The matcha boom: How a centuries-old tradition became a global craze

Episode 34: Matcha Transcript

Julia Dixon Evans: Since the 2010s or so, matcha has been a hit on social media and at cafes all over the country.

Social media clip: Let's go to a matcha cafe.

Social media clip: Today I'm gonna teach you how I make my perfect matcha latte for beginners.

Evans: But recently, matcha mania has gone to a whole new level.

Social media clip: Introducing a revolution in matcha preparation.

Social media clip: The blueberry matcha from Duncan, and this looks so good.

Social media clip: Pizza Hut in Japan just dropped matcha pizza.

Evans: Matcha sales in the U.S. have nearly doubled in the past three years alone. In the past 15 years or so, Japan has nearly tripled its production of the green tea that's used to make matcha, but it's still not enough.

News report: The tea has become so popular. A global shortage is upending its delicate supply chain.

Evans: I will say, I love matcha in all forms: with or without milk, iced or hot, sweet or not. And there are plenty of positives about matcha going mainstream, but it's worth stepping back and looking at this phenomenon with some historical and even philosophical context because according to people like Rebecca Corbett, a tea researcher who also practices Japanese tea ceremony, the way some people are consuming matcha now, it's pretty different from the traditional way.

Rebecca Corbett: If you're drinking it in a plastic cup that you're gonna throw out and you're drinking it while walking from like A to B in a hurry, like that's the complete opposite of what we're doing in chanoyu where we're being really mindful and present and in the moment.

Rie Morita: So you need just chasen, tea whisk, and matcha powder and hot water.

Evans: This is Rie Morita. She's wearing a pale yellow kimono with pink butterflies, and preparing matcha with bamboo utensils and ceramic bowls. It's part of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony known as sado or chanoyu, or, in English, “the way of tea.”

Morita: The tea gathering is not for sharing tea, atmosphere or just the moment is most important thing.

Evans: As water heats in a kettle, Rie begins by cleaning and warming the tools and bowls using delicate cloths and intentional, almost choreographed movements. Each tool is chosen for the moment, specifically for her guests, in this case for us. Before making the tea, she sets a small plate of sweets in front of us, delicately sweetened and flavored.

Morita: OK. Yeah. OK, I will make a tea.

Evans: She spoons a small amount of matcha into a white bowl and adds hot water. She moves the whisk, known as a chasen, back and forth in the bowl. Then quickly whisks it in a brisk circular motion. She removes the whisk, rotates the bowl and hands me the bright green matcha. It's thick with an intense flavor and creamy texture.

Morita: Do you like it?

Evans: It's really delicious.

Ria says she's only been a sado teacher for 10 years and only been practicing it for 20.

How can you study this thing for so many years and still feel like there's more to learn?

Morita: Yeah, tea included the whole, whole Japanese culture.

Evans: She says to fully understand just one of the utensils they use, you need a lifetime of study.

Morita: And our grandmaster is now, is a 16th generation.

Evans: Sixteen generations mastering the art of matcha and the tea ceremony guided by four principles. In Japanese, it's wa kei sei jaku.

Morita: Wa is harmony, kei is respect, sei is purity and jaku is tranquility.

Evans: So how did matcha get from harmony, respect, purity and tranquility to something like Pizza Hut’s matcha pizza. It's a question that stretches back centuries and spans the globe and reveals some surprising chapters in America's caffeine history. We'll explore that story and what the way of tea might teach us in the middle of today's matcha mania. In a time when everything moves so fast, Rie’s sado seemed to hold a powerful lesson.

Morita: If you eat the lunch in front of the computer, you can't taste. Yeah, the same thing. So if you make tea, set up in a very special way, this only several minutes is turned into a special moment.

Evans: From KPBS Public Media, this is The Finest, a podcast about the people, art and movements redefining culture in San Diego. I'm Julia Dixon Evans.

[Theme Music]

Evans: Rie grew up in Japan. She got married there and had a baby. When her child was three, her young family made a big move to New York.

Morita: My husband decided to get a master’s degree here.

Evans: For Rie, adjusting to a new country was a huge challenge.

Morita: It's very hard for me. I couldn't speak English at all.

Evans: But she couldn't just stay at home. As a parent, she effectively had little choice but to venture into the world.

Morita: Because of my daughter, I had to connect to people. Yeah, I had to bring her to the park and, of course, the daycare center. So I had to try to have a relationship to the people.

Evans: For Rie, what really helped her understand her new American culture was reconnecting with her Japanese culture. She started practicing sado with some friends she'd made.

