The Process Behind Your Cup of Matcha

With the clamor of knowing every "behind-the-scenes" detail of simply everything under the sun, from sumptuous food to shoemaking, have you ever wondered how matcha is made? While we have already talked about how Camellia Sinensis should be shaded before being harvested and the leaves should be deveined, removing the stems and the veins, to produce tencha, once you find out, you will realize how much patience, time, effort, and care are being put into every spoonful of matcha.

Since matcha is being used in so many different ways, from the traditional Japanese tea ceremony to flavoring and dyeing foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream, matcha lattes, and a variety of Japanese wagashi confectionery, it would be interesting to know the processing and grinding of tencha leaves into this fine, even green tea powder called matcha.

From Harvesting to Grinding

The very start of the creation of matcha is the shading of Camellia Sinensis to produce catechins and theanine that are beneficial to drinkers of matcha. Upon harvest, the leaves will be steamed and then cooled for oxidation, giving the matcha its aroma and umami flavor and maintaining the green color of the leaves.

This steaming process was invented by a tea merchant in Kyoto, Soen Nagatani, during the 18th century. Before the steaming method, the usual way was to roast the leaves over a heated pan, which came from the Chinese traditional method of processing tea leaves to stop the oxidation of the tea leaves. The roasting makes the leaves brownish at the end of the process, but the steaming method allows the leaves to retain their green color and oxidation. Nagatani also introduced a new kneading step into the green tea-making process called Sencha that has been used to make most of the Japanese green teas, including gyokuro and matcha.

Upon drying, the leaves will be sorted out and deveined to remove the stems to produce tencha leaves, the flat leaves that look like dried herbs. Tencha is never a final product. The tencha leaves will be dried again after sorting and crushed and ground thereafter. Tencha leaves are kept in a cool and dark environment to avoid degradation, and the manner of grinding tencha has a direct impact on the grade of the final product.

Tencha is the Soul of Every Matcha

The process of stone-grinding tencha leaves was introduced in Japan during the 12th century by a Zen Buddhist monk named Esai. The leaves were pulverized into a fine powder, added to a bowl along with hot water, and whisked into a frothy cup.

Tencha is the soul of matcha. It is the raw material to be ground to be transformed into a very fine green tea powder called matcha. This is grown and deveined specifically for grinding, as stems and veins would interrupt the grinding process, leading to an uneven powder. While nowadays there are machine grind mills using heat for faster grinding of tea leaves that cause the matcha powder to lose some of its natural aromas in the process, Ishi-usu is the traditional stone-mill grinding mechanism that is being used to grind the tencha. Ishi-usu is used to make premium-grade matcha.

Another grinding mill is usually made from granite that is known to be a "soft" stone, as one avoids too much friction or heat for burning or oxidation of the leaves. This is to be used by rotating the mill counterclockwise slowly and carefully to create a finely powdered tea. Each revolution is done at a three-second interval, or about thirty revolutions per minute, so as not to burn the leaves if too fast or to leave the uneven texture of the powder if too slow.

The process also takes a lot of patience and time since the ground powder should end up at least a mere micron (μm) size. Also, it takes about an hour to grind twenty-five to forty grams of matcha. Thus, it takes an expert to truly grind using an ishi-usu or granite grind mill a high-quality ceremonial and premium-grade matcha.

This is the process we use at Japanese Green Tea Co. for our matcha.

Other Methods for Grinding

But nowadays, there is a more modern way to grind tencha leaves to make matcha. Ceramic ball mills are used by matcha grinding factories, with ceramic balls inside that grind the matcha leaves while the external container rotates continuously. The mill is loaded with tencha leaves by a machine operator in the evenings and set to a specific program, to be ground at night and offloaded by workers the next morning. It is usually used in culinary-grade matcha production. However, while this method produces more matcha, the heat caused by the milling causes the leaves to turn a more pale color compared to the traditional way of milling.

Note: We do not use this approach at Japanese Green Tea Co.

The "bead mill method" is another way of grinding tencha leaves and uses small balls or beads to crush the leaf into powder, making the same fine powder but less clumpy. This makes the grinding process faster and produces larger amounts of matcha in less time than other tencha grinders, up to 20 kg per hour, at a lower cost. It allows continuous feeding and powder granularity control and prevents leaf color and flavor degradation with an integrated cooling system. When Matcha powder is made at a factory, the final powder product they get is only about one fifth or sixth of the original leaf weight.

Note: We do not use this approach at Japanese Green Tea Co.

The next time you take a sip of a cup of matcha, you will likely more appreciate its aroma, texture on the tongue, and taste, as well as the cost of ceremonial and premium-grade green tea powder. It is truly a work of art for authentic Japanese matcha to be able to deliver the leaves to your cup in powder form. Having said this, the way you see matcha on your next drink will definitely not be the same as some average beverage but a cup of drink with a heart and soul.

FAQs about How Matcha is Made

What's the actual difference between tencha and gyokuro — they sound similar? Why does it take so long to grind matcha — what's actually happening? Is stone-milled matcha actually better than ball-milled or industrial matcha? Why is good matcha so expensive — what makes it cost what it does? How long does it take from harvest to my bowl — the full timeline?

What's the actual difference between tencha and gyokuro — they sound similar?

