Matcha is having a second — and it is placing strain on Japan’s tea trade

[ad_1] It is the newest beverage du jour — and for folks needing their morning pick-me-up, matcha tea more and more beats espresso as their caffeine repair of alternative.

"I labored on the bar a number of weeks in the past and I believe previous a sure level, you do not simply skim milk, you do not pull pictures. Every little thing you do is matcha," mentioned Nadiia Semenichenko, regional supervisor at 10 Dean, a café and bar in Toronto.

Demand for the finely powdered tea — normally sourced from Japan and unmistakable for its vivid inexperienced color and earthy style — has gone supernova because the fall, principally because of the legions of influencers swearing by it on social media and viral movies which might be racking up hundreds of thousands of views, say specialists who spoke to CBC Information.

However that fervour has shaken up matcha's delicate provide chain, in the end resulting in a world scarcity that's placing strain on Japan's tea trade to ramp up manufacturing of the scarce commodity.

Semenichenko's cafe has sought out new suppliers to maintain up with the demand, noting that certainly one of them has put a cap on how a lot matcha the café might purchase every month.

"By the tip of this yr, we'll really feel substantial worth will increase in matcha, for certain," she mentioned, referring to the café's prices.

And people who comply with the Japanese tea trade say it is solely a matter of time earlier than prospects who love the foamy, verdant drink get hit by a critical worth hike.

WATCH | How a matcha frenzy upended a fragile provide chain: Matcha frenzy upends delicate world provide chain

Exploding world demand for matcha-flavoured merchandise has left Japanese suppliers struggling to maintain up, driving up costs and resulting in shortages of the finely floor inexperienced tea powder. A sudden scarcity Matcha is made out of floor tencha, a sort of inexperienced tea leaf that's shade-grown — giving it a extra intense flavour and a deeper color — earlier than being steamed, dried, destemmed and handed via a milling machine to produce a powder.

The very best-grade model of matcha, used for Japanese tea ceremonies, is harvested in spring. It is handed via a stone mill, making it a time and resource-consuming course of that produces solely a small amount of the ultimate product.

Semenichenko says utilizing ceremonial matcha as a baking ingredient or in lattes is like "for those who purchase actually costly whiskey and put it in whisky and Coke."

However when demand for matcha ticked sharply upward final fall, folks had been all of a sudden dashing to purchase the high-grade model of the product. "Even tea ceremony faculties in Japan all of a sudden could not discover the matcha they might normally purchase," mentioned Anna Poian, a co-founder of the International Japanese Tea Affiliation.

A number of the hottest matcha manufacturers in Japan — together with Ippodo Tea, Yamasan and Marukyu Koyamaen — printed apology notes to their prospects and introduced they must put limits on how a lot and what sort of matcha merchandise they might promote to their patrons.

At the moment, matcha producers "had been not likely going through an actual scarcity, however they did not count on a lot demand," defined Poian.

However the onslaught of matcha-related viral movies mixed with record-high tourism to Japan — induced by a weak yen — had folks clamouring for the tea, in the end resulting in a run on current provide and a manufacturing scarcity.

Now, the craze has spurred main espresso retailers and restaurant chains to step up their matcha choices to allow them to money in, too.

Most Starbucks places have served matcha drinks for years, however the espresso big added a complete suite of specialty matcha drinks final summer time. Matcha is on the menu at Booster Juice, Tim Hortons and McDonalds, too, although the businesses did not reply when requested after they added it.

Huge retailers aren't resistant to the scarcity, both. Second Cup, which added one other matcha latte to its menu in April, has not too long ago handled delays in receiving its matcha provide, a spokesperson informed CBC Information.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A woman stands in front of a barista counter in a cafe." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572247.1750979321!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nadiia-semenichenko.JPG?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572247.1750979321!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nadiia-semenichenko.JPG?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572247.1750979321!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nadiia-semenichenko.JPG?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572247.1750979321!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nadiia-semenichenko.JPG?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572247.1750979321!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nadiia-semenichenko.JPG?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572247.1750979321!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nadiia-semenichenko.JPG?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.49746192893401" data-cy="image-img"/> Nadiia Semenichenko, regional supervisor at 10 Dean, a café and bar in Toronto, says the retailer's matcha drinks now make up one-third of their whole drink gross sales. (Pelin Sidki/CBC) Altering tides in Japan's tea-farming trade The scarcity can also be a product of adjustments in Japan's home tea trade during the last twenty years.

