The Reality of Matcha in Japan Today: What We Discovered During Our 2026 Uji Visit
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Every year, we travel to Uji, Yame, and Shizuoka to spend time with our producers, walk through the tea fields, cup new harvests, and better understand the state of the industry. This year's visit revealed something both surprising and concerning, and we believe every matcha drinker deserves to know about it.
Global Demand is Changing the Matcha Market. Not Always for the Better.
Matcha is experiencing unprecedented popularity worldwide. From Tokyo to Sydney to New York, demand has grown faster than at any point in the history of the beverage. For producers in Uji, Yame, and Shizuoka, regions where the best tea plants take years to mature and harvests are strictly seasonal, this surge has created a pressure that the industry has never faced before.
The supply of genuinely high-quality Japanese matcha is finite. The number of heritage farms with centuries of cultivation expertise, ideal growing conditions, and the patience to do things the slow, right way has not grown to match global demand. What has grown is the number of products attempting to meet that demand by other means.
As global demand for matcha continues to surge, the pressure on supply has never been greater. Many producers are struggling to secure enough high-quality Japanese tea leaves to meet demand. As a result, we encountered a growing number of matcha products in the market that prioritise appearance over flavour.
Gina Kim, Founder, Maison Koko, after the 2026 Uji sourcing visitDuring our meetings in Uji, this was one of the most consistent concerns raised by industry professionals, from veteran tea masters to younger farmers navigating a market they barely recognise. The gap between products that look good and products that genuinely represent Japanese tea craftsmanship has widened significantly.
The Colour Problem: When Appearance Becomes Misleading
At first glance, many of these matchas look impressive. The colour is often an extremely bright, vibrant green, more vivid, in some cases, than even the finest ceremonial grades we carry. For consumers unfamiliar with what genuine quality looks and tastes like, this can create a compelling, and entirely false, perception of superiority.
Colour is a legitimate quality signal in matcha. Vivid neon green indicates high chlorophyll content, which comes from shade-growing and is associated with fresh, high-grade leaves. But colour can also be manipulated. When the natural green of a lower-grade matcha is enhanced through additives, blending, or processing techniques that preserve visual brightness without preserving flavour, the colour becomes a deceit rather than a signal.
Several products we encountered in the market in 2026 displayed exceptional colour vibrancy that did not translate into cup quality. When tasted side-by-side with authentic premium Japanese matcha, the differences were immediately obvious to any experienced palate, and would become clear to any consumer given the comparison.
This matters because colour is often the first, and sometimes the only, quality check available to consumers browsing online or in a store. If colour has been decoupled from genuine quality, it stops being a useful guide.
What Genuine Premium Matcha Actually Tastes Like
The contrast between appearance-first matcha and genuine premium Japanese matcha is not subtle once you have experienced both. Here is what separates them.
True premium matcha is the result of centuries of cultivation knowledge, careful shading techniques, selective harvesting, and meticulous stone grinding. The best matcha delivers a complete sensory experience, vibrant aroma, silky texture, natural sweetness, lingering umami, and a balanced finish that invites another sip. No single element dominates. Everything is in harmony.
What we tasted in many of the appearance-first products was the opposite of harmony. A bright, aggressive colour, followed by a flat, thin, or bitter cup that simply did not deliver on the visual promise. For experienced drinkers, this is immediately discernible. For newer consumers, it reinforces the false belief that all matcha tastes slightly bitter and one-note, when the truth is that great matcha tastes nothing like that at all.
What Actually Defines Genuine Quality in Matcha
Understanding what creates genuine quality is the best protection against being misled by appearance alone.
Our Partners: A Shared Commitment to Heritage Over Trend
At Maison Koko, this is precisely why we remain committed to quality and heritage above all else. We do not chase trends, shortcuts, or superficial indicators of quality. Instead, we focus on sourcing from producers with proven histories, deep expertise, and unwavering standards. Two of those partnerships deserve to be named specifically.
Founded in 1860 in Uji, Kyoto, Tsujirihei Honten has been producing ceremonial and competition-grade matcha for over 160 years, supplying Japan's most revered tea masters, cultural institutions, and the imperial household. Their teas were, until recently, available only at their own boutique locations in Japan and had never been offered online or to overseas retailers. Maison Koko is the first and only retailer to bring this collection to international customers.
The partnership with Tsujirihei Honten represents everything we believe about sourcing: genuine heritage, uncompromising standards, and a philosophy that places cup quality above all other considerations. These are the teas that define what Uji matcha at its best actually means.
Explore the Tsujirihei Honten CollectionHorii Shichimeien is one of Uji's most celebrated tea houses, a name synonymous with the highest standards of ceremonial matcha production. Like Tsujirihei Honten, Horii Shichimeien represents the kind of deep, multigenerational expertise that defines genuine Uji craftsmanship. Their commitment to traditional cultivation methods, first-harvest leaves, and meticulous stone milling aligns precisely with Maison Koko's sourcing philosophy.
The partnership with Horii Shichimeien reinforces what we said to our producers on this year's visit: we are here because of the work, not despite the difficulty of it. Great matcha requires patience, experience, and standards that do not bend to market pressure. That is what we look for in every partnership.
Quality Comes First. That Does Not Change.
Every season, we evaluate harvest conditions, cup countless samples, and work closely with our producers to ensure that the matcha we offer reflects the standards that made Uji tea famous around the world. This process is not a formality. It is how we ensure that what reaches our customers is genuinely worth their trust.
As matcha continues its rapid global growth, we believe consumers deserve transparency about what they are drinking. A brighter green colour alone does not define great matcha. What matters is the complete experience in the cup, aroma, texture, sweetness, umami, balance, and the heritage behind every harvest.
For us, preserving those values is not simply a sourcing decision. It is our responsibility. Because great matcha should honour the centuries of craftsmanship that created it, not just the trends that surround it.
What to Look For When Buying Matcha in 2026
The most practical thing we can offer after this year's sourcing visit is a simple checklist, the questions every matcha buyer should be asking, regardless of which brand they are considering.
Is the specific region named? Uji, Yame, Nishio, Shizuoka, or Kagoshima, not just "Japan".
Is the harvest date published? Matcha degrades rapidly. Freshness should be verifiable, not assumed.
Is the cultivar disclosed? Brands that name the cultivar know what they are selling.
Does the colour match the cup? Vibrant colour that does not translate into natural sweetness and low bitterness is a warning sign.
Does the brand have direct producer relationships? Transparency about sourcing relationships is the strongest signal of a brand that understands and stands behind what it sells.
Maison Koko publishes all of this information for every product in the range. We do so because we believe it is the minimum standard any serious matcha buyer should expect, and because we are confident that transparency serves us and our customers equally well.
What This Means for You
If you are already drinking Maison Koko matcha, this visit reinforced everything we do and why we do it. Our sourcing model, direct farm relationships, weekly freshness restocking, rigorous quality testing, and full origin transparency, is precisely the response to the market pressures described in this piece.
If you are still exploring the market, we hope this gives you a useful framework. The question to ask of any matcha brand is not "does it look good?" but "does it taste the way something with this provenance and these standards should taste?" That question, consistently applied, will lead you to the right places.
Great matcha is not rare because quality is hard to find. It is rare because quality is hard to protect when demand outpaces supply. That is what we saw in Japan this year, and it is why we remain as committed as ever to protecting it.
Why Our Matcha
