Matcha

Matcha (抹茶) /ˈmætʃə, ˈmɑːtʃə/ is a finely ground powder of green tea specially processed from shade-grown tea leaves. Shade growing gives matcha its characteristic bright green color and strong umami flavor. Matcha is typically consumed suspended in hot water.
Matcha originated in China but the production of compressed tea, the raw material for matcha, was banned in China in the 14th century. Shade growing was invented in Japan in the 16th century and most matcha is produced there today. The traditional Japanese tea ceremony, typically known as chanoyu (茶の湯) or sadō/chadō (茶道), centers on the preparation, serving and drinking of matcha as hot tea, and embodies a meditative and spiritual practice.
Matcha is also used to flavor and dye foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream, matcha lattes, and a variety of Japanese wagashi confectionery. For this purpose, matcha made green by color additives instead of expensive shade-grown matcha is often used.
Strict definitions of matcha are given by the International Organization for Standardization, ISO 20715:2023 "Tea — Classification of tea types", and the Japanese food labeling standard (defined by Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association (日本茶業中央会)).
Both definitions require that matcha must be
The Japanese food labeling standard requires the tea leaves to be shaded for 2–3 weeks before harvesting using covering materials such as yoshizu, komo, or cheesecloth. Tea leaves after processing the first three steps are called tencha (碾茶) in this standard. ISO 20715:2023 allows matcha to be made from tender leaves, buds, or shoots, but Japanese food labeling standard allows it to be made only from leaves.
Inexpensive green tea, hunmatsucha (粉末茶), made by crushing non-shade grown tea leaves, is sometimes sold under the name of "matcha" although it does not satisfy the above definitions. The cheaper alternative is used to flavor and dye foods.
The characteristics of matcha are as follows.
The characteristic bright green color is due to the increased chloroplasts that the plants need to collect more light in the shade. The flavor of matcha is dominated by its amino acids. The ooikou (覆い香) aroma is due to the matcha's dimethyl sulfide content.
Green tea is more umami oriented than black tea and the matcha form is particularly rich in umami flavor with twice the amino acids (the source of umami) as sencha green tea. The amino acids, theanine, succinic acid, gallic acid, and theogallin are the primary contributors to matcha's umami flavor. The growing of tencha, which serves as the material for producing matcha, relies on the tencha plant being grown in shade, therefore, not breaking down the content of theanine on the leaves. Shading increases the amount of caffeine and total free amino acids but also reduces the accumulation of catechins in leaves.
Matcha tea contains polyphenols, including high amounts of chlorogenic acid.
In production, the leaves of tencha are steamed and dried. It is usually steamed at 100 °C (212 °F) for 10–15 seconds. The steaming softens the tea leaves and inactivates the oxidizing enzymes. The production led to glycosides being suppressed. The leaves are then ground in a grinding mill to make matcha. The leaves are then dried in a tea processing machine and spread on a conveyor belt. The temperature inside the machine is set to approximately 170–200 °C (338–392 °F) in the drying process, but the temperature of the tea leaves themselves is around 70 °C.
Matcha is typically consumed by mixing with hot water. There are two kinds of matcha tea – koicha (濃茶) and usucha (薄茶). Koicha is made by higher-grade matcha and less hot water with a lower temperature than for usucha. Usucha is foamed to reduce shibumi while koicha is not foamed. Specifically, koicha is made from 4 g (0.14 oz) matcha and 30 ml (1.1 imp fl oz; 1.0 US fl oz) of hot water at 80 °C (176 °F), and usucha is made with half matcha in twice the volume of hot water at 90 °C (194 °F). Due to the above differences, koicha has more of an original taste of matcha than usucha.
Drinking koicha is considered the main part of Japanese tea ceremony, while drinking usucha is considered as a sub-part of it. In the ceremonies, matcha is stored and made using a special teaware called chaki. Specifically, matcha for koicha and usucha are stored in special containers, chaire (茶入) and natsume (棗), respectively. Before use, the matcha can be sifted through a sieve to reduce clumps. Matcha is scooped out from these containers by chashaku (茶杓), a traditional Japanese spoon. Matcha and hot water are then put in a chawan (茶碗), the bowl, and stirred with chasen (茶筅), a whisk usually made from bamboo. It is drunk from the chawan. One drinks matcha after finishing (not during) eating sweets to allow a prolonged taste of the matcha.
