Questions people actually ask

What counts as a matcha café?

Any place that pours matcha, and that people would actually go to for it. The app starts from the cafés already on the map in the cities it covers, and a café earns a matcha page one of two ways: somebody who went said they serve it, or we read it on the café’s own website.

Those two are not the same thing, and the app never pretends they are. A café where we only read it carries We think so. A café where two people who went both said yes carries 2 people confirmed. A café nobody has been to is still on the map, marked Nobody’s been yet, because those are the most useful ones to visit.

Why does it say “We think so” instead of just telling me?

Because we are not sure, and saying so is the point. That claim comes from us reading a café’s own website and finding matcha mentioned near the words around it. A mention is not proof: it might be a flavour option in a list, a blog post, a nav item, or equipment for sale. So the app says we think so, and nobody has been to confirm it — and the second half never gets dropped, because that is the part carrying your doubt.

The claim is always ours, never the café’s. A café that has never spoken to us has not told you anything, and the app never phrases a guess as though it had.

If you are standing in the café, one tap on the question at the top of the page settles it for everybody after you.

What does “2 people confirmed” mean, and why is nothing “verified”?

It means two or more people who went said the same thing. The number is the evidence, which is why the app shows it rather than a badge.

The word verified appears nowhere in the app on purpose. Nothing here is verified — nobody inspected anything, nobody has authority to certify a café. Two people agreed. That is a genuinely useful thing to know, and it is a different thing from verification.

How do the scores work?

A café gets two scores, side by side, and they are never blended into one.

• Matcha — how good the drink was, from people who rated it on a five-point scale after ordering. The scale is labelled from Bad to One of the best I’ve had, because five unlabelled dots means everybody picks 5.
• Room — what it is like to sit there, built from the facts people report: the light, the seating, the noise, whether you can work, whether there are plugs.

They are kept apart because they pull against each other. The best matcha in the city is often poured through a cramped takeaway window, and the loveliest room often serves a culinary-grade latte. One blended number would rate both of those the same and tell you nothing about either.

Why does this café have no score?

Because fewer than three people have contributed to it. Below that the app shows how many ratings there are — “2 ratings so far” — instead of a number. An invented 3.0 for a place nobody has visited is the fastest way to make every other number on the screen worthless.

A café with no ratings at all says Not rated yet. That is not a bad score; it is an empty one.

How do I add a café that’s missing?

On the map, use Add it and give the café’s name. What you send goes into a queue for review, not straight onto the map — a place anyone can add is a place anyone can invent, and the map is the thing being protected.

Two things will stop it: a café already on the map at roughly that spot with roughly that name, and a location outside the cities the app currently carries. In both cases the app tells you which, rather than quietly dropping what you typed.

Something on a café page is wrong. How do I fix it?

Two routes, and the fast one is usually right. Every fact on a café page carries a question — “Can you get it unsweetened?”, “Whisked, or from a syrup?” — and answering it moves the fact immediately. Two people agreeing makes it confirmed.

If the answer needs explaining, use This is wrong. That sends a correction to a person rather than to the fact, and the fact stays as it is until they decide. We do not change a claim on the strength of one report, and a moderator may conclude the original claim was right.

Somebody posted something that shouldn’t be there.

Open the photo or the review and tap Report. You can say it is not a matcha, that it is about the wrong café, that it is spam, offensive, or an impersonation.

A person reads every report, and nothing disappears the moment you tap. That is deliberate, and worth knowing before you report the same thing twice.

Where does the café data come from?

Locations, addresses, opening hours and the practical details — outdoor seating, step-free access, toilets — come from OpenStreetMap, and are used under the Open Database Licence.

Everything about the matcha itself comes from people, or from us reading a café’s own website. The app keeps those apart on purpose: an OpenStreetMap tag is what a mapper recorded, and it never borrows the authority of “two people confirmed”. Where a tag is missing the app leaves the row out rather than guessing — a café with no step-free-access tag is one nobody surveyed, not one with a step.

Where does the app work?

Copenhagen first. The app carries a set of cities, and cafés live inside them — so the map is good where it is good, rather than thin everywhere.

Which languages is it in?

English, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. It follows your phone’s language by default, and you can pick a different one in Settings → Language. The app’s own text changes straight away; the prompts your phone draws itself — asking for the camera, or your location — change the next time you open it.

Reviews and bios other people wrote are never translated by us. The app offers to hand them to your phone, which translates them on the device, and says “Translated on your phone” so you know who did it.

What does it cost? Are there ads?

Nothing, and no. There is no subscription, no in-app purchase, no advertising and no ad-tracking. Your data is not sold. What the app does collect is set out in the privacy policy, in detail.

Do I need an account?

To post a review, a photo, or an answer to a café’s question — yes, because those claims need to be attached to somebody for the trust model to mean anything. You sign up with an email address and a password; where the app offers them, you can continue with Apple or Google instead.

How old do I have to be?

Thirteen. The app asks for your date of birth once, when you pick your handle, and never shows it or uses it for anything else. Thirteen is Denmark’s digital-consent age under the GDPR; it is the reason the question is asked at all.

What happens to my reviews if I delete my account?

They stay, and they stop being yours. Your name, your handle and every link back to you are removed, and the app shows the author as “Someone who left”. Everything else about you — profile, photos, lists, saved cafés, follows, likes, comments — is deleted.

They stay because other people are relying on them. What a café is like, here, is built out of what people reported, and taking one person’s reports out changes what the app says about real places.

Two things worth knowing before you decide: a review that stays loses its photos, because your photos go with the rest of your account; and you have seven days in which signing back in brings everything back. The account deletion page has the full list.

Can I get a copy of my data?

Yes, but not with a button yet. Email support@matcha.smedje.com from the address on your account and ask, and we will send you what we hold within a month, as the GDPR requires. If you are planning to delete your account, ask first.

Is there an Android version?

The app is built cross-platform and iPhone comes first. An Android release is planned; the map gets better for everybody with every phone it reaches.