Green Tea or Matcha Flavored KitKats are one of the most famous and popular flavors of Japanese KitKat. In addition to two matcha only flavors, Matcha has been added to many other flavors of KitKat. Which begs the questions:
Why so many Green Tea flavors? Why is Green Tea so popular in Japan? And what is matcha!?
This is everything you didn’t know there was to know about Matcha.
Hi. I’m Philip and this is my quest for a PhD in KitKat Studies. Today we’re taking a deep dive into the world of Green Tea and Matcha.
When translating flavors of KitKat people often use the words Green Tea and Matcha interchangeably but Green Tea is a very generic term, there are many types of green tea. Matcha on the other hand is a very specific type of Green tea. It is considered to be the highest level of Japanese Green Tea. In Japan all other tea is considered inferior to Matcha.
Top of the line matcha is extremely expensive and nearly impossible to come by outside of Japan. It is grown, harvested, and processed in a very specific way which makes mass production difficult.
Matcha is different from other teas because it is served in powdered form. Proponents of matcha claim many health benefits come from consuming the leaf when you drink it. They compare it to boiling spinach, throwing out the spinach, and just drinking the spinach water. Whether you like spinach or not, you’re going to get more nutrients from the plant if you eat it. They same is true for tea.
Green Tea is one of three types of tea. (The other two being Semi-fermented tea and Fermented tea.) (Herbal tea is not tea change my mind.)
All “real” tea is made from the leaves and buds of the tea plant, or tea tree, or tea shrub. Which are three names for the same plant. The tea plant is a small evergreen tree that is native to East Asia. It’s leaves are typically 2-6 inches long and an inch and a half wide. (have examples printed off)
As an evergreen, the tea tree doesn’t shed it’s leaves, but it does halt growth during the winter months. During this time the roots continue to take in nutrients from the soil, saving up for the spring when they put out new shoots and buds.
The first leaves the tea plant grows each spring will have the most nutrients and flavor. The first budding is important because this boost of nutrients is entirely natural, done without the aid of chemicals or fertilizer. For this reason This spring harvest is considered to be superior to harvests done during the summer and fall. This is also why some tencha is only harvested once per year, in the spring.
TENCHA!?!? What’s that? I’m glad you asked.
Technically speaking, Matcha refers to powered tea. That is, it’s ultimate final form. Before the tea has been pulverized, it’s considered tencha. And tencha is grown and processed in a very specific way with the goal of making matcha.
As a tea shrub grows it produces amino acids. These amino acids provide the tea with a sweet umami flavor. During photosynthesis tea leaves convert amino acids into catechin, which is an anti-oxidant. Catechin will make the tea taste bitter. Good tea, or perhaps, desirable tea, then is tea that has plenty of amino acids but very little catchin.
Tea in Japan was first cultivated in the mountains north-west of Kyoto where the natural environment of tall trees limited the amount of sunlight the tea plants received. And tea producers realized that plants that were shaded produced better tasting tea. So they began to manually shade the plants in order to limit the photosynthesis that takes place. This process, though labor intensive, has a few other benefits. As the tea plant receives less sunlight it’s leaves become wider, thinner, softer, and darker green in color. All of which are desirable traits for people farming tea.
Shading typically begins around mid April. There are several different methods for shading and each has benefits and drawbacks. Traditionally, a straw canopy was used. As buds and leaves first start to appear a layer of bamboo-reeds blinds, yoshizu 葦簾, are laid across a framework of wood or stone. This creates a roof over the plant which blocks a little over half of the sunlight from getting to the tea tree. A week or so later rice straw, inawara 稲藁, is layered on top, which allows less than 5% of the sunlight to reach the plant.
This is the most traditional way of shading the plants but also the most labor intensive. It’s thought that this method can produce better tea because the aroma of the straw can provide a subtle and unique flavor to the trees it’s shading and after the canopy is taken down, the straw was typically scattered around the bushes where it could decompose and provide nourishment for future tea crops. Today however many farmers use aluminum frames and synthetic cheesecloth canopies to cover the bushes. Unlike the rice straw, these canopies can stay in place year round and require less upkeep.
While the consumption of matcha in Japan is declining, worldwide demand continues to grow. With the release of Haagen-Dazs Matcha flavored ice cream in 1996 and Starbucks introduction of Matcha flavored drinks in 2005, Matcha has become something more than just tea. As the demand has exceeded the supply, some tencha producers have begun conventional tea farming. This style of farming utilizes chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides (as necessary) to facilitate multiple harvests throughout the year, albeit at a lesser quality.
Leaf quality is very important and that is why tencha is usually hand picked. Automated harvesting tools can be as much as 60 times faster than hand picking, but that speed means a trade off in the quality of the leaves that are picked.
When harvesting for high quality matcha only the newest two leaves and the bud of each branch are considered suitable for tencha. For the first two weeks of May, experienced tea pickers will work in nearly complete darkness under the shade of the canopies, gathering only the freshest leaves in straw baskets.
