Market Data 
- Matcha has exploded in popularity on TikTok.
- Cafés are reporting that matcha suppliers are hiking up prices or setting purchase limits.
- TikTok’s most popular brands appear to be hit hard.
TikTok’s obsession with matcha has appeared to create a shortage of the tea in Japan.
TikTok’s most popular tea brands appear to be hit hard.
The smooth, bright green powder plays a central role in Japanese tea ceremonies, and while it takes only a few seconds to dissolve in water, it can take an entire year to grow.
Matcha production has remained consistent, but sharp increases in demand driven by social media have created a strain on the industry, The Guardian reported.
Megumi Kanaike, manager of Simply Native, a tea shop in Sydney said that producers of the highest-quality matcha in Kyoto, Japan, recently increased prices by up to 40%, which is the first price hike in many years, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
“You’ll probably notice prices in cafés start to go up as well,” she says.
Kanaike’s shop announced limits on online matcha purchases because of the shortage, she told the outlet earlier this month.
“Several suppliers have told us they’re pausing production and putting a stop on any future orders,” she said.
Marukyu Koyamaen, a brand that is often featured in popular “matcha haul” TikTok videos, shows that it is completely sold out of green matcha powder on its website. Zach Mangan, owner of a Brooklyn-based tea company, Kettl, told Eater a. Marukyu Koyamaen representative told him the company did “roughly six months of sales in a little less than a month.”
Marukyu Koyamaen and TikTok did not immediately return requests for comment from Business Insider about the reported matcha shortage.
TikTok influencers traveling to Japan to try the country’s authentic matcha have also reported having a hard time finding it once they arrive. One TikTok video shows a sign at a Japanese matcha shop that says the shop sold too much in the summer months and “ran out of raw materials.”
“Due to the stricter purchase restrictions, the quantities available to our shop are now very low,” the sign reads. “As a result, it should be extremely difficult to purchase matcha until next year’s new tea harvest. This situation is the same in Kyoto, Tokyo, and everywhere else in Japan.”
Inside Japan, matcha consumption had been on a decline for the past few decades, with consumption rates dropping from 1,174 grams per household in 2001 to 844 grams in 2015, according to Eater. In the US, sales of matcha have reached more than $10 billion in the last 25 years, according to the outlet.
Some creators on “#matchatok” have also reported harassment and bullying from people on TikTok who blame their overconsumption and promotion of matcha for the ongoing shortage. One matcha creator called Kithumini, with more than 62,000 followers, said in a video that her physician and her therapist told her to turn off TikTok comments because of all the negativity she has received.
“Yes, there may be a matcha shortage for the brands that you like purchasing from, but that does not mean that all matcha is gone,” she says in the video.
Kithumini added in the video that she recently went to a café that was selling Marukyu Koyamaen matcha and that “even aside from that brand, there are so many good brands out there.”
“So many of y’all out there are making other people’s matcha consumption your business,” she says in the video. “No, that’s just between that person’s caffeine tolerance and their wallet, not you.”
