The harvest

The Matcha harvest is at the beginning of May. Even today the fresh green tea leaves are traditionally plucked by hand. After they have been harvested the leaves are brought to the Aracha factory as soon as possible. This is the beginning of a long process of transforming the raw leaves into superfine Matcha powder.

First the leaves are gently steamed. Hot steam helps stops the fermentation, keeps the leaves fresh, and also ensures the nutrients remain in the tea. After that we put the leaves in a huge oven which dries the tea at a temperature of 180°C / 356 ° F. The temperature and the time allowed for drying depend on the weather conditions.

If you ever have the chance to compare the freshly plucked tea leaves with the dry ones you would notice a big difference because the dried leaves weigh only one fifth the original weight. When the tea is in this step in the process it is called “Aracha” which literally translates as “raw tea”.