logo
#

Latest news with #teaCulture

No more matcha? Demand for powdered Japanese green tea leads to global shortages
No more matcha? Demand for powdered Japanese green tea leads to global shortages

South China Morning Post

time4 days ago

  • Business
  • South China Morning Post

No more matcha? Demand for powdered Japanese green tea leads to global shortages

At Kettl Tea, a minimalist matcha bar in Los Angeles, only four types of the Japanese green tea are in stock. The menu usually boasts 25 kinds, but social media stardom has led to a global shortage of powdered matcha. 'One of the things we struggle with is telling customers that, unfortunately, we don't have what they want,' said Zach Mangan, the shop's founder. With matcha's deep grassy aroma, intense colour and pick-me-up effects, its popularity 'has grown just exponentially over the last decade, but much more so in the last two to three years', the 40-year-old explained. It is now 'a cultural touchpoint in the Western world', found everywhere, from ice-cream flavour boards to Starbucks. This has caused the market for matcha to nearly double over a year, Mangan said. 'No matter what we try, there's just not more to buy.' Hongkongers unaware of microplastics in tea and coffee – sip at your own risk Thousands of miles away in Sayama, a city about 40km (25 miles) northwest of the Japanese capital, Tokyo, Masahiro Okutomi – the 15th generation to run his family's tea business – is overwhelmed by demand. 'I had to put on our website that we are not accepting any more matcha orders,' he said. Producing the powder is an intensive process: the leaves, called tencha, are shaded for several weeks before harvest to concentrate the taste and nutrients. They are then carefully deveined by hand, dried and finely ground in a machine. It takes years of training to make matcha properly, Okutomi said. Masahiro Okutomi at his farm in Sayama, Japan. Photo: AFP 'It's a long-term endeavour requiring equipment, labour and investment … I'm glad the world is taking an interest in our matcha … but in the short term, it's almost a threat – we just can't keep up.' The matcha boom has been fuelled by online influencers like Andie Ella, who has more than 600,000 subscribers on YouTube and has started her own brand of matcha products. At the pastel-pink pop-up shop she opened in Tokyo's hip Harajuku district, dozens of fans excitedly waited to take a photo with the 23-year-old Frenchwoman or buy cans of strawberry or white chocolate flavoured matcha. 'Matcha is visually very appealing,' Ella said. To date, her matcha brand, produced in Japan's rural Mie region, has sold 133,000 cans. Launched in November 2023, it now has eight employees. 'Demand has not stopped growing,' she said. This year's spring tea harvest in east China has a special helper – AI robots In 2024, matcha accounted for over half of the 8,798 tonnes of green tea exported from Japan, according to data from the agriculture ministry. That is twice as much as a decade ago. Tokyo tea shop Jugetsudo, located in the touristy former fish market area of Tsukiji, is attempting to manage its stock levels amid escalating demand. 'We don't strictly impose purchase limits, but we sometimes refuse to sell large quantities to customers suspected of reselling,' said store manager Shigehito Nishikida. 'In the past two or three years, the craze has intensified: customers now want to make matcha themselves, like they see on social media,' he added. Matcha is added to drinks at Kettl Tea in Los Angeles, California. Photo: AFP Anita Jordan, a 49-year-old Australian tourist in Japan, said her 'kids are obsessed with matcha'. 'They sent me on a mission to find the best one,' she said with a laugh. The global matcha market might falter if United States President Donald Trump's tariffs on Japanese products – currently 10 per cent – rise to a threatened 24 per cent. Shortages and tariffs mean 'we do have to raise prices. We don't take it lightly,' said Mangan at Kettl Tea, though it has not dampened demand so far. 'Customers are saying: 'I want matcha before it runs out.'' Japan's government is encouraging tea producers to scale up their farming operations to reduce costs. But that risks sacrificing quality, and 'in small rural areas, it's almost impossible', grower Okutomi said. The number of tea plantations in Japan has fallen to a quarter of what it was 20 years ago as farmers age and struggle to secure successors, he added. 'Training a new generation takes time … it can't be improvised.'