Morita: We didn't learn from the real certified teacher, so, so just we enjoyed.

Evans: Sado is complicated. There was a lot to keep track of and they tried their best. But one thing they discovered was that Americans were really interested in tea ceremony and Japanese culture.

Evans: Rie started to share it with her new community and in doing so, she began to connect with Americans.

Morita: First year I did a demonstration at the elementary school.

Evans: At the same time, she felt like she was getting to know the culture she grew up with.

Morita: I feel connected the Japanese culture for the first time. So I feel I need to more understanding about my culture.

Evans: She enrolled in a teacher training school to learn sado and sado in Japanese doesn't actually translate to tea ceremony.

Morita: Sado is the way of something. So sado is a way of tea.

Evans: The way of tea. The four principles of the way of tea: tranquility, harmony, purity and respect are present in the ceremony itself. They also apply outside the tea room. Purity, for example, relates to simple cleaning.

Morita: Everybody, of course, wash your hands before starting the tea gathering.

Evans: But it also means purifying your mind, clearing it of distractions.

Morita: So during the time is sometimes like a meditation.

Evans: So sado is in some ways a procedure. There are particular utensils and specific orders to doing things. The full ceremony can take up to four hours. But in considering that sado goes beyond just whisking and presenting matcha and thinking of it in terms of mastering something like purity of mind or tranquility, studying it for a lifetime begins to make sense. And one of the biggest parts of sado, Rie tells us, is that it involves being together with others.

Morita: We need a guest. Yeah. So tea for the purpose of tea is share the table. Yeah. Share the moment.

Evans: Share the moment. This is where tranquility comes in. And this tenant, Rie said, was quite hard to master, especially being in the U.S.

Morita: A lot of people say Japanese people is very kind, always we have to think about the others first.

Evans: So Rie had to adjust to a different culture one, which he found to be more confrontational.

Morita: And say my own opinion, my own opinion in front of others is so difficult. Yeah.

Evans: Not only did she have to get used to sharing her own thoughts, ideas and feelings, but also dealing with other people who had different views. In this area, sado reveals a powerful lesson.

Morita: I don't like this person, I like this person, but still we can sit on the same room, very small. Same room with tea.

Evans: She said that years of practicing sado in the tea room actually started to change her.

Morita: I have no big emotional moment in the tea room. Yeah.

Evans: Like the tea room is a place where you don't have those big emotions, is that what you mean?

Morita: Yeah. So during the practice, I can control my feelings. So somebody to say something, but, but I can accept it with a very calm. Yeah. I was so surprised myself, by myself. Yeah. Oh, I changed. Yeah.

Evans: Rie found real wisdom in the way of tea that made a tangible difference in her life, and the sado tradition stretches back centuries, including the idea of people putting aside differences, becoming equals in the tea room.

Robert Hellyer: One of the important things of the tea ceremony is if you ever go to many of the tea rooms, you enter by crouching down and crawling into a space. There's no concern about your social rank, and for the age of the 16th century, this is quite remarkable.

Evans: This is Robert Hellyer.

Hellyer: I'm professor of history at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

Evans: Robert studies Japanese history and the history of tea, specifically tea in America, and we'll get to that story soon. But tea in Asia goes way, way back, well over 1,000 years. And one basic tea fact that's helpful to know: There is only one tea plant. White, green, black, oolong, even matcha, all come from the same leaves.

Hellyer: It's a green tea because it is very little oxidization in the process. Green tea oxidizes the least. Oolong a little bit more, and black tea oxidizes the most.

Evans: Matcha is a green tea, but it's a special kind of green tea. It's a powder that's mixed directly with water, not steeped. Matcha began to develop around the year 1250 with the introduction of some key technology into Japan from China. That technology was the stone grinder to make the powder and the bamboo whisk to mix it up.

Hellyer: And then later that consumption of matcha moves into zen temples.

Evans: And from there sado, the way of tea or tea ceremony, started to take shape.

Hellyer: There are theories about how it's a combination of Buddhist practices, of Shinto practices, perhaps even some Christian practices. There were some missionaries and others that arrived in Japan in the 16th century. The tea ceremony is not something that is exclusively originating from Zen Buddhism.

Evans: So matcha itself was a Chinese-Japanese fusion, and the tea ceremony is an amalgamation of philosophies from around the world. Green Tea and matcha has been morphing and traveling around cultures from the start. And America's role in that story goes back further than you might think.

Hellyer: There's a fantastic story there, particularly, about how, you know, really from the 1870s until World War II, Americans liked green tea.

