Tokyo (AP) – Dressed in an elegant pale green kimono, tea ceremony Instructor kaneko uses a small wooden spoon to place the matcha spots in a porcelain bowl.
She pours hot water from a pot of boiled hot coal, then whisks a special powdered green tea along with a bamboo whisk.
Her strict movements celebrate a moment of zen.
It’s no wonder Kaneko and others are taking the “sad” and “tea path” seriously. Matcha suddenly appears From all kinds of things Cake and chocolate with latte and ice cream.
No one knows who started the global matcha boom that has been going on for several years. However, it is clear that the particularly delicate matcha harvest cannot keep up with demand.
A booming market
Matcha is a type of tea grown in the shade, steamed and then crushed into very fine flour. It is processed differently from regular green tea, and has the best matcha ground using stone mills, and it takes time to switch from one to the other. Farmers don’t want to switch and find out that matcha fever has died.
The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture is working to promote tea growth, providing support to farmers with new machinery, special soil, financial aid and counseling to cax tea producers to switch from regular green “sencha” tea to matcha.
“We don’t want this to become just a trend, but instead we’ve made matcha the standard for taste and as a global brand in Japan,” said Kawai Tomoyuki, who works in the Tea section of the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to government data, the production of tea used for matcha used for matcha has almost tripled from 1,452 tonnes in 2008 to 4,176 tonnes in 2023, according to government data.
Japan’s tea exports have more than doubled in the past decade, with the US currently accounting for about a third. According to Japanese government data, much of its growth is from matcha. The concern is that the lack of labor as aging farmers leave the fields could cause matcha crunch to worsen in the coming years due to labor shortages.
As other countries, including China and some Southeast Asian countries, produce matcha, Japan is competing to establish its branding as the origin of tea.
The art form has become a fun drink worldwide
Tea ceremony practitioners are not angry at the trend, they are simply confused. They hope it will lead to people interested in Sado, and their followers are steadily declining. But they don’t expect that.
Tea ceremony “remindes us to cherish every encounter as unique and uneven,” said Kaneko, a licensed instructor.
She pointed to a special small entrance to the Tea House. The Noble Samurai had to lean back to enter, leaving their sword behind them. Message: Everyone is equal when participating in tea.
The purity and tranquility of the ceremony is a different world from the busy and ordinary, from the matcha trends brewed outside the teahouse.
Matcha Cream Frappuccino is a standard fare at Starbucks Coffee outlets everywhere. Matcha, a special ingredient traditionally used in tea ceremony, is not intended to be drunk in large quantities at once, like regular tea or juice, but is consumed suddenly, like other fruits and flavors.
Matcha drinks are popular in cafes from Melbourne to Los Angeles. Various cookbooks offer matcha recipes, and foreign tourists to Japan bring home cans and bags of matcha as souvenirs.
It was a modern view of traditions completed by the 16th century Buddhist monk Kn no Rikyu in Kyoto, helping to shape the tea ceremony and “wabisabi” traditions.
The future of matcha
Minoru Handa, the third generation chief of Tokyo Handen, a suburban tea store that sells matcha and brown tea, says that the appeal of matcha is its versatility. Unlike tea leaves, powder can be easily mixed with almost anything.
“The health boom and interest in Japanese culture have gained momentum,” he says, stirring up the machines roasting brown tea and sending stimulating fragrances down the streets.
“It’s safe and healthy so there’s virtually no reason it won’t sell,” Handa said.
His business dates back to 1815, he has long-standing relationships with growers in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, and has steadily supplied matcha. To protect hoarding, he limits his store purchases to one per customer.
Showing award-winning tea in the US and Europe, Handa hopes growers will increase their supply due to a lack of matcha and shruggle off Harabaru.
However, Anna Poin, co-director and founder of the Global Japan Tea Association, believes that lower grades of matcha should be used for things like lattes, as you’ll need to put quite a lot of delicious matcha in order to taste it.
“That’s a bit of a shame. It’s a bit of a waste,” she said.
In an interview from Madrid, she said that the best matcha should be reserved for the authenticity.
“It’s a very delicate and complicated tea, produced with the idea of being drunk only with water,” she said.
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