Some farms have begun to adopt mechanical harvesting techniques such as using the two-manned portable tea harvester. Harvesting this way usually means you’re likely going to pick some older, tougher, or less flavorful leaves, but it means you can harvest faster. Methods such as these require the tea bushes to be planted in straight level rows and be uniform in height. Often this means trimming the tea plants after the harvest so they will grow back to the desired height by the following spring.
The main difference between Green Tea and (fermented tea) is Green tea is processed immediately after harvesting. Picked leaves are steamed for 20 seconds in a process called “fixing”. This halts oxidation keeping the leaf green and fresh.
After the leaves are steamed they are air cooled and dried using a series of tall wind turbines before they are deposited into a brick oven. The oven is thought to be the only machine that has improved the quality of the tea produced over hand processing methods. The oven runs at 150 degrees Celsius and bakes the leaves as they travel along a conveyor belt. The oven typically has several different levels which allows the leaves to bake at different temperatures for different lengths of time as they pass back and forth through the oven.
After going through the first layer, tea leaves will be blown to a higher layer with a large fan, where they pass through the oven again, and then are dropped down to a middle level for a final pass. All told each leaf will spend 18-20 minutes in the oven.
Once the leaves are baked they are ready to be sorted. During the sorting process twigs and thick veins are separated from the leaf and remaining leaf-parts are cut into small pieces. These small pieces are left to dry as crude tencha.
Vendors of tencha and matcha typically have a flavor, aroma, or color they are aiming to produce or match for their brand. Often they will blend two or three variations together when producing their final product. It’s the tea vendors which handle the final stages of tea production, buying crude tea and then chopping it, filtering it, and drying it once last time before blending it.
Matcha is usually not stored in pulverized form. In it’s powdered form tea is more likely to oxidize and degrade. In leaf form it tends to stays fresh longer.
Tencha is pulverized into matcha using a large mill-stone made specifically for tea. Today this process is mechanized, using a robot to turn several mills simultaneously, but the speed of the grinding is carefully regulated. The heat from the mortar enhances the aroma of the tea but too much heat can cause the tea to become bitter. With these limitations in place each individual mill can only produce about 40g of matcha per hour.
Demand for matcha is difficult to meet, but not all matcha needs to be high quality. Culinary-grade matcha, typically made from summer or autumn harvests, is too bitter to drink normally but works well for providing food with a strong matcha flavor.
These extra pickings are still not enough to meet demand so ‘matcha-like’ products called “moga” are now made by grinding up low grade leftovers from other types of green tea. (Often sencha tea.) This ground up powder is virtually indistinguishable from actual matcha, at least when it comes to cooking. If you’re planning to brew yourself a cup, you’re likely to be disappointed.
Perhaps you’ve tried Matcha and been unimpressed with it’s bitter taste. Why is this bad tasting tea so popular in Japan? Well, good matcha is not biter, but there could be several reasons for the bitterness of your tea.
As Tyas Sosen says in his book, The Story of Japanese Tea, “Don’t be discouraged when the matcha you have tasted was too bitter or astringent, it was possibly one of the cooking grade types now widely available in the West.”
It’s also possible that the tea was brewed too hot. Green tea (and matcha) is best when brewed with 175F (80C) degree water. Boiling water is another reason matcha can be bitter.
But seriously, how did this tea become so popular? (Thank you for asking, friend!)
In some ways it’s very difficult to answer this question because the love of tea is so heavily connected to the Japanese history and culture. As an “outsider” it’s difficult to grok that mindset. Sosen Tyas spends a lot of time in his book talking about the history of tea in Japan. On page 91 he says
In order to sufficiently grasp what Japanese tea in essence is, I believe that it is necessary to primarily understand the cultural value and concept of matcha.
He then spends 35 pages talking about monks, tea masters, warriors, and tea culture.
Green Tea is said to have originated in China, perhaps around the 8th Century, and was brought to Japan by Monks returning from China where they had studied Zen Buddhism. Japanese scholars note that in the summer of 815 Emperor Saga visited a temple near lake Biwa and was served a bowl of tea by a monk named Eichu. The emperor must have really enjoyed the tea because he ordered tea to be cultivated in many places throughout Western Japan.
The three monks responsible for introducing tea to the Japanese are Eichu, Kukai, and Saicho.
This first tea was known as dancha and it was served in a pulverized form though it differed from today’s matcha because the powdered leaves were added to water, rather than adding water to the powdered tea. (Yes, that may sound like a distinction without a difference but it is in fact not the same.)
It wasn’t until 1191 when ‘whipped tea’ more closely resembling today’s matcha was introduced in Japan.
According to historians in 1214 Shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo suffered an “illness” after having too much alcohol and was was presented with a bowl of tea, which … um… “cured” him.
