Japanese exports of powdered green tea surged last year by 75% compared to 2023, a pace likely to increase as the country looks to satiate the world’s growing appetite for matcha.

Popularity of the bitter, caffeine-heavy powder has surged across much of the West — and on social media — where it is often whisked with sugar and milk for matcha lattes, in a departure from Japanese tradition.

Soaring demand has in turn pushed up the price of the powder, with supply limited by the tea leaves’ slow gestation: It takes five years for a tencha bush to be harvestable. That has fed fears that lower quality alternatives could flood the market, including chlorophyll-tinted green tea from China.