There are four types of powdered Japanese green tea and the differences are as follows.
All of the above ones are made from Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (Chinese, small-leaf tea).
The majority of matcha is produced in Japan, where it is highly regarded as part of the tea ceremony (chanoyu (茶の湯)), but rarely used otherwise. China and Vietnam also produce some matcha intended for export to the Japanese market, but they are regarded as inferior to the Japanese product and typically used in iced beverages, for example.
Matcha (or hunmatsucha under the name of "matcha") is used in castella, manjū, and monaka; as a topping for shaved ice (kakigōri); mixed with milk and sugar as a drink; and mixed with salt and used to flavor tempura in a mixture known as matcha-jio. It is also used as flavouring in many Western-style chocolates, candy, and desserts, such as cakes and pastries, including Swiss rolls and cheesecake, cookies, pudding, mousse, and green tea ice cream. Matcha frozen yogurt is sold in shops and can be made at home using Greek yogurt. The snacks Pocky and Kit Kat have matcha-flavoured versions in Japan. It may also be mixed into other forms of tea. For example, it is added to genmaicha to form matcha-iri genmaicha (literally, roasted brown rice and green tea with added matcha).
The use of matcha in modern drinks has also spread to North American cafés, such as Starbucks, which introduced "green tea lattes" and other matcha-flavoured drinks after they became successful in their Japanese store locations. As in Japan, it has become integrated into lattes, iced drinks, milkshakes, and smoothies. This increase in matcha-based drinks in the U.S. is driven by a rise in consumer interest in healthier beverage options, with many opting for matcha due to its perceived health benefits and lower caffeine content compared to coffee.
In China during the Tang dynasty (618–907), tea leaves were steamed and formed into compressed tea (tea bricks) for storage and trade. According to Lu Yu's The Classic of Tea (760–762), tea was first made by roasting compressed tea in solid form over a fire and then grinding it in a wooden grinder called a niǎn (碾, Japanese: yagen), boiling water in a pot, adding salt when it boils, and then adding the tea powder to the boiling water and boiling it until it foamed. The tea was also sometimes mixed with green onions, ginger, jujubes, mandarin orange peels, Tetradium ruticarpum, and mint.
Later, during the Song dynasty (960–1279), it became popular to use powdered tea from steamed, dried tea leaves and prepare the beverage by whipping the tea powder and hot water together in a bowl. Although the term "matcha" (抹茶) is not used, powdered tea prepared with a tea whisk is believed to have originated at the latest in the 11th century in China. The most famous references to powdered tea are Cai Xiang's Record of Tea (1049–1053) and Emperor Huizong's Treatise on Tea (1107), both from the Song dynasty. According to these documents, high-grade compressed tea, as typified by Lóngfèng Tuánchá (龍鳳團茶, lit. 'Dragon and Phoenix Lump Tea'), was ground to powder with a metal niǎn, then sifted, after which the powder was poured into a tea bowl, hot water was poured into the bowl, and the tea was prepared with a tea whisk. According to the Record of Tea, the finer the sieve, the more the tea floats; the coarser the sieve, the more the tea sinks, so it seems that the particles of the powder were larger than those of modern matcha. The tea ceremonies at Kennin-ji Temple in Kyoto and Engaku-ji Temple in Kamakura are examples of the traditions of the Song dynasty.
The lump tea presented to the emperor was mixed with borneol, which had a strong aroma and was coated with oil and fat flavoring to make the surface of the lump shiny, to the point that the tea's original aroma was extinguished. Cai Xiang criticized such processing. In addition, the ideal color of tea was considered to be white, rather than green or brown. However, since tea powder could not usually be made white, various processing methods had to be used to make it white. For example, tea buds were plucked when they had just sprouted and repeatedly squeezed, and water was added repeatedly to grind them. There was also a brand of white tea called "water buds" (水芽), in which the leafy part of the bud was removed and only the veins were used as raw material.
