This is the latest drink du jour – For those who need to pick me up in the morning, matcha is increasingly beating espresso as their caffeine of choice.
“I worked at the bar a few weeks ago and I think after a certain point you not only skip the milk, but don’t pull the gun. Everything you do is matcha,” said Nadiia Semenichenko, regional manager of Toronto’s cafes and bars.
Since the fall, the demand for fine powder tea (often from Japan, bright with its vivid green and earthy flavor, and with its vivid green and earthy flavor) has disappeared, thanks largely to the influential legion sworn in on social media and promoting millions of views in social media and viral videos, the experts addressed CBC News.
However, this enthusiasm shocked Matcha’s exquisite supply chain and ultimately led to global shortages, which put pressure on the Japanese tea industry to increase production of scarce commodities.
Semenichenko’s Cafe has sought new suppliers to meet demand and pointed out how much matcha can one of the cafes buy per month.
“By the end of this year, we will definitely feel the price of matcha has risen sharply,” she said, referring to the cost of cafes.
Those who follow the Japanese tea industry say it’s only a matter of time before customers who love foam and green drinks are hit hard by severe prices.
Exploding global demand for high-flavored products has enabled Japanese suppliers to work hard to keep up, raise prices and lead to a shortage of ground green tea powder.
Sudden shortage
Matcha is made from Tencha, a green tea leaf that is shaded growing – giving it a stronger flavor and a darker color – in steamed, dried, destined and through a milling machine to produce powder.
The highest grade matcha was harvested in spring for Japanese tea rituals. It passes through a stone factory, making it a process of time and resources, producing only a small amount of final products.
Semenichenko says using etiquette matcha as a roasting ingredient, or in a latte like “if you buy a really expensive whiskey and put it in whiskey and coke.”
But when demand for matcha rose sharply last fall, people were suddenly anxious to buy a premium version of the product. “Even Japanese tea schools, I suddenly couldn’t find the matcha they would normally buy,” said Anna Poian, co-founder of the Global Japan Tea Association.
Some of Japan’s most popular matcha brands, including Ippodo Tea, Yamasan and Marukyu Koyamaen, have apologized notes to their customers and announced that they will have to limit the amount and type of matcha products they will sell to buyers.
At the time, the producers of Matcha “didn’t really face a real shortage, but they didn’t think of much demand.”
But the fierce attack on viral videos related to matgao, coupled with the record-breaking tourism industry of Japan’s weak yen, people shouted out tea, which ultimately led to existing supply and production shortages.
Now, the craze has stimulated major coffee shops and restaurant chains to strengthen Matcha’s products so they can cash out too.
Matcha drinks have been offered at most Starbucks locations for years, but the coffee giant added a specialty set of matcha drinks last summer. Matcha is on the menus of Booster Juice, Tim Hortons and McDonalds, although those companies did not respond when asked when they were added.
Large retailers are also not immune to shortages. A spokesman told CBC News that the second cup added another matcha latte in April, which recently dealt with delays in receiving the matcha supply.
Change the trend of Japan’s tea industry
The shortage is also a product of changes in Japan’s domestic tea industry over the past two decades.
In the country, both tea consumption and production are declining, and its tea population is aging, and few successors take over.
“They don’t see much future because the Japanese tea industry has been declining for the past 15 to 20 years due to the reduction in local consumption,” Poian explained.
Instead, Japanese tea exports to other countries are rising. According to data from industry groups, in April 2025, the total export volume of Japanese tea increased by 85.7% from the previous month.
A Global Affairs spokesman told CBC News that Canada’s own green tea ingestion from Japan has increased by 118%.
According to Poian, matcha accounts for only six percent of Japan’s total tea production. “More and more farmers are moving and focusing on matcha, but it’s not an easy transition,” she said.
Matcha is also produced in countries such as China and Vietnam, but the Japanese version is considered high-quality. According to reports, the Japanese government’s Ministry of Agriculture is to increase the production of matcha in the export market, suggesting farmers replace their Sencha (another green tea leaf) with Tencha.
Jason Eng, head of business development and partnerships at Kametani Tea, a TEA production company based in Nara, Japan, said the transition was not easy, even for an experienced workforce in the industry.
“Many of these farmers don’t have the resources to upgrade all the machines or replace them completely. So the investment is expensive,” he said.
Kametani Tea exports about 25 to 30% of its products to international beverage companies, suppliers and wholesalers, and will have to raise prices once the next harvest is ready. These price shocks will eventually drip into coffee shops who like matcha consumers.
“I think it will be really hard to digest for consumers as demand surges,” he said.
‘It’s just sold out’
After the taste of matcha has developed, Cheena Lerum began posting recipe videos on its Tiktok account. But, Toronto content creators noticed earlier this year that she gained more views when she offered advice on buying and sourced matcha.
“Did you know that when I was brewing tea a few years ago, I was really famous?” she said, referring to the Taiwanese tea that was popular in the mid-2010s. “Matcha has become that now.”
Lerum, who has nearly 30,000 followers on the platform, said she has always believed she has contributed to the matcha shortage. She now posts about tea on social media, partly because she can’t find a product she likes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apbdpzfnpdo
“They said don’t keep the door, but sometimes there are some brands you like, and then it gets too popular and it’s sold out,” Lerum explained. She also noticed the price increase: 30 grams of matcha powder she used to buy online for $35 now costs nearly $50, she said.
Back at the cafe, some customers are applying matcha lattes. “I found this to be a better alternative to coffee,” said Danielle Pineda, who said matcha energized her without giving her the same coffee. She has her own matcha and often drinks at home.
Tommy Tanga, another client of the cafe, said he found matcha to be reasonably priced at the moment—a coffee shop order usually costs around $5 to $7, depending on the type of beverage. It has been his first choice since he tried it on his trip to Japan.
“I’m worried that it will get more expensive,” he said.
