Matcha trouble brewing: global shortage steeps prices for tea lovers

(16 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco - 5 September 2025
1. Opening canister of matcha
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2. SOUNDBITE (English) David Lau, Owner, Asha Tea House:
"So matcha is a stone milled green tea. It's actually a tea powder."
3. Scooping matcha powder
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Larry Tiscornia, Traditional Japanese Tea Service Instructor:
"It's a very old Japanese art form."
5. Using whisk to stir matcha
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Lindsay, Customer: 
"It's part of a routine. It's an experience."
7. Traditional Japanese tea ceremony 
8. Close of matcha in bowl

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Redwood City, California - 10 September 2025
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9. SOUNDBITE (English) Aaron Vick, Senior Tea Buyer, The G.S. Haly Company:
"The color of matcha is really vibrant, particularly the highest quality, true Japanese matchas. 
10. Various boxes of imported matcha in warehouse
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Aaron Vick, Senior Tea Buyer, The G.S. Haly Company:
"We are the country's oldest specialty tea importer, an original San Francisco company founded in 1889. There is limited supply, not due to lack of innovation or ambition, but simply there's only so much tea grown in Japan. Matcha has long been an important ingredient for baked goods, for confectionary, candies."
12. Various Vick making matcha drink in tea importer tasting room

ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco - 5 September 2025
13. Various matcha baked goods and ice cream

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Redwood City, California - 10 September 2025
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14. SOUNDBITE (English) Aaron Vick, Senior Tea Buyer, The G.S. Haly Company:
"We've always been saying matcha is growing, but certainly within the last one or two years there has been exponential unprecedented growth in demand."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco - 5 September 2025
15. Tea house exterior
16. Pouring iced matcha latte drink
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17. SOUNDBITE (English) David Lau, Owner, Asha Tea House:
"Our matcha drinks, we sell them in the hundreds every day. And we go through many hundreds of kilograms every month or two. So yeah, it's a lot of matcha. There's just too much demand."
18. Customers drinking matcha latte
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19. SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Lindsay, Customer: 
"I have matcha every morning. It's actually my go-to drink. It is kind of how I start the day. What have I noticed about the pricing? It's definitely started to go up, especially if you want to maintain the quality."
20. Various tea house employee whisks matcha
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21. SOUNDBITE (English) David Lau, Owner, Asha Tea House: 
"So the price has skyrocketed, for us it's more than doubled and we weren't expecting that at all."
22. Various traditional Japanese tea service class
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23. SOUNDBITE (English) Larry Tiscornia, Traditional Japanese Tea Service Instructor:
"My wife and I teach privately weekly and we have students that come and learn how to do the tea ceremony."
24. Various student learning tea ceremony
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Larry Tiscornia, Traditional Japanese Tea Service Instructor:
"People are going at these tea stores and they're limited to like one small 20-gram can, but one year ago you could go in and buy hundreds of grams of tea, So it's very bizarre."
26. Various student uses whisk to stir matcha

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Redwood City, California - 10 September 2025
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
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