Matcha isn’t just a trendy green swirl in your latte anymore—it’s now a global craving with consequences. In fact, demand for the powdered Japanese green tea has grown so explosively that it’s outpacing supply, leading to widespread shortages and rising prices.
For years, social media, particularly TikTok, has fueled the West’s fascination with matcha, positioning it as a photogenic, antioxidant-rich alternative to coffee. At the same time, post-pandemic tourism in Japan has reached record-breaking levels, putting added pressure on local tea producers to meet both domestic and international demand.
Now, even legacy tea producers are waving the white flag. Two of Japan’s most renowned matcha makers, Ippodo and Marukyu Koyamaen, have been forced to limit sales. Marukyu’s website still carries a message warning customers that all matcha products will be restricted for the foreseeable future.
And the problem isn’t just popularity—it’s biology. Matcha is made from tencha, a specially shaded tea leaf that accounts for just 6% of all Japanese tea production. Even if every farmer in the country pivoted to growing matcha, the plant’s sensitivity to climate means quality harvests can’t simply be scaled up on demand.
This spring, the prized Kyoto region experienced a particularly hot and dry harvest season, resulting in a “high-quality but lower-yielding harvest,” according to Brooklyn-based Kettl Tea founder Zach Mangan. Great for flavor. Bad for availability.
As a result, prices are spiking. The average cost of tencha in April hit 8,235 yen per kilogram, which is roughly 1.7 times more than last year. The Japanese agriculture ministry reports that production is up 2.5x since 2014, but it’s still nowhere near enough.
In short: the matcha boom isn’t slowing down, but the shelves might be. If you’ve got a tin in your pantry, you may want to savor it.
Source: Time