Matcha

Matcha

Matcha is finely ground powder of a specially grown and processed leaf from the green tea tree, or Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia. Due to its ability to produce calm alertness an almost religious ceremony called “The Way of Tea” was built around it.

History

The origins of matcha can be traced back to the seventh century Chinese Tang dynasty that began steaming tea leaves and grinding them into powdered bricks to make their tea harvest easy to transport for trade.

The spread of matcha into Japan is largely attributed to a 12^th century Zen Buddhist monk by the name of Eisa, who spent the better part of his life studying Buddhism in China. When he returned to Japan in 1191 he brought with him tea seeds and the Zen Buddhist methods of preparing matcha.

In the 1500s the Zen Master Sen-no-Rikyu developed the Japanese Teas Ceremony called Chado, or “The Way of Tea”. Rikyu elevated the ritual of drinking tea to an almost religious ceremony with rules and fundamentals meant to help improve one’s life. Many of the prescribed behaviors used in contemporary Japanese tea ceremonies were introduced by Rikyu.

Harvest

Twenty days before they are harvested to make matcha, the leaves of tea bushes are covered to eliminate direct sunlight which causes the leaves to turn a darker shade of green and increase the production of theanine. Only the finest buds are hand-picked before they are dried, deveined, and stone-ground into a fine powder.

Anatomy

The green tea tree that us used to make matcha is an evergreen shrub that grown around seven feet tall, has a strong taproot, and is covered in two to six inch long vibrant green leaves. The young leaves which are most desirable for tea making are a light green an turn a deeper green with age.

Etymology

Matcha is directly borrowed from the Japanese language and derives from the combination of two Japanese words matsu, which means to rub, and cha, the word for tea.