HomeAfter the leaves are plucked, dried, and ground, they will turn into the finest matcha. But not all matcha is the same. The greener matcha is, the smoother and more complex its flavor. High-quality, jade green matcha can cost 20 times as much as pale green matcha. And while this bright green powder takes a few seconds to dissolve in water, it takes an entire year to grow the plant it comes from. So, what makes ceremonial-grade matcha so exceptional? And why is it so expensive? Matcha at its highest quality is referred to as ceremonial-grade because of the central role it plays in Japanese tea ceremonies. Lower-quality matcha, also called culinary-grade matcha, can be made sweet with sugar and cream in desserts, but in its tea form, it’s very bitter. Jintaro is a sixth-generation matcha producer. He runs a 180-year-old tea farm, one of the oldest in Uji, Japan, a city with a centuries-old tea history. Narrator: In spring, they sprout young, tender leaves, and that’s the sign that matcha season has begun. To make matcha, he only needs the very first leaves of the plant. It’s there that there’s a higher concentration of nutrients, and they will make the best-quality tea. At peak harvest, collecting leaves can take hours. But the reason why the plants are in the shade is not to protect those plucking them from the sun, but to protect the plants themselves. Extensive exposure to sunlight develops bitterness in the leaves. Blocking the sunlight preserves their flavor and gives them a bright green color. Before harvest in the spring, the plants spend 30 to 40 days in the shade. Jintaro uses rice-straw panels to shade his plants, a method that’s become extremely rare among tea farmers. Most farmers now use plastic nets. They’re more convenient and can be reused. Narrator: Jintaro’s plants spend double the time in the shade of what is recommended to make matcha, which is 20 days. While plants that make lower grades of matcha are harvested two or three times a year, ceremonial-grade matcha is made from plants that have been plucked only once. After an entire day of picking, Jintaro’s work is just getting started. Narrator: The first step of processing the leaves is steaming. Steaming locks in the flavor and preserves their bright green color. But most of all, it prevents oxidation, which would turn them into black tea. After steaming, the leaves go into this leaf spreader, a series of four mesh tubes where they’re rapidly cooled by the wind. This eliminates the water on the leaves and prepares them for the next step, drying. The tea leaves at Jintaro’s farm are dried using a 97-year-old furnace, which gives them a unique roasted aroma. After drying, the stems are removed and the leaves are sorted. Leaves up until this point are called tencha, and they will only become matcha after they’re turned into a green powder. But before doing that, Jintaro usually tastes the unrefined leaves. He’s very critical of his work. Ceremonial-grade matcha is ground using a stone mill. It’s designed to grind counterclockwise only. This traditional method grinds a fine powder that preserves the nutrients of the leaf, but it’s very slow. It takes Jintaro an entire hour to grind just 40 grams of matcha. With an automated crusher, that would happen in seconds. The matcha stone mills are some of the most traditional instruments in Japan. They’re made of granite and are entirely hand-carved. Just one of these stone mills can cost over $1,300. It grinds the matcha into a fine, glossy powder. But once matcha is ground, the fragrance slowly disappears and becomes more delicate. So Jintaro usually grinds it one more time before selling it. Ceremonial-grade matcha contains a higher level of an antioxidant called catechin and more chlorophyll than other green teas. This is as a result of the shading process and the slow grinding. While the Japanese public has long been familiar with the distinction between ceremonial-grade and culinary-grade matcha, it’s relatively new to the rest of the world. But matcha’s popularity has been soaring. In 2020, the global matcha market was worth $3 billion, and it’s expected to exceed $5.5 billion by 2027. In the last 10 years, exports of matcha from Japan have doubled. Compared to 30 years ago, they’ve quadrupled. But these numbers barely refer to ceremonial-grade matcha. The lower costs of production, faster turnaround, and the ability to harvest leaves up to three times a year have made culinary-grade matcha a more popular choice for farmers. In Uji, only 60 families are left growing ceremonial-grade matcha. For Jintaro, taking over the family business wasn’t an obvious choice. Once all this year’s young leaves are picked and ground into matcha powder, Jintaro will spend the fall pruning the trees, plowing, and fertilizing the soil. Come winter, he will weave the rice straw to shade his plants, and new leaves will sprout again, ready to be turned into matcha.
