Matcha “It’s Not Rocket Science”: production process from leaf to bowl

How is matcha made?

What is matcha tea? How is it produced?

During my annual trips to Japan to visit organic tea producers, I had the opportunity to visit dozens of tea gardens and production sites throughout the archipelago.

When you look into premium grade matcha tea, you realize that its production process is almost always the same, yet still fascinating.

In truth, it has not really changed since the creation of matcha tea, despite the industrialization and modernization of agriculture.

In this article, I will explain in detail all the steps involved in producing premium grade matcha tea, from leaf to bowl!

Tea plants are covered for 2 to 3 weeks around mid-April.

Tea plants are covered to gradually reduce their exposure to sunlight and prevent photosynthesis.

The new leaves become larger and thinner to better capture light, they are very tender and their colour is vibrant green.

Knowing what happens when tea plants are covered.

Harvesting usually takes place in early May.

Only the first two leaves of each stem are harvested for superior quality tea. It is therefore necessary to pick it by hand because the older leaves, which have been more exposed to the sun than the young leaves, must be separated.

Today, certain harvesters can achieve results similar to hand-picking, but tea crops intended for matcha tea are mainly harvested without the help of machines.

In this video, you view schoolchildren participating in the tea harvest. You can see that they are wearing their sports uniforms. Normally, it is mainly elderly women who do the picking.

Click on the play button to view schoolchildren harvesting tea (5:50).

In the next video, you can view how the combine harvester works. Mechanization is advancing in Japan as labor costs have increased, and portable harvesters are 60% more efficient than harvesting by hand.

Click on the play button to view the harvest with the harvester (7:47)

Traditionally, there is only one spring harvest per year, and the tea plants are cut back to prepare them for the next year's harvest. However, some producers may have two or three harvests per year.

The tea leaves are processed into tencha - 碾茶

Tencha is the raw material used to make matcha tea. When it is ground, it becomes what is known as matcha.

Click on the play button to view the factory tour (11:04).

Even though machines are used and the tea travels on conveyor belts, the processing techniques have not changed for hundreds of years.

• Ventilation (送風) and humidification (加湿): if fresh leaves are left too long, they begin to ferment. Humid air is sent over the leaves to preserve their quality and freshness.
• Steaming (蒸熱): the leaves are steamed for about 20 seconds to stop oxidation and give them the desired colour and aroma.
• Stirring (攪拌) and cooling (冷却): the leaves are cooled immediately to prevent their colour and aroma from deteriorating. They are placed in a kind of butterfly cage 5 to 7 metres long where cold air is blown. The leaves separate from each other.
• Preliminary drying (荒乾燥) and main drying (本乾燥): the leaves are transported on a conveyor belt through an oven with several levels of different temperatures; the process takes about half an hour.
• Separation of the leaf and stems (つり切り): the leaves are almost completely dry, but there is still moisture in the stem part. The stem and veins are separated from the rest of the leaf.
• Second drying (再乾燥): the stems and veins are put back in the oven to dry them completely, then separated one last time with air.
• Packaging (梱包): the leaves are packaged in rigid paper bags weighing approximately 15kg.

Japan's first brick kiln, invented in Uji 91 years ago.

Tencha is sold to distributors who create their own matcha tea by blending it.

It is most often the matcha distributors who select and blend several tencha to create a blend. They seek to reproduce consistent quality and taste for each harvest.

The blending is carried out by a tea master, or chashi (茶師).

Tea producers always use a black table and black dishes to compare teas more easily.

Essentially, it is a combination of three types of tencha. Here is how we choose them.

For the first, we choose a flavoursome tea, but one that lacks colour once ground.

For the second, we take a tea whose colour is vibrant, but whose taste and aroma are not ideal.

And for the third, we choose a tea with an excellent aroma, but which lacks flavor and does not have the most beautiful colour.

By combining the qualities of these three teas, we obtain a blend that possesses the three essential characteristics of a premium matcha tea: aroma, flavour, and colour.

Up to 4, 5, or even 6 different tenchas can be combined depending on the desired result.

These wooden boxes are used to store tencha. They are called chabako (茶箱).

Next, the tencha is refrigerated until it is ready to be ground. Once matcha has been ground, it oxidizes more quickly because the tea particles are more exposed to the air. On the contrary, when tencha is stored, it can improve with age while retaining its freshness—like a good wine.

Tokuya-san, for example, offers us his natural matcha that he harvested two years ago. By allowing it to mature, the tea has a more complex, rounder taste. Its aromas have developed.

Tencha is ground into matcha shortly before consumption to preserve its freshness.

Tencha is ground into powder using a granite mill (茶臼) before being sold.

The tencha is placed between two granite stones and the top stone is rotated, spreading the tea outwards and transforming it into matcha.

Today, the process has been mechanized, but the use of machines has not sped up production: inside the mills, the temperature can rise to 50ºC. If the temperature is too high, the matcha degrades. Thus, the maximum grinding speed for matcha is 30 to 40g per hour per mill.

The matcha is then packaged in boxes or pouches and sent to our warehouses in Paris.

All that's left to do is conduct a tasting!

Although industrial mills can produce matcha of consistent quality, their yield is similar to that of "traditional" mills.

All that labour for... 30g of tea?

Although matcha tea production is a simple process, it requires considerable resources and time. Industrialization has reduced the labor required for its manufacture, but certain steps, such as grinding, cannot be edited without compromising production quality.

This is why premium grade matcha tea remains and will always be considered a luxurious and precious product, both in Japan and in the West.

That's also why I am committed to offering matcha of impeccable quality, and why I continue to visit the tea gardens and factories of our partner farmers every year.

=> Now: Visit our matcha tea collection and enjoy free delivery on orders over €49..