The Boom du Matcha, a double -edged knife for Canadian cafes

Carried by a dazzling popularity on Tiktok, Matcha continues to attract consumers from around the world. Therefore, But behind this viral craze hides a more complex reality: Japan. In addition, the main producer of this fine green tea powder, struggles to meet growing demand.

The rarity of the product has repercussions to Canada, where several businesses have difficulty renewing their stocks. However, This is particularly the case in Toronto cafes 10 DEANwhere matcha drinks have become almost as popular as Espresso.

The Nadiia Semenichenko team is preparing about 200 lattés at Matcha per day. In addition, It’s a lot of powder to whiplaughs the manager.

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Matcha products are essential in small businesses as large channels as Starbucks. Moreover, Booster Juice, Tim Hortons et Second Cup. For example, Even two McCafé branches-at the Union de Toronto station and at Montreal-Trudeau airport-offer drinks at Matcha.

It’s a bit like the phenomenon pumpkin spice.

Expert Sylvain Charlebois underlines that boom du matcha, double -edged spicy pumpkin drinks, popularized by the channel Starbucksquickly spread to many other competitors.

There is not really an intellectual property attached to things like matcha. Anyone can offer a product if this product becomes popularhe adds.

The craze for Matcha has its origin on social networks. where content creators have published thousands of videos on this prized tea powder for its taste, but also for its antioxidant effects, among others.

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People are mainly looking for quick and inexpensive solutionssays the agrifood expert.

Matcha is expensive for a drink. but it is not expensive if we compare it, for example, with other pharmaceutical solutions or any drugshe said.

Japanese producers out of breath – Boom du matcha, double -edged

Boom du matcha. double -edged

Submerged by this viral popularity, tea producers in Japan are struggling to fill demand.

Matcha is produced based on leaves cultivated in the shade for several weeks. picked by hand and rid of their ribs before being finely crushed. There is no industrial productionexplains Sylvain Charlebois. It is a production that is intensely manual.

Despite the upward prices, it is difficult to accelerate production. This craft process is a long -term work, underlines Jason Engresponsible boom du matcha, double -edged for partnerships for the Japanese tea manufacturer Kametani.

It has become unbearable for industry.

The company based in Nara, Japan, exports a third of its matcha to buyers from abroad.

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Last year. green powder represented just over 8,800 tonnes of exported green tea, according to the Japanese ministry of agriculture. It is twice as much as 10 years ago. The estimated value of the global market in 2024 exceeded 5 billion Canadian dollars.

The Japanese government even offers subsidies to encourage industry to produce on a larger scale and modernize its facilities.

Repercussions in Canada

Cafes chain Second Cupfor example. had to stop offering matcha lattés for a few weeks in the spring. The company based at Mississaugain the suburbs of Toronto, therefore turned to new suppliers in recent months.

Fortunately. our purchasing and operations departments managed to remedy the situation quickly, which allowed all Second Cup to continue to sell drinks to matcha across the country, but we had a boom du matcha, double -edged short period when we had difficulty obtaining themsays the director of marketing, Cendrine Lavigne.

It still caused several problems. a few losses of sales on our side.

The supply is also complicated for cafes 10 DEAN to toronto. One of our suppliers limits our orders to 10 kilograms per monthsays manager Nadiia Semenichenko.

This situation forced the company to call on a third source in order to maintain its own reservations.

The content designer Cheena Lerum. who owes a good part of his 29,000 Tiktok subscribers to his viral recipe videos at Matcha, decided to talk about this or vert much less often.

Sometimes there are marks that we love boom du matcha, double -edged and. if they become too popular, they end up breakingsays La Torontoise, who prefers not to contribute to the consumer rush.

According to Jason Engfrom the Kametami tea manufacturer, the prices outbreak is also likely to calm customer appetite. The products will always be available, but prices could shock somehe said. This is a question of supply and demand.

With the information of Jenna Benchetrit and Laura Macnaughton, of CBC.