Matcha is expensive because every step of making good matcha is slow and labour-intensive: weeks of shading before harvest, hand-picking of first-flush leaves, and stone-grinding at roughly 10 grams per hour. Since around 2020, global demand for ceremonial-grade matcha has grown faster than Japan’s farms can supply it — pushing prices up and creating real shortages at the quality end of the market.
If you have ever picked up a tin of decent ceremonial-grade matcha and blinked at the price, you are in good company. A 30g tin of top-quality matcha can cost as much as a bag of single-origin coffee beans that weighs five times as much. Understanding why requires a short detour into how the stuff is actually made — and what is happening to global demand.
The production process is genuinely slow and labour-intensive
Most food production can be scaled. If demand goes up for a product, you can usually build more factories, hire more workers, buy more equipment, and increase supply within a year or two.
Matcha does not work like that.
The steps that make matcha worth drinking — the shade-growing, the first-flush hand-picking, the stone-grinding — each resist acceleration in their own way.
Shading takes three to four weeks per harvest cycle. You cannot rush photosynthesis. Every plant needs those weeks under the shade cloth, and there is no shortcut.
Hand-picking is slow because quality matcha requires careful selection: only the youngest, tenderest first-flush leaves, chosen by experienced pickers who can assess what they are looking at. Machine harvesting works for lower-grade teas but is too blunt for the top-tier product.
Stone-grinding is the most stark bottleneck: roughly 10 grams of matcha per hour per stone mill. A standard 30g tin represents three hours of continuous grinding, from a single mill. To produce meaningful quantities, you need a lot of mills — and the slow grinding speed is a deliberate feature, not a bug. High-speed grinding generates heat and degrades both flavour and colour.
You can read more about the full production process in our post on how matcha is made.
Limited growing regions — and a shrinking farming workforce
Most of the world’s premium ceremonial-grade matcha comes from two regions in Japan: Uji in Kyoto and Nishio in Aichi. These regions have the right soil, climate, and — crucially — generations of accumulated farming expertise. Quality matcha cannot simply be grown anywhere.
Japan’s tea-farming industry also faces a structural challenge that has been building for decades: a declining rural workforce. Tea farming is physically demanding, seasonal, and increasingly hard to staff as younger generations move to cities. The amount of land under tea cultivation has been shrinking, not growing.
Other countries — China, South Korea, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and others — produce what is sold as matcha. Some of it is decent. Some of it is tencha or other green tea powder that bears the matcha label without the same production standards. Sourcing specialists and serious buyers still largely look to Japan for the product they trust.
What changed around 2020: demand went global
Ceremonial-grade matcha has been a significant part of Japanese tea culture for centuries. Its profile in Western markets was more modest until roughly 2020, when a combination of factors changed things quickly:
- Social media — particularly the aesthetic appeal of vivid green matcha lattes — drove enormous visibility for the product in the UK, US, and Australian markets
- Coffee shop culture — matcha lattes became a standard menu item across café chains at the same moment that specialty coffee culture was peaking
- Wellness interest — growing awareness of L-theanine, EGCG, and the “calm focus” narrative brought new consumers who might previously have been indifferent to tea
The result was a demand surge that Japan’s existing supply infrastructure was not positioned to absorb quickly. Growing more tea from scratch takes years — tea plants need several years to reach maturity and the right quality. Expanding the workforce and the land under cultivation cannot happen overnight.
The Uji region in particular became openly stretched, with some suppliers reporting they could not fulfil orders they had previously been meeting comfortably.
Price tiers — and what cheap matcha usually means
Not all matcha is priced the same, for obvious reasons. Broadly:
| Grade | Typical price per 30g | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| Ceremonial (premium) | £20–£40+ | First flush, hand-picked, stone-ground, authentic Japanese origin |
| Ceremonial (standard) | £10–£20 | May be later flush or blended; still stone-ground |
| Culinary grade | £3–£8 | Later harvest, more bitter, fine for baking; not ideal for drinking |
| “Cheap matcha” | Under £3 | Often not stone-ground, may be from outside Japan, often poor colour and flavour |
The cheapest matcha available online — sometimes sold in large bulk bags at a fraction of the price of decent ceremonial grade — is typically a later-harvest product, possibly ground industrially (which generates heat and degrades both flavour and chlorophyll), possibly from a growing region other than Japan’s premium areas.
It tastes different. The colour is duller. The flavour is flatter or sharply bitter. Drinking it and concluding you do not like matcha is a common mistake that the price point quietly encourages.
Why Framberry pays more for ceremonial grade
At Framberry, we use ceremonial-grade Japanese matcha for everything on our matcha menu. We are not particularly interested in offering the cheapest possible version of the drink — the point is that it tastes like something worth ordering.
Ceremonial grade means you get the shading, the first-flush harvest, the stone-grinding, and the flavour profile that makes matcha worth caring about: smooth, umami, vibrantly green, and genuinely enjoyable without a pile of sweetener to cover it up.
We are opening in London in 2027. Join the interest list and come and see what the difference actually tastes like.
For the full picture, our matcha guide covers sourcing, grades, and everything else you might want to know.
Frequently asked questions
Is matcha getting more expensive?
In the ceremonial-grade category, yes — the period since 2020 has seen consistent price pressure as global demand has grown faster than Japanese farms can expand supply. Whether this levels off depends on whether new tea-growing capacity comes online over the next decade.
Is expensive matcha worth it?
For drinking — yes, if the alternative is cheap matcha. The difference in flavour between well-sourced ceremonial grade and budget powder is substantial. For baking or smoothies, culinary grade is perfectly good and much better value.
Why does Japanese matcha cost more than Chinese matcha?
Japan dominates the premium end of the market due to centuries of developed expertise, specific regional terroir, and production standards that are harder to replicate. Chinese matcha exists and can be decent, but the quality benchmark for ceremonial grade is still largely set by Japanese producers.
What is the matcha shortage?
Demand for ceremonial-grade matcha has grown significantly since around 2020, driven by social media and café culture. Japan’s supply has not been able to grow at the same rate because tea farming is slow, labour-intensive, and geographically constrained. The result is genuine supply tightness and rising prices, particularly at the top end of the market.
Can I buy good matcha for a reasonable price?
Yes — “good” does not always mean “most expensive.” A mid-range ceremonial-grade matcha from a reputable specialist supplier will serve you well for daily drinking. The point is to avoid very cheap bulk matcha, which is almost always culinary grade at best.
We source ceremonial-grade Japanese matcha because the difference is in the cup, not just the label. Coming to London in 2027 — join the interest list.