Where to buy matcha in Japan – when the media tell you there is a shortage

Apologies for the slightly clickbait-y title! I felt inspired to share where to buy matcha in Japan by chance today, as I was lying on the sofa with the cats, casually browsing my phone, when I came across this article called “How tourism drained a Japanese town” on the BBC website.

I found it just a little bit laughable, since I have never had any issues buying matcha whenever I wanted to. That is, until I got to the venerated Ippodo Tea store in Kyoto where, hyping it totally up to my mom, and saw that all matcha was sold out. And left empty handed. That was in April 2025. So before I got the chance to start my series on favourite shops in Kyoto, here is a post for those who wish to bring some matcha home as a souvenir.

So, I am going to share my tips and personal favourites on buying matcha -and other fine Japanese tea. This blog is small, so I hope it’s not going to trigger a tsunami of matcha hoarders. Please don’t be mad at me either if matcha is sold out. I am not going to say I can magick up a secret matcha supply.

Truth be told, matcha in Japan is for special occasions. Originally brewed at tea ceremony, matcha is a highly priced tea meant to be savoured. Zen Buddhist monks notably enjoyed matcha tea to help them meditate for hours. The tea ceremony was refined by several masters, notably Sen no Rikyu, a Sakai native who studied tea since his early years, underwent Zen Buddhist training and served as a tea master to Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideoshi in his later years. Out from the Sen no Rikyu lineage, two major schools of tea, Omotesenke and Urasenke, developed and still are headquartered in Kyoto today.

In Kyoto today you can attend one of those formal tea ceremonies, or enjoy a cup of matcha made in the traditional way in a good cafe or tea house. It is subject to debate whether for an everyday cup of matcha, especially if you add milk and flavourings, you really need the high grade matcha used in tea ceremonies. For me, the answer is a straight “No”.

And if you are really kind, please share your tips or favourite tea shopping! Also, since this post was first published, there have been further posts about buying matcha in Kyoto here and there, , some with quite telling queues of customers, so proceed with caution!

Where to buy matcha in Japan and how to store it

In this short blog post, I will share with my my tried-and-tested places to buy good matcha. Since I’ve hung around in Kansai in the past year, and spent a few weeks in Nagasaki the year before that, this post refers mostly to Kansai and the Nagasaki area.

The most useful advice I can give is to ask yourself whether you really need ceremonial grade matcha.

If you love drinking your matcha the classic way, or are practicing tea ceremony, then, yes, you probably do.

For matcha latte, the trend beverage par excellence, I do not believe you need ceremonial matcha. Often you find lower grade matcha in the tea shops or the supermarket, dubbed “culinary matcha” or “daily matcha”, which is often sold by the tea companies as a lighter drinking tea for every day.

Also for making sweets and baking, culinary matcha will be the right kind to buy. Basically, anything that will have lots of milk and/or sugar added, will not require ceremonial grade matcha, whatever some social media videos might suggest.

Also, the way high-grade matcha is produced in a way that makes it difficult to scale up, and the finely grounded matcha powder will keep for a year at most. So, to me it makes absolutely no sense to stock pile macha which results in a shortage, making it inaccessible to others and spewing a matcha craze and lower grade tea sold as matcha flooding the market.

Store your matcha in its original packaging in a refrigerator and keep it away from light, heat and moisture. 

A very brief intro to matcha

Matcha (抹茶 means “ground tea” is the powderized leaf of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) and was drunk in Japan at special occasions as part of a tea ceremony. Traditionally, it is a drink of nobility, and Buddhist clergy. Ask the internet about Sen no Rikyū and take it from there. A few centuries later, Social Media came along and… it conquered the world?

Only some very new and young leaves are used from each plants, which grows under shade for the month before harvest. The tea leaves are then steamed, dried and ground in stone mills to a fine bright green powder. This powder is very sensitive to light and heat and oxidation, so it will not last long and is best kept in a cool dry place with no air exposure.

Japan has many tea growing regions, and they are all South of Tokyo. The largest is Shizuoka, followed by Kagoshima and Mie prefectures. In fact, pretty much all of Kyushu is a tea growing region. The most famous matcha, however comes from Kyoto, a small town called Uji, which is there the BBC article is referring to. So, the people in Kyushu would probably having a laugh reading this. And one of Kyoto’s most famous purveyors of tea is, Ippodo, the store I went to in March and returned empty-handed.

If you are visiting Japan now, you have a good chance of purchasing matcha from the new harvest, which is usually made available through May and July. Just, for the matcha lovers visiting after you: Please only buy what you need, don’t stockpile. Matcha is delicate and should not be stored longer than a year. Enjoy the subtle flavours while they last.

If you only drink matcha latte, consider buying culinary grade matcha instead. This goes if you pour other flavourings like strawberry and mango into your matcha. No need to waste a high grade ceremonial matcha for that.

And last not least, Japan has many amazing teas. There is enough Hojicha to go round for another few million visitors, and is makes a great Hojicha latte. Or consider sencha – a superb high grade green tea that’s gentle on the stomach and slowly releases the caffeine – and full of antioxidants.

