Matcha

During the Tang and Song dynasties, mocha (末茶), powdered tea whisked into hot water, was a staple of Chinese tea culture. It was especially favored by Buddhist monks, who would sometimes whisk images into the foam during ceremonies. To prepare the tea, steamed leaves were compressed into cakes, roasted, ground into a fine powder, and whisked into water.

In the late 1100s, the Japanese monk Eisai brought this style of tea from China to Japan. He planted tea seeds in Uji, near Kyoto, which remains the spiritual home of matcha to this day. Over the following centuries, powdered tea became deeply intertwined with Japanese culture and Zen Buddhism. The Japanese tea ceremony was later refined and codified by Sen no Rikyū during the 1500s.

Around this time, Japanese farmers began shading tea plants for several weeks before harvest. This process increases chlorophyll and amino acid content—particularly L-theanine—giving matcha its vibrant green color, rich umami flavor, and characteristic sweetness. The shaded leaves are processed into tencha (碾茶), which is then stone-ground into matcha.

Meanwhile, powdered tea gradually disappeared from China. After the Hongwu Emperor banned compressed tea cakes in 1391, loose-leaf tea became the standard, and the tradition of powdered tea largely faded. In Japan, however, the practice continued to evolve, preserving matcha as a central part of Japanese tea culture.

Beginning in the 2010s, matcha experienced a surge in global popularity because of its vibrant green color, distinctive flavor, and versatility in drinks and desserts. While this has introduced millions of people to tea, it has also driven up prices, strained production, and shifted much of matcha consumption away from traditional usucha, koicha, and the Japanese tea ceremony toward lattes and other modern preparations.