Global Matcha Boom May Taste ‘Bittersweet’ to Tea Growers Who Face Pressure to Switch to Producing Tencha

The blue sky of May, the green of the new tea leaves and the scarlet sashes of women harvesting tea — these images, come to the minds of many Japanese when picturing tea picking. Yet, many tea fields may be covered with black sheets in the near future due to farmers growing the raw material for matcha, tencha, which requires reduced sunlight, as a result of the global matcha boom.