The complex manufacturing process of lump tea during the Song dynasty required significant labor and money, and even the slightest error could lead to failure. Consequently, it was expensive and inaccessible to the common people. During the Tang dynasty, "bitter when sipped and sweet when swallowed" (The Classic of Tea) was regarded as the true taste of tea. However, during the Song dynasty, this ideal was forcibly replaced by four characteristics: "aroma, sweetness, richness, and smoothness" (Treatise on Tea). This was an attempt to eliminate the bitterness that tea naturally has. As a result, lump tea became an expensive and complicated product during the Song dynasty, and some suggest that this contributed to its rapid decline after the Ming dynasty. In the Ming dynasty, the first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang issued a ban on the production of compressed tea in 1391, which led to the abandonment of compressed tea in China, and a method similar to the modern one, in which loose tea is steeped in hot water and extracted, became mainstream.
In Shen Defu's Wanli ye huo bian ("Unofficial Gleanings of the Wanli Era", Chinese: 萬厲野獲編), it is recorded that "At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, teas from all over China were offered to the emperor, of which Jianning tea and Yángxiàn tea were the most highly valued. At that time, the Song dynasty production method was still in effect, and all the tea offered was ground and kneaded with a medicine grinder into a shape known as a Lóngtuán (龍團, lit. 'lump of dragon'), both large and small. However, in September of the 24th year of Hongwu, the emperor had the production of lóngtuán discontinued due to the heavy burden on the people's power. Instead, he made them pluck only tea buds and offer them to the emperor." With the ban on compressed tea, matcha, a powder made from it, also fell into disuse in China. From then on, matcha was to evolve in Japan based on Japanese aesthetics and principles.
Some historians have pointed out that since the Ming Dynasty was a heavily agriculturalist dynasty with a strong spirit of respect for the military, and the Hongwu Emperor was a man who had risen from the lowest strata of society, he may have disliked the excessively refined and extravagant compressed tea.
The first documented evidence of tea in Japan dates to the 9th century. It is found in an entry in the Nihon Kōki having to do with the Buddhist monk Eichū (永忠), who is thought to have brought some tea back to Japan on his return from China. The entry states that Eichū personally prepared and served sencha (煎茶) to Emperor Saga, who was on an excursion in Karasaki (in present Shiga Prefecture) in 815. This sencha is thought to be Chinese compressed tea, not sencha as it is today, in which tea leaves are steeped in hot water to extract the ingredients. By imperial order in 816, tea plantations were established in the Kinki region of Japan. However, interest in tea in Japan faded after this.
Matcha is generally believed to have been introduced to Japan from the Song Dynasty (China) by Zen monk Eisai in 1191, along with tea seeds. He wrote Kissa Yōjōki (喫茶養生記, lit. 'book of drinking tea for curing') and presented it to Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, in 1214. At that time, tea was considered a kind of medicine. The Kissa Yōjōki describes how tea was made in the Song dynasty as seen by Eisai. It states that tea leaves were plucked in the morning, steamed immediately, and then placed on a roasting rack to roast all night. This process is believed to have been introduced to Japan at that time, but the major difference is that today's matcha production process does not include a long roasting process, except for drying for about 30 minutes. The tea at that time was a brownish-black lump tea, not green like today's matcha. It is thought that this lump tea was powdered by a grinder and consumed as matcha.
The word matcha (抹茶) can be found in neither Chinese literature of the time nor Eisai's book. In Japan, the word "matcha" first appears in the Japanese language dictionary Unpo Iroha Shū (1548) compiled in the Muromachi period (1336–1573). The Book of Agriculture (1313) by Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333) of the Yuan dynasty contains the words mòchá (末茶) and mòzichá (末子茶), and there is a theory that these words came to be called "matcha" in Japan. However, this book was published about 100 years after Eisai, and no documents have been found to indicate whether those words were introduced to Japan and changed to matcha by the 16th century. Eisai's disciple, the monk Myōe (1173–1232), received a tea urn containing tea seeds from Eisai, sowed tea seeds in Togano'o, Kyoto, and opened a tea plantation. During the Kamakura period (1185–1333), Tsugano'o tea was called honcha (本茶, lit. 'real tea'), while teas from other regions were called hicha (非茶, lit. 'non-tea'). Tsugano'o tea gained the highest reputation. He also established tea plantations in Uji, Kyoto. Uji thus became the leading tea production area in Japan.