Evans: After the break, the first American green tea boom and how it ended abruptly, turning the U.S. into a nation of coffee drinkers. Stay with us.

[Music]

Evans: Our current era of matcha mania is not the first time that America has been enamored with green tea.

Hellyer: It's a popular idea that in the Boston Tea Party, Americans gave up tea and embraced coffee. Not the case.

Evans: The British love their tea and naturally so did the American colonists. But there was a difference.

Hellyer: Americans became really dedicated green tea drinkers and this was in contrast to people in Britain who really started to take much more to black tea. Americans see green tea as the more elite beverage, and it sold for much higher prices than black tea.

Evans: For its first a 100 years or so, the United States was a tea drinking country, specifically green tea.

Hellyer: And we don't see the overwhelming turn to coffee until the 1890s when you have a huge uptake in production in Brazil, really lowers the price and a lot of more volume is coming in of coffee.

Evans: The 1890s were a rough time for green tea in American culture. Not only was there this increased availability of coffee, but there was a concerted anti-green tea effort by companies trying to sell black tea.

Hellyer: The India and ceylon producers, they have captured the British market. They captured British imperial markets, and they want to get a foothold in the U.S. market, but they realize Americans like green tea more than black teas. So they start a dedicated negative campaign where they paint Chinese and Japanese green tea as dirty, dangerous and fraudulent. And they say, for example, our tea is produced under white supervision by machines. And is not produced in these dirty factories, so you can trust it more. And this campaign continues for a decade or so and is one of the factors that contributes to, eventually by the 1920s, Americans turning to black tea.

Evans: During World War II, the trade was cut off and green tea largely disappeared from the mainstream in the U.S. In the latter half of the 20th century, it was a small group of people that practiced sado and chanoyu that kept matcha and the traditions around it alive. People like Rie today in San Diego.

Corbett: Matcha drinking was still largely confined to that like tea practitioner community, and that community was mostly Japanese expats working abroad, living abroad. Matcha drinking and consumption was very niche. It was really that chanoyu practitioner community until around 10 years ago.

Evans: This again is Rebecca Corbett, historian of Japanese tea culture and faculty at USC. She told us that her topic used to be pretty obscure. And before, around a decade or so ago, most people had never even heard of matcha. Rebecca discovered matcha as an exchange student in Japan. That's also where she first became interested in the tea ceremony, something she still practices today.

Corbett: It's an act of inviting people to your space. Everything else is put away. You forget about the outside world. You probably have a zen phrase written on a scroll hanging in the alcove. You are all in that space for three hours, four hours, however long the tea gathering takes, and you're just focusing on that. You're not doing anything else.

Evans: There are a few Japanese words used for tea ceremony. One is sado, which we talked about with Rie. Rebecca uses chanoyu.

Corbett: And so chanoyu literally just means hot water for tea. So that's one of the issues is that tea ceremony isn't a direct translation of any Japanese term. And so, when we think of ceremony or ritual, it has the spiritual connotations and that's not wrong. There are a lot of close linkages between Zen Buddhism in particular and chanoyu. And I would say that as a practitioner myself for over 25 years now, I never feel like I'm participating in a ceremony or a ritual. I feel like I'm participating in a social, communal activity based around art and aesthetics. Some of the core underpinnings of the practice are ichigo ichie, which is one time, one meeting or some people say one chance, one meeting. And the idea of that is that each tea gathering is a unique occasion.

Evans: We first learned about ichigo ichie from Amy and Lani at PARU Tea. The idea that tea is linked to mindfulness, slowing down and really enjoying the experience. But as we know, in the past decade or so, a very different kind of matcha consumption has emerged.

Corbett: It's not just a food trend, like I think it is a food trend, but I think it's also kind of a lifestyle trend.

Social media clip: For breakfast, I had a matcha donut, this foamy matcha frap, a fancy matcha parfait and a few matcha pancakes. Then I grabbed…

Corbett: A lot of people who are interested in drinking matcha, they're interested in it not just for the taste but also the aesthetics of it. The color of that kind of vibrant green.

Social media clip: It’s so pretty.

Corbett: And for sure, I think part of the big appeal of matcha is the appeal of Japan specifically, and the appeal of kind of East Asian culture more broadly. People looking at this kind of exotic wisdom of the East, like anything that comes from East Asia is going to somehow be better and more healthy and more mindful for us.

Evans: You might have noticed ceremonial and culinary grade matcha on the shelves. It's supposed to distinguish high quality matcha for drinking and lower quality for cooking.

