Uji, Japan – If you love your matcha latte, you might want to sip it slowly—because your favorite green tea just got a lot more expensive!
Japan, the country famous for its high-quality matcha, is struggling to grow enough of it. Why? Because record-breaking heat last summer hurt the tea bushes, causing a big drop in the harvest this year.
🌡️ Blame It on the Heatwave
In places like Kyoto, where a lot of Japan’s tencha (the tea leaves that become matcha) is grown, super hot temperatures scorched the fields last summer. It was the hottest year in Japan’s history.
Farmer Masahiro Yoshida, who comes from a long line of tea growers, usually harvests 2 tons of tencha. But this year, he only got 1.5 tons.
“The bushes were damaged by the heat. We just couldn’t pick as many leaves,” Yoshida said from his little tea shop in Uji, just south of Kyoto.
💚 What Is Matcha and Why Do People Love It?
Matcha is a finely ground, bright green powder made from specially grown tea leaves. People love it for a bunch of reasons:
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It’s packed with antioxidants (great for health!)
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It gives a stronger energy boost than regular green tea
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It tastes delicious in lattes, smoothies, and desserts
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It looks cool in photos—so it’s popular on TikTok and Instagram
📈 Matcha Madness: Demand Goes Crazy
Matcha isn’t just a Japanese favorite anymore. People all over the world—especially millennials and Gen Z—are going wild for it.
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In cafes from New York to London to Singapore, matcha is a top seller.
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Viral videos made demand explode last fall.
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Some companies, like Tealife in Singapore, had to limit how much customers could buy.
Yuki Ishii, the founder of Tealife, said:
“Matcha demand grew 10 times bigger last year. And it’s still going up. But Japan is producing less and less.”
📉 Low Supply, High Prices
Japan made 5,336 tons of tencha in 2024, more than double what it made 10 years ago. That sounds like a lot, but it’s still not enough.
Worse, this year’s harvest didn’t go well, so there’s even less matcha to go around.
At a big auction in Kyoto, the price of tencha hit 8,235 yen per kilo. That’s:
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A 170% price jump in just one year
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The highest price ever
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Way more than the old record of 4,862 yen set back in 2016
💸 One U.S. tea buyer, Marc Falzon, said:
“Everyone hoped for a bigger harvest this year… but it didn’t happen.”
🌱 Can Farmers Grow More Matcha?
Farmers are trying! Many are planting new matcha bushes. But here’s the catch:
⏳ It takes 5 years before new tea bushes can be harvested.
So even if more matcha is growing soon, it won’t be ready until 2029. That means shortages and high prices will likely continue for the next few years.
“I think prices will get even higher,” said Falzon.
