This photo taken on May 16, 2019 shows matcha tea products at a tea shop in Fujieda, Shizuoka prefecture. — AFP pic
“The demand for matcha is rapidly growing in the world... There’s demand for ice cream, desserts and coffee,” Suzuki told AFP at his shop in Fujieda, 170 kilometres southwest of Tokyo. Japanese traditionally drink green tea with rice but are doing so less as the diet becomes less dependent on the grain.
Matcha developed in 16th-century Kyoto when tea master Sen no Rikyu established the traditional tea ceremony known as “chanoyu”.