On a trip to Japan in early November, Erica Lee, a TikTok creator, had one main goal: to get matcha powder. A novice matcha drinker, Lee travels to Japan often and always buys one or two tins. “They expire very fast,” she says.
This time though, it was harder than usual to find the matcha she was looking for. Shops were sold out or had signs about limited capacity or matcha items being unavailable. Unable to get straight matcha powder from the suppliers she wanted, Lee resorted to sweetened matcha latte mix — not quite the same, but convenient.
In recent months, other matcha-seekers visiting Japan have been having a similar experience. Another TikTok video shows a sign at a tea shop that reads: “It is currently very difficult to buy matcha.” Too much matcha was sold from June to September, the sign states. “POV: The girls have caused a matcha shortage in Japan,” says text overlaid onto the video. Even those who aren’t traveling to Japan may be feeling the effects, with some in-demand matcha brands out of stock, facing long delays online, or experiencing higher mark-ups, and some online sellers also setting limits on how much matcha customers can buy.
Within Japan, matcha consumption has been on the decline, dropping from 1,174 grams per household in 2001 to 844 grams in 2015, which some experts have attributed to matcha’s association with cultural tea ceremonies over everyday cafe culture. But in the United States and around the world, interest is only rising, with matcha lattes becoming fixtures of specialty cafe menus. In the US, matcha sales have reportedly reached in excess of $10 billion over the past 25 years. That demand has been steadily growing over the last decade, but thanks to social media — particularly, the niche of #MatchaTok — it’s seen a recent, sudden spike. Now, the matcha industry is struggling to keep up.
Matcha is, by no means, completely sold out in Japan. However, “there has been a run on several matcha producers, mainly in the Uji area outside Kyoto,” says Zach Mangan, owner of the Brooklyn-based tea company Kettl. On a recent trip to Uji, he spoke to representatives from Marukyu Koyamaen, a major matcha supplier with both a cafe and retail presence. “They did roughly six months of sales in a little less than a month,” Mangan says. As of this writing, every pure matcha powder on Marukyu Koyamaen’s international online store is listed as sold out.
Matcha begins as shade-grown tea leaves known as tencha, and the highest-grade tencha leaves are harvested only once a year, typically between mid-April and the end of May, explains Mangan. “It’s not like it’s just growing there and you can do another harvest real quick,” he says. Changes in climate are starting to reshape production, Mangan adds. While tea used to grow more slowly and more predictably, Japan’s warmer climate means harvests are less predictable now, both in terms of yield and in terms of labor needs.
While a surplus of tencha can be stored in refrigeration for years, this year’s demand “quickly depleted existing stocks,” the Japan-based tea company Sazen explained in a blog post. The company also notes that the milling facilities needed to turn tencha into matcha also hit their capacity this year, since many are small businesses and not large factories. At least four manufacturers that Sazen works with are experiencing supply shortages over their “entire matcha portfolio” and have suspended sales. To Sazen, this shortage signals the need for manufacturers to increase production and stockpile tencha.
Matcha’s growing global popularity as a casually drunk beverage, as opposed to something ceremonial, has also “come back full circle into Japan” and driven an uptick in domestic interest, Mangan says.
Mangan speculates that the current demand for matcha will lead to changes in how matcha is priced and allocated (with producers who are focusing on one level of quality potentially moving to a different one). Though Mangan currently feels confident about Kettl’s supply chain for matcha, he acknowledges that some of their offerings are sold out. For certain products, “no matter how much we pray or hope that there’ll be more, there’s limits,” he says. Part of the work is educating customers that “they’re not Amazon products that you just have all year,” he says.
Within #MatchaTok, the shortage has spurred some controversy. Marukyu Koyamaen, for example, features prominently in “matcha haul” videos. In one, uploaded in October, creator Meredith Mao, who is known for her matcha reviews, writes that her haul of powders and matcha-flavored foods required both an extra-large suitcase and a carry-on bag to bring home. Matcha is significantly cheaper in Japan, especially with the current exchange rate, and defenders of high-volume buying point to the fact that it can be challenging to get ahold of some matcha in small quantities locally in the US.
But to some people, hauls like these highlight bad behavior within the matcha community. “I feel bad for all the people who were excited to buy some and couldn’t because of your overconsumption,” reads one comment on Mao’s video. This has led to blaming and harassment of creators who are known for their gratuitous matcha drinking.
Critics often point to matcha’s shelf life. Because matcha is milled, unlike other types of tea, it has greater exposer to light and moisture, putting it at risk for oxidizing. Though this can be mitigated by buying well-packaged matcha and storing it in the fridge, “I still wouldn’t recommend having a year’s supply,” Mangan says; about three months’ worth, stored properly, is more reasonable.
Of course, with some producers less affected than others, the current shortage could also push shoppers toward trying different, less TikTok-hyped matcha options. “From my perspective, of the two [situations], where you have the tragedy of no one buying tea in Japan and there’s plenty of room for people to process because there isn’t demand — and now, understanding what it means [for matcha processing] to be challenged by higher demand,” Mangan says. “I would say the higher demand is the positive of the two scenarios.”
