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“We don’t want this to end up just a fad, but instead make matcha a standard as a flavor and Japanese global brand,” said Tomoyuki Kawai, who works at the tea section of the agricultural ministry.
This shows Matcha Kaki Gori, shaved ice desserts, served at Ogikubo Three Gardens in Tokyo, on July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
This shows Matcha Kaki Gori, shaved ice desserts, served at Ogikubo Three Gardens in Tokyo, on July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Production of “tencha,” the kind of tea used for matcha, nearly tripled from 1,452 tons in 2008, to 4,176 tons in 2023, according to government data.
Japan’s tea exports have more than doubled over the last decade, with the U.S. now accounting for about a third. Much of that growth is of matcha, according to Japanese government data. The concern is that with labor shortages as aging farmers leave their fields, the matcha crunch may worsen in coming years.
Other countries, including China and some Southeast Asian countries, also are producing matcha, so Japan is racing to establish its branding as the origin of the tea.
Tea ceremony practitioners aren’t angered by the craze, just perplexed. They hope it will lead to people taking an interest in sado, whose followers have been steadily declining. But they aren’t counting on it.
The tea ceremony is “reminding us to cherish every encounter as unique and unrepeatable,” said Kaneko, who is a licensed instructor.
She pointed to the special small entrance to her tea house. Noble samurai had to stoop to enter, leaving their swords behind them. The message: when partaking of tea, everyone is equal.
The purity and stillness of the ceremony are a world apart from the hectic and mundane, and from the craze for matcha that’s brewing outside the tea house.
The Matcha Crème Frappuccino is standard fare at the Starbucks coffee outlets everywhere. While matcha, a special ingredient traditionally used in the tea ceremony, isn’t meant to be drunk in great quantities at once like regular tea or juices, it’s suddenly being consumed like other fruit and flavors.
Matcha drinks have become popular at cafes from Melbourne to Los Angeles. Various cookbooks offer matcha recipes, and foreign tourists to Japan are taking home tins and bags of matcha as souvenirs.
It’s a modern take on traditions perfected by the 16th century Buddhist monk Sen no Rikyu in Kyoto, who helped shape the traditions of tea ceremony and of “wabi-sabi,” the rustic, imperfect but pure and nature-oriented aesthetic often seen as synonymous with high-class Japanese culture.
Minoru Handa, the third-generation chief of suburban tea store Tokyo Handa-en, which sells green and brown tea as well as matcha, says the appeal of matcha is in its versatility. Unlike tea leaves, the powder can be easily mixed into just about anything.
“The health boom and the interest in Japanese culture have added to the momentum,” he said, stirring a machine that was roasting brown tea, sending a pungent aroma through the streets.
“It’s safe and healthy so there’s practically no reason it won’t sell,” said Handa.
His business, which dates back to 1815, has a longtime relationship with growers in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, and has a steady supply of matcha. To guard against hoarders he limits purchases at his store to one can per customer.
Handa, who has exhibited his prize-winning tea in the U.S. and Europe, expects that growers will increase the supply and shrugs off the hullabaloo over the matcha shortage.
But Anna Poian, co-director and founder of the Global Japanese Tea Association, thinks lower-grade matcha should be used for things like lattes, since one has to put in quite a lot of fine-grade matcha to be able to taste it.
“It’s a bit of a shame. It’s a bit of a waste,” she said.
The best matcha should be reserved for the real thing, she said in an interview from Madrid.
“It is a very delicate, complex tea that is produced with the idea to be drunk only with water,” she said.