In Japan, matcha became an important item at Zen monasteries, and from the 14th through the 16th centuries, it was highly appreciated by members of the upper echelons of society. Until the 13th century, matcha was made by grinding tea leaves in a grinder called a yagen (薬研), but the particles were rough and coarse in texture; in the 14th century, a stone mill specialized for tea appeared and was used to grind tea leaves, resulting in finer particles and improved matcha quality. During the Muromachi period, tea spread to the common people. Among the upper classes, the act of drinking tea on expensive Chinese ceramics called karamono (唐物, lit. 'Tang Dynasty things') became popular. In the 16th century, however, simplicity was emphasized by tea masters such as Murata Jukō and Sen no Rikyū. By emphasizing introspection over boasting and obsession, the Japanese tea ceremony was born and developed, featuring tea served in rather simple utensils. The wabi-sabi aesthetic, which finds beauty in modesty, simplicity, and imperfection, came to be emphasized along with the tea ceremony.
It was conventionally believed that the method of growing tea plants in the shade by covering them with straw or reeds originated in Japan in the late 16th century. For example, the Portuguese missionary João Rodrigues Tçuzu, who came to Japan in 1577, wrote about shaded cultivation in his History of the Japanese Church (Historia da Igreja do Japão) in 1604. However, recent soil analyses of Uji tea plantations have revealed that it began in the first half of the 15th century at the latest.
This method, which was initiated to protect the sprouts from frost damage, resulted in the development of the unique Japanese matcha (tencha), which was bright green and had a unique aroma and flavor. By blocking sunlight, photosynthesis in tea leaves is inhibited, preventing the transformation of theanine, a component of umami, into tannins, the source of bitterness and astringency, resulting in the growth of tea leaves with a high umami content. It has also been reported that shaded cultivation increases the amount of chlorophyll within tea leaves, resulting in a bright green color. Until then, matcha tea introduced from China had been brown, just as brown is described as "the color of tea" (茶色) in Japan.
Since the Muromachi period, the term tea master (茶師, chashi) has been used to refer to a tea manufacturer and seller. In the Edo period (1603–1867), the term tea master came to refer specifically to the official tea masters (御用茶師, goyō chashi) of Uji, Kyoto, whose status was guaranteed by the Tokugawa shogunate. There were three ranks of Uji tea masters: gomotsu tea masters (御物茶師, gomotsu chashi), ofukuro tea masters (御袋茶師, ofukuro chashi), and otōri tea masters (御通茶師, otōri chashi). Uji tea masters were allowed to use their family names and carry swords at their waists like samurai, and they dealt exclusively with the shogun, the imperial court, and feudal lords, and did not sell tea to the common people. The shaded cultivation of tea was allowed only to Uji tea masters, and the production of high-grade matcha and gyokuro (high-grade sencha) was monopolized by the Uji tea masters.
The oldest known brand of matcha is Baba Mukashi (祖母昔, lit. 'grandmother's old days'). Grandmother was Myōshūni (妙秀尼, died 1598), daughter of Rokkaku Yoshikata, who married Kanbayashi Hisashige. She was called "Baba" (grandmother) by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Myōshūni excelled in tea making, and Ieyasu often enjoyed drinking her tea. The matcha made by her method was named Baba Mukashi, and later became the tea offered to the shogun. According to one theory, Baba Mukashi was named by Ieyasu. Other than Baba Mukashi, Hatsu Mukashi (初昔, lit. 'first old days') and Ato Mukashi (後昔, lit. 'later old days'), which were also presented to the shogun, were well-known brands of matcha. Taka no Tsume (鷹の爪, lit. 'hawk's claw') and Shiro (白, lit. 'white') brand teas were also well known.
At that time, matcha was shipped in tea jars filled with tencha in its leaf form, which was ground into a powdered form using a tea grinder. The event of transporting tea jars from Uji, Kyoto, to Edo (now Tokyo) to present to the shogun was called Ochatsubo Dōchū (御茶壺道中, lit. 'tea jar journey'), and even the lords had to stand by the road when the procession carrying the tea jars passed through the streets. The tradition lasted from 1633 to 1866 at the end of the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), Uji tea growers, who had monopolized the production of tencha under shaded cultivation, lost their privileged position. They also lost their business partners, such as the shoguns and feudal lords. On the other hand, shaded cultivation became possible outside of Uji. In the Taishō era (1912–1926), the invention of the "tencha dryer" promoted the mechanization of tea production.