With a vibrant green hue and earthy undertones, refreshing drinks using matcha have recently gained popularity among 28% of MVHS students, according to a survey of 107 students. A powdered variant of green tea, matcha is made from tea leaves in Japan that are described to have a natural and slightly bitter taste. The beverage has several health benefits, including an abundance of antioxidants that help protect cells from foreign bodies. Senior Siyona Kathuria, a matcha enthusiast, correlates these unique qualities of matcha to its increasing popularity on social media and within the MVHS community.
“Matcha is something that’s different,” Kathuria said. “Before this, more people would get boba or coffee, which tend to be really sweet and make you feel lethargic. But when you drink matcha, you often feel refreshed. You don’t feel guilty drinking it.”
While matcha has been present on cafe menus for some time now, it has only recently exploded in popularity, with entire stores dedicated to selling matcha drinks and ingredients opening in the past year such as Izumi Matcha, a popular matcha hub in Cupertino, and Cere Tea, a matcha store in Saratoga. As a result, this surge in acclaim for the green beverage created a new opportunity for Kathuria to provide her own insights to the community as an avid matcha fan.
“Matcha has a super tight-knit community because we all just really enjoy the drink,” Kathuria said. “Seeing this, I decided to open up a social media page with my friends, who also really enjoy matcha, and rate popular matcha places in the Bay Area. Our page not only helps other matcha lovers know the real quality of a certain place, but can also help promote new small businesses.”
AP Physics and AP Biology teacher Julie Choi has also indulged in matcha. Choi has almost entirely replaced coffee with matcha due to her high sensitivity to caffeine, saying that “matcha is slower acting than coffee, so it doesn’t hit her or give her the same side effects that coffee does, which is a big plus.” Choi is one of many people at MVHS that enjoy matcha, contributing to a higher demand for matcha overall.
However, Choi relates this increased demand for matcha to an emerging problem. The Japanese tea industry is struggling to adhere to the drink’s significantly expanding market pressure, resulting in a matcha shortage. Along with this lack of matcha, the 24% increase in tariffs placed on Japan, as of April 2, have made it increasingly expensive for matcha and other teas to be imported into the U.S., causing delays in the American matcha supply. Kathuria explains that recently, Izumi Matcha was directly impacted by this shortage, which forced them to shut down their store for the last week of March.
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Senior and matcha lover Shashi Bhagwat believes that this shortage will greatly impact the frequency with which people buy matcha, explaining that, “this shortage means that matcha lovers will have to dial down on their love for matcha and may have to treat it as a treat for a special occasion rather than a routine they can rely on.”
On the other hand, Choi believes that people will panic if this shortage becomes more serious. She cites the recent egg shortage and the 2020 toilet paper shortage as examples of people immediately reacting and over-buying supplies when a shortage is announced. However, she also believes that the matcha shortage could potentially open up doors to new drinks such as hojicha, which is roasted green tea.
Bhagwat and Kathuria agree with Choi’s prediction of people lining up for matcha, as it is a pattern they have already started seeing. Kathuria, whose 276 followers rely on matcha places staying afloat, states that the rising popularity of matcha, along with the shortage that she hopes will bounce back, has limited her access to matcha.
“It’s sad because I truly enjoyed how integrated the community of matcha lovers was in actually getting the drink,” Kathuria said. “I think the supply of matcha will recover, but this shortage could potentially wipe out the amount of opportunities that matcha’s popularity brings, whether it’s health benefits, facilitating friendships and conversation, or, in my case, a platform for my friends and I to freely express what we love.”