Food columnist Jasmine Mangalaseril spills the tea on a Stratford tea sommelier
Food columnist Jasmine Mangalaseril spills the tea on a Stratford tea sommelier

CBC

time17-05-2025

  • CBC

Food columnist Jasmine Mangalaseril spills the tea on a Stratford tea sommelier

Legend has it that tea was accidentally created in 2737 BCE, when a leaf floated from its plant into a vessel of recently boiled water intended for Chinese emperor Shen Nong. Since then, tea has been cultivated, drunk, traded, and blended, but tea sommeliers are a relatively recent concept. While wine sommeliers have been around since the court of the French King, Louis XIV, the world's first tea sommelier is thought to have been working in London, U.K. in the early 1990s. Canada's first certified tea sommelier was at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York Hotel 10 years later. Like a restaurant's wine sommelier, certified tea sommeliers are trained in all aspects of tea. This includes its history and science, categories, cultivation, as well as preparation, blending and culinary applications. Karen Hartwick is a certified tea sommelier and owner of Tea Leaves tea bar in Stratford, Ont. She traced her love of tea to her grandmother's tea ceremony at home when she brewed loose leaf tea. Decades later, a friend took Hartwick to a tearoom in an Alberta antique shop. She left with several containers of different loose leaf tea and a new-found love of tea. She bought a B&B in Stratford, from where she ran Tea Leaves. After guests returned home, they called asking to buy the tea she served. "They had not experienced beautiful tea…The B&B's 800 number turned into the tea hotline," said Hartwick. Sommelier certification Hartwick enrolled in the first Specialty Tea Institute's tea sommelier certification program in 2003. Over the next five years she learned from experts from tea-growing nations while she and her classmates spent months on each tea category. "[For example] we would look at white teas. The processing, the growing conditions, history, and then tasting, cupping. We did so much cupping. White teas come from certain areas of China and India, and just being able to compare those," said Hartwick. Afterward, she travelled to Asian tea gardens to get hands-on experience, picking leaves and learning how to process tea from tea masters. Back in Canada, she curated Rundles restaurant's tea menu and taught at the Stratford Chef's School. "I think because of all of the things I've done, I ended up with a really well-rounded education to take each part further." While she closed the B&B, Tea Leaves remains open by appointment for sales, consulting and custom blending. She also hosts tea tasting events, focusing on seasonal teas. "True" teas are made from two varietals of the camellia sinensis plant. Generally, assamica for black teas and sinensis for green and white teas. Oolongs can be made with either. Hartwick said there are details to note about each variety of tea, including: White teas are picked early while there's just a single bud or a bud and two leaves and dried without oxidation. Green teas are picked after the leaves have grown a little bit longer and heated to dry to less than three per cent moisture. Black teas are allowed to wilt, then bruised, oxidized and dried. Pu-erh teas (made from unoxidized assamica) are fermented and dried. And, like other crops, growing conditions are a factor. "I've had teas come in from Assam, that teas out of a certain field will taste different than another offering from the same tea garden," said Hartwick. "It's just a matter of the mists and the winds." She also mentioned, within a category, different cultures can have their own processing customs. "Green teas from China, it's pick wilt and fire, in an oven or a wok. Japan throws a steam process in. And so that's going to give you different nuances with the tastes and even how green a green tea is." Not just for sipping If want to try something new, the following are pairings Hartwick suggested. During afternoon tea: Japanese sencha provides a good contrast for very sweet options made with lemon curd. Genmaicha Satsuki (green tea with roasted rice) complements savoury sandwiches. Hibiscus and berry teas would contrast salmon and cream cheese sandwiches. If you'd like to try cooking with tea, here are some ideas: Fold fruit from a whole fruit tisane into a cake batter and then use the strained tisane as part of the soak. Steeped fruit teas made with a black tea base can be folded into creams for desserts Smoky lapsang souchong tea leaves can be added to meat rubs or brewed and added to marinade Regardless, Hartwick has these reassuring words: "There's no right and wrong answer. It's a matter of that person who's preparing those items and choosing the teas. The sky's the limit."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store