During the Kamakura era, the Zen master Eisai brought back tea seeds from the Song dynasty of China. These seeds then spread nationwide in Japan together with manufacturing methods. Tea was introduced as an elixir for well-being and appreciated for medicinal purposes, then over time the culture of the tea ceremony was created. Matcha plays the role of providing hospitality. After the war, the tea ceremony became popular for girls’ education and matcha became an enjoyable drink served at elegant tea parties with beautiful kimonos. These days, with the booming of matcha, it is now recognized as a typical flavor for Japanese sweets and Western confectionery. Matcha is also gaining popularity overseas, and is cherished by people as a symbol of Japanese culture which comes with rich flavor and health benefits.

As stated above, matcha has various additional values separate from its core value which is its tastiness as a drink. We sometimes feel that this tastiness gets overlooked behind these additional values from time to time. Some people say that matcha is expensive and difficult to approach as casual drinks, or avoid matcha because they are concerned that they lack knowledge of how to prepare and drink it (etiquette). These may be due to being too familiarized with matcha flavored sweets or sweetened matcha drinks which makes them believe matcha prepared from powdered tea is bitter and difficult to drink, or because people pay less attention to flavors as they focus on the health benefits of matcha. The credulity towards brand names and area of production does not always assure true tastiness of matcha either.

Recently, we have heard about people who love matcha flavored sweets and drinks, but never once tried actual matcha. Moreover, the increasing demand for matcha flavored sweets is resulting in the trading of cheap, poor quality matcha in the market. There is also the situation in which bitter and low priced matcha that is not suitable for drinking is being sold as a drink due to an issue with import costs on the back of the worldwide popularity of matcha in North America, Europe and Asia. Meanwhile, the consumption of high quality matcha manufactured for the purpose of drinking, especially for the tea ceremony, is decreasing due to the diversification of entertainment, education, and culture. We are concerned that the core value of matcha, which is its tastiness as a drink, may be lost if such situations continue.

Having tea farmers as our ancestors, we continue to manufacture matcha with skills passed down from generation to generation while improving such skills. The pursuit of the tastiness of matcha is our history.

People are welcome to start enjoying tea in any way. They might be introduced to matcha by culture, art, trends, health, or for some other reason, as matcha has multifaceted fascination. Strictly focusing on traditionally prepared matcha is not the only option. We encourage people to enjoy tea freely by adding it to sweets to give flavor, mixing it with milk, or diluting it with tonic water.

At the same time, we believe that it Is our mission to keep providing flavorful tea by focusing on our motto of “Taste First.” for people who are charmed by tea and wish to enjoy drinking tea. This does not mean we want to manufacture tea only for a limited portion of people, nor only implement mass production of cheap matcha. Our desire is to deliver “better tea with a reasonable price” to every one of our customers.

“To provide the pleasure of enjoying matcha as a tasty drink to many people.”

We believe this is important for matcha to continue to be loved in Japan and overseas in the coming years. And this phrase reflects our pride while speaking for our matcha. We would like to ask for your ongoing support for Yamamasa Koyamaen.