What Is Matcha?

What Matcha Actually Is

Matcha is a finely ground powder of green tea leaves that are grown in the shade and stone-milled, rather than steeped and strained. That's the core difference from ordinary green tea: with brewed tea, only the compounds that dissolve into the water end up in the cup and the leaf itself is discarded; with matcha, the powder stays suspended and the whole leaf is consumed.

Why Shading Changes the Leaf

About two to three weeks before harvest, the tea bushes are covered to block sunlight. The plant compensates by producing more chlorophyll, which is why matcha's color is a deep, vivid green rather than the duller tone of unshaded tea.

Shading also slows the breakdown of theanine into the tannins that cause bitterness, while raising free amino acid and caffeine content and lowering polyphenol (catechin) levels. The practical result is a leaf that tastes less astringent and more umami-forward than standard green tea.

From Tencha to Powder: Why Milling Is Slow

After shading, the leaves are briefly steamed to halt oxidation, then dried at a much lower leaf temperature than the drying chamber itself reaches. Stems and veins are removed, leaving the flat leaf known as tencha, which is aged for months in cool, dry storage before milling.

Stone mills are deliberately turned slowly in cooled rooms, because the heat of faster grinding would degrade the powder's color and flavor. Fineness and freshness are prioritized over speed.

Whisked Preparation: Usucha, Koicha and Everyday Use

Traditionally, matcha is sifted into a bowl (chawan), mixed with hot water, and whisked with a bamboo chasen. Usucha ("thin tea") uses a lower ratio of matcha with water around 90°C and is whisked to a froth to soften astringency. Koicha ("thick tea") uses higher-grade matcha at a richer ratio with water around 80°C, kneaded rather than frothed.

Beyond the tea ceremony, matcha now flavors sweets, ice cream and drinks worldwide — though many of those products substitute a cheaper, color-additive powder for genuine shade-grown matcha, and the widely used "ceremonial" versus "culinary" grade labels aren't an official classification.

Why Imitation "Matcha" Is So Common

Japan's own standard excludes cheap powder made by crushing non-shade-grown leaves (hunmatsucha) from the definition of matcha, yet such powder is still sometimes sold under the matcha name. The difference is entirely in the production method, and a package label doesn't always reflect it.

Part of the reason is supply pressure: genuine production is labor-intensive, milling capacity is limited, and the number of tea farmers is shrinking — all of which strain the supply of authentic shade-grown matcha as global demand keeps rising.