Throughout the nation, each the consumption and manufacturing of tea have declined, and its tea-farming inhabitants is getting old with few successors to take over.

"They do not see a lot of a future as a result of the Japanese tea trade has been in decline for the previous 15 to twenty years, as a result of lower in native consumption," defined Poian, whose group publishes month-to-month studies on the trade.

<img loading="lazy" alt="An older man is shown using farming equipment." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572243.1750979150!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/japanese-farmer.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572243.1750979150!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/japanese-farmer.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572243.1750979150!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/japanese-farmer.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572243.1750979150!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/japanese-farmer.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572243.1750979150!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/japanese-farmer.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572243.1750979150!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/japanese-farmer.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.7771084337349397" data-cy="image-img"/> Japan's tea-farmers are getting old, with few successors to take over their companies. (Kametani Tea) Conversely, exports of Japanese tea to different nations are on the rise. In April 2025, whole exports of Japanese tea had been up 85.7 per cent from the identical month the earlier yr, in line with knowledge from an trade group.

Canada's personal consumption of inexperienced tea from Japan has elevated by 118 per cent since 2015, a spokesperson for International Affairs informed CBC Information.

Compounding the issue is the indisputable fact that matcha makes up simply six per cent of Japan's whole tea manufacturing, in line with Poian. "Extra farmers are shifting and focusing their manufacturing to matcha, however this sadly will not be a straightforward change," she mentioned.

Nations like China and Vietnam produce matcha, too, however the Japanese model is taken into account premium. The Japanese authorities's farming ministry, in an effort to ramp up matcha manufacturing for the export market, is reportedly recommending that farmers substitute their sencha — one other kind of inexperienced tea leaf — with tencha.

<img loading="lazy" alt="Leaves are shown in close-up." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572241.1750979065!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/tencha-leaves.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572241.1750979065!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/tencha-leaves.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572241.1750979065!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/tencha-leaves.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572241.1750979065!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/tencha-leaves.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572241.1750979065!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/tencha-leaves.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7572241.1750979065!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/tencha-leaves.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.7771084337349397" data-cy="image-img"/> Tencha leaves are dried and powdered to make matcha. (Kametani Tea) That shift is not simple, even for the trade's skilled workforce, says Jason Eng, head of enterprise growth and partnerships at Kametani Tea, a tea manufacturing firm based mostly in Nara, Japan.

"Many of those farmers haven't got the assets to do this — to improve all of the machines or simply change the machines altogether. So the funding prices rather a lot," he mentioned.

Kametani Tea, which exports about 25 to 30 per cent of its product to worldwide beverage firms, suppliers and wholesalers, must increase costs as soon as the following harvest is prepared. And people worth shocks will ultimately trickle right down to matcha-loving shoppers at cafés.

"It is gonna be actually laborious to digest, I believe, for the shoppers on the finish with this big surge of demand," he mentioned.

'It simply will get bought out' After creating a style for matcha, Cheena Lerum began posting recipe movies on her TikTok account. However the Toronto content material creator seen earlier this yr that she received extra views when she supplied suggestions for the place to purchase and supply matcha.

"You realize when bubble tea grew to become actually well-known a number of years in the past?" she mentioned, referring to the Taiwanese tea drink that exploded in recognition through the mid-2010s. "Matcha's turning into that now."

Lerum, who has nearly 30,000 followers on the platform, mentioned she thinks "on a regular basis" about whether or not she's contributing to the matcha scarcity. She posts in regards to the tea much less ceaselessly on social media now, partly as a result of she hasn't been capable of finding her favorite merchandise.

"They are saying do not gate-keep, however generally there are manufacturers that you just like after which it turns into too common and it simply will get bought out," Lerum defined. She's additionally seen costs creeping up: a 30-gram tin of matcha powder that she used to purchase on-line for $35 now prices nearly $50, she mentioned.

Again on the café, a number of prospects are sipping on matcha lattes. "I simply discover that it is a a lot better various to espresso," mentioned Danielle Pineda, who says matcha energizes her with out giving her coffee-like jitters. She has her personal matcha whisk and infrequently makes the drink at house.

Tommy Tanga, one other buyer on the cafe, mentioned he finds the present worth of matcha affordable — a café order normally prices about $5 to $7, relying on the kind of drink. It has been his go-to order ever since he tried it throughout a visit to Japan.