Both are shaded teas — grown under cover for the final 20-30 days before harvest, which converts catechins into L-theanine and gives the tea its umami sweetness. The difference is what happens after harvest. Gyokuro (玉露) is rolled and dried into the long, needle-like leaves you steep. Tencha (碾茶) is steamed, dried, and then de-stemmed and de-veined into flat, paper-like flakes — and that flat tencha is what gets stone-ground into matcha.

So you can think of it this way: tencha is the precursor leaf for matcha, and gyokuro is the precursor leaf for steeped tea drinking. Same plant, same shading process, completely different post-harvest handling. Gyokuro tastes like a deep, broth-like umami when steeped; matcha tastes like the same compounds but as a whisked suspension because you ingest the whole leaf.

Tencha by itself isn't really sold at retail — it's an intermediate product that goes straight to matcha mills. The few tea shops that do sell tencha mostly sell it as a curiosity, since brewing it whole gives you a watery version of matcha rather than a proper tea.

Gyokuro - Shaded Imperial Premium Green Tea From $60.00 /

Why does it take so long to grind matcha — what's actually happening?

A traditional granite stone mill produces about 30-40 grams of matcha per hour. That's slow because the stones rotate at only 30-40 revolutions per minute, and the gap between the upper and lower stones is fractions of a millimeter. The slow speed and tight gap together produce the ultra-fine particle size (5-10 microns) that makes matcha behave like a liquid suspension rather than a sediment.

Speed it up and the matcha gets ruined two ways. First, the friction generates heat that destroys the volatile aromatic compounds responsible for matcha's fresh-grass aroma. Second, faster grinding creates a coarser particle size, which means the matcha sinks instead of suspending and the texture goes grainy on the palate. The slow stone mill is the only way to get the fine, aromatic, suspension-stable powder that defines proper matcha.

To produce 1 kg of matcha takes a stone mill roughly 25-30 hours of continuous work. That's why proper ceremonial matcha is expensive — the bottleneck isn't the leaf cost, it's the milling time and labor.

Is stone-milled matcha actually better than ball-milled or industrial matcha?

For ceremonial matcha, yes — meaningfully so. Stone-milled matcha has the brightest color, the finest particle size, the best aroma retention, and the smoothest mouthfeel. The slow, low-temperature grinding preserves what makes matcha matcha. Side-by-side, the difference is obvious: stone-milled matcha looks vibrantly green; ball-milled or industrial matcha is more olive or yellowish, and the suspension settles faster.

For culinary matcha — the kind used in baking, lattes, and cooking — ball-milled or industrial matcha is honestly fine. The flavor profile gets diluted by milk, sugar, and other ingredients, so the subtle aromatic differences that matter for ceremonial use are lost anyway. Industrial matcha is roughly half the price for that reason and is a sensible choice for everyday culinary work.

The trap is buying ball-milled matcha at ceremonial prices, which a lot of brands do. If a matcha is dull green, settles to the bottom of the bowl quickly, and tastes mostly bitter without aromatic complexity, it's almost certainly not stone-milled even if the label suggests otherwise.

Why is good matcha so expensive — what makes it cost what it does?

Three layers of cost: the shading, the de-stemming, and the milling. Shading the tea fields for 20-30 days requires labor (setting up the screens or netting), reduced yield (shaded plants produce less leaf per acre), and longer cultivation (the plants are stressed and need more rest after harvest). De-stemming and de-veining tencha is mostly hand labor in premium matcha — a worker can process maybe 1-2 kg of tencha per hour, and you need clean tencha to grind into clean matcha. Stone milling, as discussed, is the slowest step.

Stack those costs and a kilogram of ceremonial matcha takes roughly 50-70 hours of skilled labor before it ever leaves the farm. At Japanese wholesale prices, that's $300-600 per kilogram for the upper grade, which retails at $800-1,500. Compare that to sencha, which has none of those steps and runs $30-100 per kilogram wholesale.

If you're paying $30 for 30 grams of "ceremonial matcha," the math suggests one of: marketing markup on lower-grade matcha, ball-milled rather than stone-milled, or older inventory. Properly priced ceremonial-grade like our matcha (抹茶) represents the actual production cost rather than a discount.

Matcha - Japanese Limited Reserve Ceremonial Green Tea - (Global Tea Champion 2018, 2025) From $250.00 /

How long does it take from harvest to my bowl — the full timeline?

Roughly 4-8 weeks under normal supply chain. Harvest happens in late April or early May (the first flush, ichiban-cha, is what the best matcha comes from). Steaming and drying happens within 24 hours of harvest. The leaves rest as aracha (荒茶) for several weeks while the harvest finishes. Then the de-stemming, de-veining, sorting, and packaging takes another 1-2 weeks. Stone milling for ceremonial-grade is timed against orders, so finishing-grade tencha is milled to demand.

Once the matcha is milled, freshness becomes the next clock. Matcha is at peak quality for about 4-6 weeks after milling, which is why ceremonial-grade is sold in small tins (20-40g) and why our shipping is timed close to milling. After 3-4 months in an opened tin, even ceremonial matcha goes flat in color and aroma. Our storage guide walks through how to keep it fresh once you have it home.

The shincha (新茶, "new tea") tradition in Japan refers specifically to the first matcha milled from the spring harvest — typically available in May-July depending on the supplier. That's the freshest you can buy and traditionally treated as a small annual ceremony in tea-drinking households.

What is the Best Way to Store your Matcha & Japanese Green Tea?

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