matcha people is not really about matcha influencers.
it is about people who have somehow made matcha fit into the normal, weird, specific rhythm of their actual lives. people who drink it before work, between errands, after class, on set, in traffic, at their desk, or wherever the day starts becoming a little too much.
for nathan kadota, that place is film production.
which means his version of a normal work story involves a massive truck going through a gate.
nathan works in los angeles, where a calm day on set can still involve thirty people, several walkie-talkies, a blocked street, a fake emergency, and one extremely real-looking crash. while working on beverly hills cop: axel f, he watched the production spend about a week building toward one scene. then, at one point, they sent a huge truck straight through a gate.
“it just took out a massive truck.”
which is a very funny thing to say casually.
film production has a way of making chaos feel scheduled. a truck does not simply crash. it gets planned, blocked, reset, lit, rehearsed, checked, and watched by a small crowd of people whose job is to make the impossible look like it happened by accident.
and then, once the take is over, everyone goes back to normal. somebody calls cut. somebody checks the shot. somebody cleans up the debris. somebody is probably looking for coffee.
off set, though, nathan’s own morning is much simpler.
iced matcha.
not a huge ritual. not a complicated order. not a dramatic lifestyle reinvention. a friend introduced him to it, and it stayed because he liked the taste more than coffee. coffee felt bitter. matcha felt earthier, cleaner, and easier to drink first thing in the day.
that is usually how matcha gets people. not through a perfect morning routine or a full personality change. just one drink that tastes better than the thing you were tolerating before. if that is the entry point, the matcha for coffee lovers version of the story makes a lot of sense.
his order is iced, in the morning.
which feels right. if your workday can involve watching large things get destroyed for a living, your drink probably does not need to be dramatic too.
there is also something very los angeles about it. a film set, a long day, a very specific drink preference, and someone casually explaining that yes, a truck did go through a gate and no, that was not the strangest part of the job.
nathan does have one problem with matcha right now, though.
it might be in too many things.
matcha desserts. matcha drinks. matcha everything. the good version, the bad version, the version that tastes like lawn clippings with marketing budget. at some point, even a good thing starts acting like it has never been invited anywhere before.
and honestly, fair enough.
there is a difference between matcha becoming part of your routine and matcha being forced into every possible object with a menu description. nathan seems to like the drink itself, not the performance around it. iced. morning. earthy. less bitter than coffee. done.
that is the part we care about too.
poda matcha paste was built for the people who want matcha to be easy enough to actually repeat. not because they want a twenty-step ritual every day, and not because they want to become a different person by 9 a.m. they just want something that tastes good, mixes fast, and does not punish them with clumps for trying.
for someone coming from coffee, that matters. coffee can be useful, but it can also turn bitter fast. matcha has its own kind of energy, a calmer focus, a greener taste, and a softer landing when it is made well. especially iced. especially in the morning. especially when the prep does not become the whole event. if you are still figuring out the difference, the coffee vs poda comparison is probably the cleanest place to start.
nathan’s routine is not precious. that is what makes it good.
he works around staged destruction, loud sets, long production days, and the kind of job where a normal anecdote can include a truck taking out a gate. then somewhere in there, matcha became the quieter part of the day. a drink a friend introduced him to. a taste he preferred. a morning thing that stuck around.
so while film sets keep finding bigger and louder ways to crash things, nathan’s matcha routine is very simple.
iced matcha in the morning.
then back to set to see what gets broken next.
this is nathan kadota.
matcha people.
→ try poda matcha paste
— mujtaba, founder