A crash course in all things matcha

Sometime in the last few years, coffee was dethroned as the caffeinated beverage of choice and the matcha latte is the new It Girl cafe order. In its bright green glory, the traditional Japanese green tea has become a social media icon and cultural phenomenon. In 2022, San Francisco-based brand, Jade Leaf, declared May 2 as the first-ever National Matcha Day—a date that aligns with Hachiju Hachiya, or “the 88th night,” which signals the start of the spring tea harvest in the traditional Japanese calendar. Tea farmers have treated this date as sacred for centuries, as the weather shifts just right for picking the season's best leaves. Jade Leaf’s matcha was produced by the Kizuna Tea Collective, a network of family run tea farms cultivating matcha and supplying markets since the 1800s. 

The fact that western consumers are celebrating a Japanese harvest tradition with a holiday that's only three years old is slightly on-brand for matcha in 2026. Because none of this is actually new—not the tea itself, not the health benefits, and not even the hype. It just took the Internet and the west some time to get there. 

Matcha has been around since the 12th Century, and according to lore, a Buddhist monk named Eisai brought powdered green tea seeds back from China and introduced them to Japan. His fellow monks discovered that the tea was excellent for staying alert during long, silent meditation sessions. You could even say that he was the first matcha influencer, popularizing it in Japan. The preparation—which involves whisking the green tea powder into hot water rather than the steeping leaves—eventually became the backbone of the Japanese tea ceremony, chanoyu, a ritual that was refined in the 15th and 16th centuries and sometimes still practiced today. In the 16th Century, Japanese farmers also began shading the tea plants before harvest, a technique that ramps up chlorophyll production (hence the distinct bright green) and boosts certain amino acids (hence the smooth umami flavor). The process, from growing the leaves, which requires specific temperatures for different flavor profiles, to getting the final product of dried, fine-ground matcha powder, is labor intensive with a pretty low yield of a high-quality product.

Matcha started making its way to the west and becoming popular in waves. Some attribute it to Haagen-Dazs introducing a green tea flavor to grocery store shelves in 1996, while others attribute it to Starbucks introducing their green tea frappucino in 2001. But it seems like in the 2020s, there has been a complete takeover in popularity. U.S. retail matcha sales have climbed 86 percent in just the past three years alone.

Some of that popularity is easy to explain: matcha is simply beautiful. But the photogenic drink also has some great health benefits—unlike coffee, which can make people anxious, while matcha actually does the opposite. Because of the presence of a naturally occurring amino acid called L-theanine in the green tea, the caffeine release is a bit slower. L-theanine is also responsible for a calm, focused feeling and the delicious umami flavor that some people describe as almost savory. Eisai and his fellow monks were onto something when they noted that it helps with calm focus. Beyond L-theanine, matcha is also notably rich in antioxidants—specifically catechins, a class of plant compounds that research has linked to reduced inflammation, better overall heart health, and lower blood pressure.

Matcha is also a canvas for amazing flavor combinations because of its distinct, savory complexity. What started as a carefully whisked ceremonial bowl has exploded into one of the most versatile flavor profiles worldwide. The lightly sweetened matcha latte is now a staple at independent coffee shops everywhere, especially as Starbucks is now seen as the inferior corporate alternative. The strawberry matcha, a layered drink with pastel pink and green stripes, has its own dedicated corner of social media, with hundreds of preparation videos. In bakeries, matcha's earthy and slightly bitter notes have found a natural home alongside decadent butter and sugar with matcha croissants, matcha cheesecake, and matcha tiramisu on the menu.

All of the demand is putting an already struggling supply chain under serious strain. Real matcha can only be produced in specific regions of Japan—in Uji, Nishio, and Kyushu, where the climate and soil conditions are ideal. Between 2000 and 2020, roughly four out of five Japanese tea farmers left the industry entirely, with climate change making the industry considerably more unpredictable. The tea-growing regions that produce the best matcha depend on cool, stable temperatures and rising heat and erratic weather are disrupting those conditions in ways that directly affect yield and flavor of the tea. U.S. tariffs have piled on top of those pressures. Japanese matcha now carries a 15 percent import tariff, and the import tariff for Chinese matcha, which is used widely by larger chains, is 37.5 percent.

That's not a reason to stop enjoying it, especially on National Matcha Day, but it is a reason to be thoughtful about how we do it. Seeking out matcha from Japanese-owned producers, learning something about what's actually in your cup, and appreciating the craft and history behind it rather than just admiring the color of your drink might feel like small things, but they matter.