How matcha is made

The tea bushes are kept in the shade for weeks before picking, which keeps the umami and holds back the bitterness.

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The short version

Matcha is a fine green powder made from tea plants shaded for 2 to 3 weeks before harvest. The picked leaves are steamed, dried flat without rolling to become tencha, and ground to a powder, traditionally in a stone mill. The shading stops the leaf from turning its umami amino acid into bitter tannins.

Shade the bushes

Japanese labeling standards require the tea plants to be covered for 2 to 3 weeks before harvest. Less sunlight slows photosynthesis, so theanine, which carries the umami flavor, is not converted into bitter tannins.

2 to 3 weeks of shade
Pick the young leaves

The shaded leaves, which are bright green, are picked. Japanese standards allow matcha to be made only from leaves.

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Tea leaves
Steam the leaves

Steaming stops the leaf from oxidizing and darkening, which locks in the vivid green color.
Dry them flat

The steamed leaves are dried without being rolled. The result is called tencha, which is leaf tea that has not yet been ground.
Mill to powder

Tencha is ground to a fine powder. A stone mill specialized for tea appeared in Japan in the 14th century and produced finer powder than the earlier grinders.

End of the lineMatcha

Worth repeating

The monk Myoan Eisai presented a book on drinking tea to a shogun in 1214.
Cheaper powdered tea made from unshaded leaves is sold as matcha for flavoring foods, but does not meet the definition.
Matcha's powder form goes back to Tang dynasty China, where tea was pounded and milled into fine powder and pressed into cakes.