That matters for adoption: a guest who would skip an unfamiliar specialty drink will try one that fits the cuisine they already came for.
The economics back up the fit. Industry beverage-costing guidance puts standard soft drinks at roughly 6 to 8 percent of price in ingredient cost, a 92 to 94 percent margin, which is the benchmark operators use for “cheap to pour” drinks like fountain soda (Bernick’s Beverage Costing Guide). Doking’s matcha latte cost card lands at 87 percent, close to that soda-level range, except a matcha latte is a specialty item a guest expects to pay a specialty price for, not a canned drink. That gap between what it costs to make and what a guest expects to pay for it is the whole case for adding it.
Three drinks, no barista required
None of these three needs a dedicated drink station or a trained barista. Each is powder or leaves, water, a syrup or creamer, and ice.
| Drink | Core SKU | Case unit | Ontario by-case | Quebec by-case | Single (national ref.) | Ingredient cost / cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matcha latte | Culinary Grade Matcha Powder | 454g | $25.00 | $25.00 | $39.00 | $0.80, 87% margin |
| Jasmine green milk tea | Jasmine Green Tea | 450g/bag | $8.95 | $8.50 | $15.50 | See note below |
| Lemon tea | Lemon Syrup | 1.6L | $9.95 | $9.50 | $16.50 | See note below |
Matcha latte: culinary-grade matcha powder whisked or shaken with non-dairy creamer and a fructose syrup, served over ice or steamed into milk. This is the drink with a published cost card: $0.80 per 500ml cup, an 87% ingredient margin.
Jasmine green milk tea: jasmine green tea leaves brewed and shaken with non-dairy creamer and fructose syrup, the same three-ingredient backbone as Doking’s classic pearl milk tea, which the recipe card prices at $0.70 per cup, an 88% ingredient margin. A jasmine green milk tea without a tapioca add-in uses that same tea-creamer-syrup structure with one line item removed, so it sits in that range or lower.
Lemon tea: lemon syrup brewed with tea instead of water. Doking’s cost card for a two-ingredient lemonade (lemon syrup and water) prices at $0.30 per cup, a 95% margin, the highest-margin drink on the card. A lemon tea swaps brewed tea for water on the same lemon-syrup SKU, so it keeps the same two-ingredient simplicity and a comparable cost.
All three can carry black tapioca pearl as an add-in for a topping upcharge. Black Tapioca Pearl runs $3.75 per 1kg by the case in Ontario and $3.50 in Quebec, against a $6.50 single-unit reference, so it is a cheap way to turn any of the three into a boba version without adding a fourth core SKU.
What each drink adds to the average check
A sushi check today is usually rolls, maybe a starter, and a canned drink or water. Swapping that canned drink for one of these three does two things to the ticket. First, it raises the per-guest beverage price, because a matcha latte, a milk tea, or a lemon tea sells at a specialty-drink price point above a can of soda. Second, it does that without adding a labour line: no barista shift, no espresso machine to maintain, no separate drink menu that needs its own prep cook. The margin on the drink itself (87 to 95 percent across the recipe cards behind these three) means almost all of that added ticket value drops to gross profit before you account for the fixed cost of the counter space.
For a table of four adding one drink each instead of splitting a couple of canned sodas, that is a check lift on every visit, not just a one-time promotion.
By-the-case pricing for Ontario and Quebec
Doking is a wholesale supplier, not a retail checkout: you buy by the case, request a quote, and order by purchase order. Because pricing is set per province, tell us Ontario or Quebec when you ask and we will send current by-case numbers for whichever of these SKUs you want to run.
- Toronto warehouse: 3802 Victoria Park Ave, Toronto, ON M2H 3H7, +1-416-833-4866. Serves the Greater Toronto Area and Ontario.
- Montreal warehouse: 7320 Rue Cordner, Montreal, QC H8N 2W8, +1-514-712-9993. Serves Montreal, Laval, the South Shore, and Quebec.
Free samples are available on request, so you can shake out a matcha latte, a jasmine green milk tea, and a lemon tea in your own kitchen before you commit a case to any of them.
Certifications
Doking’s production base holds HACCP, ISO 9001, ISO 22000, and HALAL certifications, available on request. Doking Canada is the local operation of a manufacturer that has produced these ingredients since 1996.
Get case pricing and free samples
If you run a sushi or Japanese restaurant and want to see what a matcha latte, a jasmine green milk tea, or a lemon tea does to your average check, tell us which SKUs and your province (Ontario or Quebec) and we will send current by-the-case pricing plus free samples from your nearest warehouse in Toronto or Montreal.