Corbett: So ceremonial matcha is an interesting thing because it's actually just like a made up marketing term. That term is essentially meaningless in the sense that anyone can call anything ceremonial. There's no industry regulation.

Evans: The U.S. now imports about 2,000 tons of matcha each year. But matcha mania is not only happening in the U.S.

Corbett: I was in Europe. I found like dedicated matcha shops and like a matcha bar. I was like, OK, this is happening everywhere. And I can tell you I've recently been home in Sydney for a few months and it's happening there as well. And it's also happening in Japan now. In Kyoto and then in Tokyo, there are these like hip matcha bars and matcha cafes popping up everywhere.

Evans: And in the past year, it has escalated to a whole new level, far beyond matcha lattes at the coffee shop. Dunkin’ Donuts has a matcha donut. Nespresso makes matcha pods.

Corbett: It's like a matcha Dubai chocolate latte at Starbucks. You know? So that to me is the complete opposite of the mindfulness and respecting the product and respecting the producers behind it.

Evans: Beyond the philosophical tension between the way of tea and the new commercialized matcha trend, there is another major consequence of the boom: a serious shortage of matcha powder. The tea leaves used for matcha are harvested in an extremely specialized, labor intensive and time sensitive way, and the producers in Japan just can't keep up.

Corbett: But I think this explosion that we're experiencing in matcha demand worldwide caught everyone by surprise. I was also living in Japan doing research in the second half of 2024, and I do remember then some of the tea shops putting up signs saying, you know, that they're limiting the amount that customers could purchase per day. You know, we dealt with that with toilet paper during the pandemic. It was felt very reminiscent of that. And also increasing the prices. The prices sort of increased across the board. A lot of us are concerned because without matcha like we can't really have our practice. It's kind of sad to have a tea gathering without the tea.

Evans: There are a few practical things Rebecca says matcha drinkers can do to mitigate the impact.

Corbett: If you’re drinking matcha, in say a latte form or a smoothie form, and you're adding lots of other sweeteners and flavorings to it and milks, think about what type of matcha you need for that. So you don't need the absolute highest quality, most expensive matcha for that. And the analogy I would use is something like whiskey. So you don't buy the most expensive Scottish whiskey that you can get your hands on and spend, you know, $400, $500 on a bottle and then mix it with Coke to make a whiskey and Coke, because that's also, I think, some of what's leading to the matcha shortage.

Evans: And businesses certainly anticipate that the trend is here to stay. The matcha market is projected to double in size to 10 billion a year by 2030, and producers are starting to grow matcha outside of Japan now to meet demand. Like in China where, if you remember, the matcha grinder and whisk originated centuries ago, it's kind of a full circle moment for matcha. But there are positives too with this surge in interest, a lot of people are going beyond the trendy matcha products. And some are getting into sado.

Morita: A lot of people love matcha. At first it’s matcha latte in the Starbucks. Yeah. I was so surprised to many people want to take a class.

Evans: Rie is a tea ceremony teacher, a sensei, and she's seeing a boost in people wanting to learn from her. Some of them after falling in love with macha lattes. This is OK with her. She wants to meet people where they are.

Morita: For me, now is I try to be a good teacher. Each person is live a different situation and different life stage.

Evans: Together, they set up the utensils, whisk the matcha, savor its flavor. She works with each student individually — a true study and practice. Some people like to practice meditation. Others wanna learn more about Zen Buddhism. Working with Rie, that matcha smoothie or latte can become a gateway into something deeper.

Morita: I want to tell the tea philosophy to the San Diego people. Tea word is very deep and wide world so they can explore.

Evans: With an ancient drink and the ancient way of tea, she helps her students grow just like tea changed her. It's not easy or fast, but it is worth slowing down for.

[Music]

Evans: A special thank you to Rie Morita, Robert Hellyer and Rebecca Corbett for their help with this episode. And thank you so much for listening. If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a rating or comment. It makes a real difference and helps stories like these reach more people.

Next week on The Finest, the iNaturalist app is transforming the field of botany. We talk to hobbyists using their phones to make real scientific discoveries.

Stephanie Crawford: And then I look down and I'm like, wait, I don't know this plant. Has this always been here?

Evans: The Finest is a production of KPBS Public Media. I'm your host, Julia Dixon Evans. Our producer is Anthony Wallace, who also composed the score. This episode was written and researched by Anthony and me. Our audio engineer is Ben Redlawsk, and our editor is Chrissy Nguyen.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.