Matcha Mania transforms green powder into gold

Tokyo – When Chitose Nagao retired after almost three decades in advertising to start a Matcha coffee, she never imagined that the lines served around her shop before the opening. In the middle afternoon, the boxes of matcha powder on its shelves are exhausted, while a constant flow of customers mainly abroad is waiting to try its latest green concocts.

His store, Atelier Matcha, is one of the lucky ones. Although Matcha supplies are weak even in Japan due to a global craze, a cultivated Nagao partnership with Marukyu Koyamaen, a 300 -year -old tea producer in Kyoto, bears fruit.

“When I heard that all their tea was sitting invented in a warehouse during COVID, I wanted to do something,” said Nagao. Four years later, she has two stores in Japan, one in Ho Chi Minh de Vietnam and a new point of sale that will soon open to Cebu City, in the Philippines.

Japan has been consuming matcha since the 12th century, mainly in highly ritualized tea ceremonies which require only a grain of powder. The demand has skyrocketed in recent years when Matcha’s reputation as an antioxidant supervision spreads to Tiktok. A post-pandemic tourist boom has also increased prices.

According to the Ministry of Japan of Finance, Japan exported 36.4 billion yen ($ 247 million) of green tea last year, or four times more than ten years. Some 44% were intended for the United States, mainly in the form of powder, such as Matcha.

In order to deal with the pressure on the aging agricultural communities of Japan, the Japanese government plans to subsidize farmers to encourage them to devote more fields to Techa, the type of tea used to make matcha.

Tencha yields are more lucrative but also more with a high intensity of labor, because the buds must be protected from the sun to bring out their distinctive grassy flavor. There are not enough hands to harvest, steam and dry the leaves before targeting them powder, say the producers.

The prices of Tencha at this spring auction in Kyoto jumped 170% compared to the year before at 8,235 yen per kilogram, said Global Japanese Tea Association. This broke the previous record of 4,862 yen per kilogram, established in 2016.

Many retailers have also indicated that Matcha prices have doubled in the past year, and finding a small box of powder has become more and more difficult, even in Tokyo.

Stores place purchasing limits to make their stock last longer, discourage hoarding and repel unauthorized resellers. However, Matcha remains a popular memory for the record number of tourists visiting Japan.

Many online stores sold months ago while American buyers rushed to compete in the expected rates.

Kaminari Issa, who sells everything, from Matcha beer to Matcha Cream Puffs in his four stores in the district of Asakusa de Tokyo, said that receiving a request for email for a ton of matcha is not unusual.

“We are happy,” said Miku Sugawara, who manages one of the stores. “But there are only few things that we can sell.”

His store sells strawberry matcha from the very first harvest of the season, when tea leaves are tender, which is considered the highest quality.

Like many others in trade, Sugawara is worried that this summer’s Whewave record can lower the tea harvest next year and push even higher prices.

Competition to find and produce enough matcha is so intense that it is forced This inThe world’s largest seller in bottled green tea, to create a dedicated division in May.

The company provides that groups abroad of the group are increasing 11% this year and increase prices from 50% to 100% on several products from September against raw materials and higher labor.

ITO has contracts dedicated to farmers who provide it 7 with 7,,000 tonnes of ordinary green tea each year, but only about 600 tonnes of techa.

Convincing farmers to cultivate more tencha has been a challenge because many fear that the current boom can decline, said Ito in.

“The popularity of Matcha has been incredible. Our own factories and all our entrepreneurs are JAM–Packed, “said Yasutaka Yokomichi, director of the new ITO Matcha division in.

He said that one of his priorities is to secure enough mills to grind Tercha powder and wrap, which may include new investments to extend the own Ito installations in. This can take an hour to wet only 40 grams of matcha, because the heat resulting from a faster process could degrade its quality.

Atelier Nagao Matcha said that consumer education on the different matcha notes could be the only viable option.

As a devotee of Sado, or “the chemin du tea”, the superior quality powder is not necessary to make a good bowl of Açai Matcha, she said. As an entrepreneur, she also has her goal on the next great thing.

“Hojicha,” says Nagao, referring to another type of tea with a more nut profile and less caffeine. “Listen, there is only one today.”