World's thirst for green Japanese tea matcha leads to shortage in global supplies

The bright green Japanese tea, Matcha is becoming popular all over the world. This tea is found in many regions in Japan like Uji, Nishio and Shizuoka and these regions are known for producing high-quality matcha. The global interest for this tea is also driven by social media, where influencers share matcha-making tips, taste tests and recipes. On TikTok, the hashtag regarding matcha (#MatchaTok) has gathered millions of views. Matcha sales are also rising mainly because now people care more about their health and the wellness trend is becoming more popular.

How matcha is made ?

Making matcha is not at all easy; it takes centuries and has a carefully crafted process. It starts with a special kind of green tea leaf called ‘Tencha,’ which is grown in the shade for several weeks. Keeping these leaves gives matcha its rich and savory-sweet flavor, known as umami.

These leaves are then picked, dried, and slowly ground into a fine powder using stone mills. These mills can only produce about 40 grams of powder (1.4 oz) per hour.

Recently, matcha producers have been facing many problems. The sudden changes in the temperature level has become one of the main challenge in the production of the crop as unusually high temperatures cause damage to the tea crops.

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The people of the Kyoto area in Japan, which produces around 25 per cent of the Tencha, are facing poor harvesting problems, and these issues are becoming increasingly common even as the demand for the tea continues to rise.

Another challenge in this industry is that Japan’s farming population is getting older and only fewer young people are interested in becoming farmers. This makes it harder for the country to meet the growing global demand.