The production of matcha - shading and processing
The original Japanese Matcha owes its effect on health and its taste to the special manufacturing process. But how exactly does it work with the ground green tea? We'll explain it to you.
Step 1 - ordinary green tea
Sencha or matcha? At this point, anything is still possible.
Matcha is an unfermented and steamed green tea from the tea plant "Camellia Sinensis". Until a few weeks before harvest, matcha is "just regular green tea". At this point, the tea could also become Sencha, loose Japanese leaf tea. It is only the manufacturing processes thereafter that turn the normal green tea into a completely different tea product.
Step 2 - The shading
A few weeks before harvesting, the tea plants are covered with tarpaulins. When exactly, the tea farmer decides each year according to his experience. The plants are thus shielded from sunlight. This has several effects at once. The tea leaf becomes larger and wider to capture the little sunlight. The amount of the plant pigment chlorophyll increases. This accounts for the deep green color of matcha. Amino acids, which are responsible for the sweet taste, are enriched. At the same time, fewer bitter substances are formed. The plant normally needs these to protect itself from strong sunlight.
At this point, you could also still make Gyokuro (玉露) from the tea plants. Because also like matcha, the most expensive Japanese leaf tea is shaded before harvesting. It is only with further processing that matcha becomes truly unique.
Employees of Mr. Hasegawa roll out the tarp to shade the matcha.
Step 3 - The harvest
Many of the tea pickers are well into their 70s and are actually already retired.
Many of the tea farmers continue to rely on hand picking for the harvest. Often the tea fields are also so inaccessibly located that harvesting with machines would not make sense at all. This is to the advantage of quality, because only the top two leaves and the bud in between are harvested. Here, the trained eye of the tea pickers can see quite precisely whether the tea leaf has the necessary quality.
In the meantime, already retired helpers are often employed in the tea harvest in Japan - the so-called Silver Workers. The tea farmers benefit from the experience of these helpers and the older people are happy to have a task that keeps them fit in old age.
Step 4 - Steaming and drying
The freshly picked tea leaves are immediately steamed. This stops the fermentation. The tea thus retains its deep green color and with it all the healthy ingredients. The tea is then aerated. This can almost be thought of as a giant hair dryer blow drying the leaves. This eliminates moisture that could harm the tea. After this, the tea leaves are roughly crushed. This makes the next step of the manufacturing process easier. At this stage, by the way, the tea is called tencha (碾茶).
Step 5 - Grinding
So nice and frothy it works only with finely ground authentic Matcha.
The matcha is now prepared for the grinding process. The stems and veins of the tea leaves are removed. Only the leaf flesh is ground. Approximately 1/10 of the original leaf weight remains. Matcha is processed on granite mills. However, this is not done by hand as in the past. Modern machines do most of the work. Nevertheless, granite stone is still used as the basis for grinding good matcha, such as SHO CHA matcha. This takes longer, about 1h for 30g Matcha, but at the same time produces an ultra-fine powder. Only in this way can the Matcha simply be foamed for enjoyment.
Conclusion: It does not work without experience
Matcha has been produced in Japan for about 800 years. Thereby, the cultivation and processing includes many crucial hand movements. Only the experience passed down from generation to generation, the care and manual dexterity of the tea farmers guarantees a healthy and delicious matcha pleasure. This is exactly why we at SHO CHA only import Japanese Matcha directly from dedicated tea farmers. Anything else would be a compromise we are not willing to make.
You want to know more about our tea farmers? Then read on here. Or you want to try an authentic Matcha right away? Then take a look at our tea store.