The Latest Casualty of Social Media Hype Is Your Matcha Supply

New York Times

4 days ago

It was around midnight when Narita Naret received the alert, via the notification service she had paid for. The product she wanted was back in stock, and she knew that she had only minutes to act.
She rushed to open the website where the items were already in her shopping cart. Holding her breath, she clicked on the checkout button.
The screen loaded. Her purchase was successful.
Ms. Naret, 25, from Oregon, had not scored a pair of rare sneakers or a sought-after collectible. She had bought tea. Specifically: three small tins of high-quality matcha, the Japanese powdered green tea that has become scarce as a global craze snatches up the limited stock.
'It's the same as Labubus,' Ms. Naret said of the matcha she bought this month, referring to the cult key-ring dolls that collectors line up for — and occasionally get into fights over.
Matchahas been growing in popularity worldwide for years, particularly among health-conscious consumers because of its potential benefits. But in the past year, demand has surged to dizzying levels, according to people in the industry, who attribute it in large part to internet buzz. The interest has caught tea farmers, manufacturers and sellers off guard, and driven fierce competition online among aficionados and resellers.
'Everyone is demanding it, especially on social media — TikTok, Instagram, everywhere,' said Matthew Youn, the owner of Maison Koko, an Australian wholesaler and retailer that sells about 11 tons of matcha annually.
In recent years, he said, the company's revenue had typically grown by about 10 to 20 percent monthly, a healthy rate. But from the first to the second quarter this year, it tripled.
Supply has become so scarce, Mr. Youn said, that in May, he paid a million Australian dollars (more than $600,000) upfront to his suppliers in Japan to secure matcha for the next six months instead of paying weekly as he had done in the past.
Matcha, which originated in China but has become more closely associated with Japanese culture, comes from the same plant (Camellia sinensis) as other caffeinated teas. But it is shaded from excessive sunlight during its growing period, allowing it to develop more amino acids and biologically active compounds, like chlorophyll and theanine. Once the leaves are harvested, they are ground into a fine, bright green powder.
It is usually reserved for special occasions in Japan, but people in the industry say many overseas consumers have adopted it as an everyday drink. Experts say spike in demand since last year appears to have been driven in large part by the explosive buzz around matcha drinks on social media.
That has put immense pressure on limited supplies. In 2023, Japan only produced about 4,600 tons of tencha, the tea leaf that is ground into matcha, compared with more than 40,000 tons of sencha, the most commonly drunk loose-leaf green tea, according to government data.
Taking cues from social media, many overseas consumers are also seeking out the highest-quality matcha, which is traditionally used only in tea ceremonies, instead of culinary-grade matcha, which is cheaper and easier to produce, experts said.
The higher-grade matcha is time- and labor-intensive and only produced in small quantities, experts said. Farmers must handpick the tea leaves, which are dried and then ground in specialized stone mills that can each process less than two ounces of leaves per hour.
Social media seemed to be driving the idea that high-quality matcha should be used in everyday drinks, such as matcha lattes, but it was 'never intended to be a mass-market item,' said Agnes Balogh, the managing director of Sazen Tea, a retailer in Kyoto, Japan.
In September 2023, the company sold about 2,700 units of top-grade matcha grown in Uji, Japan's best-known tea-producing region, Ms. Balogh said. A year later, that monthly figure had more than quintupled, to nearly 14,000 units. Sazen Tea's website sells ceremonial-grade Uji matcha in small packages, with the largest containing 40 grams, or around 1.4 ounces.
'We simply can't keep up with the demand,' she said.
The retailer, which mostly sells to customers in the United States, has put limits on online orders. Otherwise, 'our entire monthly stock would sell out within a few hours,' Ms. Balogh said.
Signs that worldwide demand was straining Japan's matcha industry began to appear late last year, tea experts and sellers said, when a few popular brands began implementing buying limits, increasing prices or temporarily suspending sales.
At that point, the craze appeared to be focused on a few brands that had blown up on social media but generally, matcha was still available, said Anna Poain, director of the Global Japanese Tea Association, a Kyoto-based nonprofit that works to raise the profile of Japanese teas internationally.
But as fears spread of a wider shortage, she said, 'more and more people started to panic.' Demand rose even higher as buyers tried to stock up, and soon it became harder and harder to find in Japan.
Matcha lovers like Ms. Naret, who has been drinking it since she was in high school, are now struggling to obtain their favorite blends. To acquire a few, small one- or two-ounce tins from a coveted brand, they usually need to wait for a restock, which can happen irregularly and without warning and sell out within minutes. Paid notification services have sprung up, monitoring websites and sending out restock alerts.
The spring harvest this April and May has helped ease the shortage, but scarcity would likely return as the year goes on, worse than before, Ms. Poain said.
The industry is ill equipped to deal with the sudden change: Many of Japan's farms which produce tea leaf for matcha are small, family-run operations. The farmers tend to be older, since fewer young people want to enter the industry. And simply growing more tea isn't the answer, since it takes five years for new plants to mature.
The Japanese government has been encouraging tea farmers to switch their focus from other types of teas to matcha, but some are hesitant because they don't know how long its popularity will last, Ms. Poain said.
'Many people say it's here to stay, but who knows,' she said. 'Maybe it's just a trend, maybe it'll pass in five years. And building factories, et cetera, it's a risk. It's not that easily done.'