{"id":62314,"date":"2025-08-06T09:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/62314\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T09:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:48:14","slug":"matcha-faces-shortage-higher-prices-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/62314\/","title":{"rendered":"Matcha faces shortage, higher prices, tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your midday matcha latte is getting more expensive and harder to come by as supply shortages and skyrocketing demand squeeze caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Matcha, the bright green powder swirled into drinks, ice cream and pastries, has soared in popularity over the last few years, fueled by social media and a post-pandemic tourism boom in Japan.<\/p>\n

But Japan\u2019s supply is drying up with record heat and a shortage of tea farmers, spiking prices that could rise even more with new 15% tariffs on Japanese imports into the United States. Tea experts say true matcha is only grown and produced in Japan. The shortage has made it harder for caf\u00e9s to get matcha.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally when we order our powder, it should take about one month to two months,\u201d said Alfred Chan, manager and co-founder of Urban Matcha, a Las Vegas caf\u00e9 that opened in 2023. \u201cBut right now it takes over about six months to get to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matcha comes from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. The plant was brought from China to Japan around 750 CE, according to Rebecca Corbett, a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Southern California. But, she said, matcha itself wasn\u2019t made in Japan until around 1250 CE and eventually came to only be produced there.<\/p>\n

\"AA tea ceremony class by Yumiko Takada on Nov. 2, 2014, in Tokyo. Lisa Maree Williams \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Matcha making is a specialized art: A traditional cup involves grinding shade-grown tea leaves into a fine powder, then mixing that powder into hot water with a bamboo whisk. The drink is used in Japanese tea ceremonies and appreciated for its apparent health benefits, with some evidence<\/a> that matcha could help lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and improve concentration.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople do like the health benefits of matcha, and that\u2019s not new,\u201d Corbett said. \u201cIn the 1200, 1300s, people in Japan were talking about that and promoting drinking matcha as a cure for hangovers, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, matcha\u2019s a global sensation, with customers waiting in long lines at caf\u00e9s to get their hands on a cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get matcha all the time,\u201d said Emma Willingham, a customer at Matcha Cafe Maiko in New York City. \u201cEvery time someone else is getting coffee, I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, give me the matcha.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Tea experts say social media helped fuel the matcha craze, with people posting their colorful creations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look on Instagram and TikTok, the bright green color of matcha, it\u2019s very visually appealing,\u201d Corbett said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s also the cool Japan factor, the sort of aesthetics of trendy minimalism. It\u2019s all being packaged around matcha.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tourism in Japan has climbed over the last few years, with a record-breaking 36.9 million people visiting in 2024<\/a>, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization and the Japan Tourism Agency. Some of those travelers have returned home with bags full of matcha.<\/p>\n

The demand has gotten so high that some Japanese companies have begun to limit<\/a> the amount of matcha people can buy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just high demand parching the industry \u2014 it\u2019s also limited supply. The number of tea farmers has dropped dramatically over the past couple decades: Between 2000 and 2020, 4 out of every 5 tea producers or farmers stopped making tea, according to the Global Japanese Tea Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of people to care for the fields,\u201d said Lauren Purvis, president and CEO of Mizuba Tea Co., which works with Japanese producers to sell matcha and other teas online and to coffee shops. \u201cAs the farmers get older, there\u2019d be tea fields being abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Record heat also hurt this spring\u2019s harvest in Japan. Purvis said some farmers are reporting their harvest was down 20% to 30% from last year due to heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a couple years ago, we were really worried about Japanese tea existing, and now everybody wants it,\u201d Purvis said. \u201cWe were just dealing with abandoned fields, and now Japan can\u2019t make enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to scale up production: Only a tiny fraction of Japan\u2019s land can be farmed, and experts say making matcha is time-consuming. Purvis said some farmers are working to convert their fields to make more tencha, the leaves used to make matcha, but that takes time.<\/p>\n

Right now, the supply of matcha is not enough to quench global thirst as matcha companies like Purvis\u2019 Mizuba Tea say they\u2019re running out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got our 1,000 units in, and it\u2019s just like, poof, they\u2019re out the door,\u201d Purvis said.<\/p>\n

Kettl, a company selling Japanese teas online and in its New York and Los Angeles caf\u00e9s, has had record sales as matcha flies off the shelves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen extreme demand,\u201d Zach Mangan, founder of Kettl, said. \u201cRecently 200 tins went up, and they were gone in about 16 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shops like Kettl are spending more than ever on some of their matcha options. Mangan said most of Kettl\u2019s suppliers doubled their prices from last year \u2014 and the company has had to pass some of those added costs on to consumers. He is worried Kettl will need to raise prices even more with the new 15% tariffs on Japanese goods.<\/p>\n

\"IceGetty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were just 15%, and the shortage wasn\u2019t causing the demand and the increase in prices, we might be able to just say, \u2018Whatever, we\u2019ll take care of it,\u2019\u201d Mangan said. \u201cBut it makes it more complicated when you\u2019re factoring both the tariffs and the increase in raw material costs in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. consumers are already shelling out more for their matcha lattes. The lattes are averaging $6.15 a cup, according to payment processing company Square, up from $5.84 last year.<\/p>\n

While U.S. consumers are pulling back on spending at major food chains like McDonald\u2019s, Chipotle and Wendy\u2019s, they are pouring more money into beverages. Sales at U.S. beverage chains are forecast to grow by 4.5% this year, according to food research company Technomic.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have this sort of little bit of barbell effect of super cheap, no bells and whistles, and then go all-out on that one-time experience instead of maybe a continuous type of spend,\u201d said Ming-Tai Huh, head of food and beverage at Square.<\/p>\n

Even as matcha prices rise, he expects consumers will keep buying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a flavor that\u2019s both attractive in color, in flavor, in health,\u201d Huh said, \u201cand those are just good recipes for a long-standing success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your midday matcha latte is getting more expensive and harder to come by as supply shortages and skyrocketing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-62314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}