THE bubble tea craze of the 2010s has been rivalled by the current popularity of matcha. Specifically, the drink made from powdered green tea that is produced using a unique cultivation and processing method involving shading the tea plants before harvest.
Although matcha has been around for centuries, it is believed that it was not always cultivated the way it is today.
Is it true that the method of growing tea that led to the matcha that we know today was discovered by accident?
VERDICT:
True
Japan was first introduced to the ritual of preparing and drinking powdered tea by Buddhist monks, who regarded the beverage as a precious medicine, leading people to adopt the practice for its health benefits.
Japanese farmers who wanted to cultivate their own tea in their homeland would cover their plants with reed and straw during winter to shield them from frost. They quickly noticed that the shaded leaves gained a deeper colour and more enriched flavour compared to regular tea leaves.
This shade-growing method encourages the leaves to produce more chlorophyll and amino acids. This gives matcha its distinctive bright green colouration and umami (savoury) flavour. Additionally, when it is time to harvest, only the buds and the top few layers of the tea plant’s shoots are collected.
The name matcha was derived from two Japanese words, “matsu,” meaning “to paint”, and “cha,” meaning “tea.”
This fortunate discovery laid the foundation for oishita-style cultivation, which is essential to modern matcha production.
Today, the qualifications for any tea to be labelled as matcha are set and upheld by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association.
Because of such exacting standards, true matcha is among the most expensive kinds of teas on the market. However, ‘false matcha’ or hunmatsucha, which is made from non-shade-grown tea leaves, is still sometimes sold under the name of matcha!
References:
https://www.britannica.com/
https://www.matchaeologist.
https://breakawaymatcha.com/