It’s at this point where we start to see tea being promoted as healthy. Minutes ago I mentioned that tea was first cultivated on the Togano’o mountain north-west of Kyoto. A Buddhist monk named Myoe was found this to be a prime location for tea growing and his tea soon became known as “real tea” or honcha本茶. Tea produced elsewhere was labeled hicha 非茶, or “non-genuine tea”.
I like to think of these people as the Japanese Hipsters of the 1200s.
Tea was being promoted for it’s health benefits, but it was also being ritualized by the monks. A service of tea was developed at Zen monasteries, a practice which can still be observed today.
But this is where things start to get interesting.
By the 1300-1400s tea gatherings were almost religious in nature, yet they were also part of something significantly more jovial. Tea events often begin with a small meal and were followed by a reception where alcohol was served. And then they played “toncha”.
Toncha was the most unexpected thing I learned in my research. In this game, 4 varieties of tea were served in 10 servings and the participants had to guess the origin of the tea. Or perhaps they had to guess which tea(s) were genuine or “real” and which were “non-genuine.”
And as Tyas says so eloquently in his book:
It goes without mention that these games were a means of gambling during which tremendous wagers were made.
Tea was a GAMBLING GAME!
There were several variations to the tea game and it was popular. (Remember, this was before youtube and netflix.) Occasionally multiple rounds would be held on the same day with guest sometimes drinking 100 bowls of tea.
The nature of these social gatherings, possibly mixed with the significant amounts of caffeine consumed by the guests… had some drawbacks. The parties became symbols of and I quote,”over-indulgence, lavish spending and extravagance”. So naturally, they became labeled as “vulgar.” Of course these customs spread from the rich to the common people and the government banned it.
It was around this time, as the demand for tea continued to grow, that tea producers began the practice of shading their tea trees in the spring to produce better tea.
The aesthetics of tea also began to change. It was a commodity now and people began to create reception rooms specifically for drinking tea. Tea was now prepared in side rooms, specifically setup for tea prep, and out of sight of the visitors.
This led to something known as wabi-sabi. Tyas spends just over 3 pages talking about the meaning of wabi-sabi before finally concluding
“It is clear that a definitive verbal definition for the meaning of wabi can’t be achieved.”
He goes on to explain that Wabi has it’s original meaning in loneliness and sabi is used to refer to the transience nature of things.
And I’m not convinced I can explain any better but I did find it interesting that during this period tea rooms shrunk in size with the goal of creating a specific ambiance or feeling of calm. A tea master named Rikyu managed to create a one-mat-and-a-half tea chamber in kyoto.
For reference, a tradition tatami mat is 90cm by 180cm. And most tea rooms are square covering an area of 4.5 mats.
Rikyu was one of the great tea masters and he formalized the Japanese tea ceremony known as Cha-no-yu. He was called a true master of wabi, and he was idolized. Yama’ue Soji describes him this way:
If he’d break every rule of the rite of tea and do whatever he pleases, the outcome would still be enthralling. But, should an amateur imitate his style, it would simply not be tea.
Unfortunately, this master of tea was forced to commit ritual suicide. We’re not entirely sure why. But his legacy lives on because by the 1600s Matcha and the tea ceremony are part of Japanese culture and life.
The tea ceremony is meant to be a slow, calm, and relaxing event where the tea is made with slow purpose and then enjoyed. The Book of Matcha describes four main principles of the tea ceremony
Complete harmony between guests, hosts, and surroundings.
Be of pure heart and mind
Profound respect for all (bowing and kneeling)
Inner peace
Each tea gathering is unique so it is important to be sincere.
Tea ceremony continue to this day, as does the careful cultivation of tea plants and tea plant cultivars. Like many other plants, tea plants grown from seeds vary highly from their parent trees and the most reliable way to produce new tea variants is through careful breeding of cultivars. Cultivars are bred at natural research centers where plants undergo rigorous sets of tests and evaluations. Japan has an official registry for tea cultivars. It was established in 1953 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. There are around 62 cultivars that are suitable for making tea in Japan.
Why is Matcha so popular in Japan? Did we answer that? I’m not sure.
In many ways the answer is that tea has been part of Japanese culture for over 1000 years and over half of that time Matcha has been prized variant of that tea.
Which seems a little unsatisfying of an answer, unlike how satisfying a nice Matcha KitKat can be.
And that’s why KitKat flavors like Matcha, Dark Matcha, Matcha Tiramisu, Uji Matcha, Cherry Blossom Matcha, Yuzu Matcha, and Matcha Milk are such an important set of Japanese KitKats.
Sources
The Story of Japanese Tea: a broad outline of its cultivation, manufacturing, history and cultural values. By Tyas Sōsen
The Book of Matcha: Superfood Recipes for Green Tea Powder by Louise Cheadle, Nick Kilby
Camellia sinensis – Wikipedia