Matcha – the history

Tea is a beverage with over 5000 years of history. The discovery of drinking tea is dated to around 2500 BC, and southwest China’s prefecture Yunnan is known as the birthplace of tea. In the 7th Century AD tea was already popular across China. Buddhist monks helped tea to break through on such a scale.

Matcha has been used by Buddhist monks since ancient times. The monks used to produce natural remedies from different plants and since tea was known as medicine at the time of its discovery, it was only natural for the Buddhist monks to powder it as they would powder other plants to obtain traditional Chinese medicine. Matcha was born.

In 1191 Zen Master Eisei brought the new and revolutionary idea of drinking tea from China to Japan. Eisai traveled throughout the country and planted tea. In his book “Kissa yojoki” Eisei writes “Tea is the ultimate mental and medical remedy and has the ability to make one’s life more full and complete. Tea has an extraordinary power to extend someone’s life. Everywhere where people will plant tea, long life will follow”. From this point on, Matcha became the “secret medicine” of Buddhist monks and the imperial court.

In the 16th century another Zen-master shaped the image of tea in Japan: Sen-no-Rikyu invented the tea ceremony. This highly sophisticated art of drinking tea has greatly influenced the image of Japanese tea in the west. The tea that is used in the famous tea ceremony is Matcha tea. With the growth of the tea ceremony Matcha became popular among the powerful Samurai class in Japan.

For almost 750 years Matcha remained almost a secret tea amongst Japan’s elite. Now Matcha has been rediscovered and is brought to you in supreme quality by AIYA.