What is Matcha? What is this powdered green tea that everyone is talking about? What is this tea with mysterious and magical properties that’s gaining so much popularity in the West?

As a specialized tea company dealing in the United States for several years, we’ve encountered many questions and a lot of misinformation about what Matcha is or isn’t. Because of this, we want to help clear the fog and answer these questions so you can have a better understanding of what Matcha really is.

 Ready?

Let’s go.

The true history of Matcha starts a long time ago in China, around the 10th - 11th centuries, when a "respected powdered tea" was used in Monasteries for its healing and concentration benefits. However, almost one century prior to this time, the seed used for Matcha tea had already touched Japan’s soil (brought over by Buddhist Monks Saichō and Kūkai). Although this is true, it wasn’t until the 12th century that the famous monk Eisai (1141-1215) brought the tea seeds to Japan after a trip to China.

Among Eisai’s many achievements, he wrote a book titled ‘Kissa Yōjōki’ which literally translates to “drinking tea for health” and taught his pupils how to cultivate and drink the tea. One of his pupils, Monk Myōel, dedicated himself to the cultivation of tea and made great discoveries on how to improve tea agriculture.

From this time, tea started to be consumed by monks, military, and even royalty. With its rising popularity, tea production grew all around the country which resulted in a great discovery: the tea trees that were shaded in the region of Toganoō made tea of a better quality. Due to competition, this led the proud tea farmers of Kyoto to craft shade out of bamboo trees to improve their cultivations, helping make Kyoto soon after the most demanded Matcha region and the only one allowed to use their technique of shading (as declared by the Shogun). 

Fast-forward to today, Matcha’s popularity has grown enormously for its health benefits, meditative purposes, energizing content, taste, and versatility being used in drinks, food, alternative medicine and even skincare. With all this high-demand, Matcha producers in Japan and other countries have had to adapt in order to satisfy today’s needs. 

It is important to note that Matcha is a very complex tea to produce. The tea requires time, craft, knowledge, and special equipment which also makes it quite expensive. Because of this some farmers and wholesalers had to develop faster and larger ways to produce it which inevitably reduces the teas qualities. 

This is why it is important to be well-informed about Matcha and its essential qualities. To be able to differentiate between ‘ceremonial-grade’ Matchas and lesser-quality ‘culinary’ Matchas. To know about your sources, harvests, and farmers. And finally, it is important to find transparent and responsible vendors that ensure you really get what you pay for. 

With all this being said, we’d like to give you a short introduction to the complex world of Matcha, and let you be the judge from now on.

 Now, let's continue...

In Japan, there are essentially three harvests on the yearly farming cycle.

- The First Harvest is from April to Late-May
- The Second Harvest is from Late-May to July
- The Third Harvest is from Mid-August to October.

Not all farmers produce teas on every harvest; some of them choose their harvests depending on what they want to produce because as you might suspect, the teas produced on each one are very different from each other. However, the best Matcha is always produced from the first harvest, and you’ll understand why later.

Japan is a country that goes through all four seasons. All of this climate change creates a series of effects on the tea plants and depending on how farmers treat them, the leaves produced by them will inevitably vary.

During winter from October to early spring the tea plants have been absorbing as many minerals and nutrients as possible in order to withstand the cold temperatures. In the following months, when the spring comes and the trees wake up from their hibernation, all of the nutrients and minerals will be transferred to the new baby buds; the ones used to make the so-called First Harvest teas. These buds have more flavor and more nutritional value than the following harvests, all because of that long period of time in hibernation. Patience pays off.

Later in Spring the farmers start shading the tea bushes by means of different techniques to reduce the amount of sunlight, some even leaving them almost in the dark. These shading techniques are responsible for the leaf’s vivid green color and they also notably affect how the teas taste. The science behind this is that the amino acids present in tea become antioxidants through photosynthesis, and antioxidants have a bitter taste, which basically means that the more sunlight the tea bush gets, the more bitter it will be.

Around the beginning of May is when the harvest begins. The baby buds have fully matured and are at their prime. In order to produce the highest quality Matcha, farmers need to pluck the first two leaves and one bud. Not more, not less. It makes it a very hard job because the only way to do it properly is by hand. Machinery will never be as accurate and delicate with the leaves, however, it’s worth noting that some teas harvested by machinery can be quite good too.
Now that the tea leaves have been harvested, they are then taken to the factories to continue with the process of becoming Matcha. Once they arrive to the factory, the leaves will be placed on steamers for about 20 seconds to stop the oxidation process allowing them to remain green and fresh. They look like steamed spinach!

Soon after, the leaves are transferred to a series of 3 to 5 connected, tall air columns made from a fine mesh where you can see the wet steamed leaves flying from one column to the other. This process separates the leaves, reduces their moisture levels and cools them down.

Straight from the last air column the leaves are brought to a big, long brick oven that contain three to four layers of conveyor belts that will help dry the leaves evenly by transferring the leaves from one belt to another starting at the lowest and hottest, and ending at the highest and coolest for its final round of drying. This whole process of drying can take up to 20 minutes.

Once the leaves are out of the oven the dried leaves are stored in big kraft bags. We now have what’s called ‘Raw 'Tencha,' which still isn’t Matcha...

For Tencha to become Matcha we still have a few steps to go. These next steps are usually made by wholesalers or tea vendors that have access to the infrastructure needed to produce Matcha. In fact, most tea farmers only produce Tencha and then sell it to wholesalers directly or through the famous tea auctions. At these auctions “tea masters” from each wholesaler taste hundreds of teas every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 4 months in order to select their favorites and create their own blends of Matcha. Most of the “Matcha” on the market is blended from two to dozens of different Tenchas that come from different farmers and regions. The masters mix and match them to get the exact flavors, colors, scents and profiles they’re looking for. It’s a form of art, really. However, there’s also “Single Cultivar” Matcha which is made from just one type of Tencha from a single garden, from a single farmer.

Now that the Raw Tencha is selected and purchased by the wholesalers, they will take their leaves and process them to be cut and separated from the twigs and veins so they can be dried one last time. This process results in what is called ‘Finalized 'Tencha.' The last step prior to becoming Matcha is the mixing of the different Tencha leaves that form their desired blend. Once integrated, they’re stored, still in leaf form, until they’re ready to be sold. Matcha can never be stored in its powder form because it oxidizes more quickly, so it must remain as loose leaves until they're bought then milled on stone mortars into powder.

 Matcha is a powdered green tea made from stone milled Tencha. 

But it isn’t just that. It’s a tea that’s been acclaimed by Buddhist Monks, Shoguns, Emperors, Kings, Samurais, military personnel, yogis, doctors, friends, and your closest tea/coffee shops for its undeniable energetic, concentration, well-being and supernatural properties.