Matcha: What is it?

JAPAN

Matcha is the surprise “superfood” tea. Conservative forecasts are that sales will hit $6 billion by 2023. Most of the market is in the Asia-Pacific region but it is growing as a niche product in the US in tea, other beverages, and food. One issue that seems likely to become important for its future as a premium product is to avoid the growing ambiguity that recalls te history of Darjeeling as a brand. What is matcha? More particularly, what is this matcha?

In traditional teas, matcha has for a millennium been associated with the ceremonial grade, a unique harvesting and tea making process, impeccable preparation and, of course, the Japanese tea ceremony. Almost all the new growth is for culinary grade, much of it coming from, China, particularly Zhejiang Province.

Ads for “matcha tea” on Amazon and other online sites generally spell out their origin and grade, but matcha green tea powder is often left unidentified. Many of the Chinese and other matchas do not follow the meticulous and complex Japanese farming process of covering bushes to retain chlorophyll, stone grinding, and small leaf selectivity. There are some excellent varieties being produced in, for example, Assam and by specialty growers in Nepal and regions in China. There’s a lot of low-grade green tea powder ambiguously marked as matcha and much of the very tea product is cheap or a good reason. But consumers have little knowledge in general that there are indeed wide differences among matchas.

As market demand grows so quickly, supply of the best matcha simply cannot keep up. Only 2% of Japan’s tea production is for matcha. This 2,000 tons is mostly consumed domestically, with around half of it Ceremonial grades. Kyoto, Uji, and Fukishama are the main centers for farming along with Nishio, the largest. A straw in the wind of coming blurring of the distinctions is the China application to trademark its Nishio matcha in Japan.