Matcha prices surge as rising temperatures hit production

Fast-growing demand for matcha, combined with rising temperatures that have curtailed production, are driving the drink’s price up.

Matcha’s antioxidant properties and higher caffeine content relative to other green teas have helped it gain a huge customer base worldwide. But a second straight year of poor harvests in Japan’s Kyoto region — where much of the global supply of tencha, the leaves that are ground into matcha, is grown — has pushed prices to record highs.

Online forums dedicated to the drink have grown rancorous as a result: When one influencer posted a video of a suitcase stuffed with matcha powder, one commenter replied, “This is the greed they talk about in the Bible.”