The famous but unusual: Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto

Ginkakuji is one of my famous Kyoto temples. It has views, bamboo, moss, Zen gardens… and a cracking gift shop. They have the usual tchokches but also their own brand of incense and- Marukyu matcha. It sat there, quietly in a little fridge when I visited this March, waiting to be bought, with a limit to two tins per customer. There were no queues, and no one was buying up the matcha like crazy.

I bought 40g nice tin of ceremonial matcha by major Uji producer Marukyu Koyamaen for about 2000JPY there. The matcha sold here is a special edition for Ginkakuji, so I have no comparison where it sits with the other Marukyu matcha for sale. They store it correctly, and Marukuyu apparently is also the official supplier of the temple. You could do worse. They only sell one or two tins per customer, which is fair enough.

As I am not a big, big matcha drinker, this small tin will serve me well until next year, and this was a pure chance finding – it might pay to ask at other Buddhist temples, especially those that offer tea ceremonies (Daitoku-ji, Myoshin-ji, Kodai-ji, to name just a few), whether they sell matcha to the public.

Even more famous: Ippodo, Kyoto

I am adding this to be complete because Ippodo is famous, their teas get good reviews, and their shop in Kyoto is beautiful, but also rammed with tourists. It is situated a short walk from Kyoto City Hall in a pleasant street with upmarket boutiqe-ey little shops.

For many, Ippodo is the Number One Shop they visit, so they often sell out. Like many Japanese tea shops, they will limit the quantities one can buy, often to just one or two tins per person per day. They have many other great teas on offer, so give those a chance, too.

Shimizu- Ippoen, Kyoto

This is a small cafe operated by a tea company, Go for their matcha parfait, and buy a bit of tea on the side. Despite being on one of the busiest bus route in Kyoto, it sees mostly Japanese visitors and each time I went, it was not terribly busy. They do sell some of their teas so you may strike luck here. it is opposite Chishaku-in, a beautiful underrated temple, and just a short walk from Sanjusangen-do and Kyoto National Museum.

Otanien Tea Shop, Kyoto

Another Uji tea shop sitting nicely under the radar just a few hundred metres from Kyoto Station. The shop looks almost a little frumpy and does not draw much attention, and has a little cafe corner serving all sorts of matcha desserts, but is mostly a tea shop.

Take the bus to Imakumano shrine, then walk about 50m, and you will see the store front on the main road. I just checked, and they have matcha galore for sale on their website. Prices range from 1000-3000JPY for 40g ceremonial grade matcha.

Tsuboichi Seicha, Sakai

Another nice matcha cafe with an on-site shop. When I visited Sakai last year, I was lucky to be among the first to buy their new harvest matcha. It’s a very nice central location, and you can visit the Sakai Traditional Crafts Museum, too, then pick up a lovely Japanese knife at the museum shop or at one of the many cutleries nearby. Oh, and hire bicycles and visit the UNESCO World Heritage kofun while you are there, then relax in the lovely Japanese garden in Daisen Park.

Sakai sees very few tourists, most come fir the knives, but it is a totally underrated destination despite just being a 15-minute train ride (take the Nankai Railway from Osaka-Namba for the best route and easy bicycle hire in the station) from central Osaka.

I got some”sweet matcha” which is basically culinary grade for matcha latte, and a 30g packet of the ceremonial grade “Sakai-no-Kaze” Matcha. Since Tsuboichi isn’t a famous brand, no one goes crazy about it and Sakai , though a great city for sightseeing, isn’t exactly overrun with tourists, either, and in 2024 there was lo limitation on how much one could buy.

Sonogi Tea Country, Nagasaki Prefecture

When I studied in Nagasaki two years ago, my husband and I hired a car for the weekend and visited the area of Higashi-Sonogi, about 30km from central Nagasaki, set in beautiful hill country with sweeping views of Omura Bay. And very few tourists. You can pick up all sorts of tea directly from the producer’s stalls at road stations on the main roads, or you can visit a producer or two, which I recommend, because the drive through the hill is beautiful. We visited Ooyama Tea Farm, where we tasted our way through their teas, then bought some. You can also see the actual processing at Forthees, a cooperation f four tea farmers, who produce an award-winning matcha that is widely available in Kyushu – I bought mine in my local supermarket. I have written a post on Sonogi tea if you’d like to have more information.

Last not least: Supermarkets and Department Stores

You may or may not strike lucky here. I managed to buy the more everyday drinking tea at supermarkets in Nagasaki. Then, I started going to a supermarket close to my tram stop, and Bingo, they sold Forthees Ceremonial Grade Matcha for 500 JPY. The supermarket is at the Atomic Bomb Museum tram stop, so in a very tourist-friendly location.

Other supermarkets where I have been lucky to find ceremonial grade matcha are LIFE and AEON Supermarkets – usually the bigger ones. So you might not be able to pick it up at Kyoto’s numerous Fresco, but try the LIFE or Coop at Nijo Station.

In Kyoto, many of the major tea companies will also have a shop in a department store. For example, you will find Kanbayashi Shunsho at Isetan in Kyoto Station and Marukyu at Kyoto Takashimaya.

What about Uji, tea city par excellence?

While a lot of the famous matcha comes from the town of Uji in Kyoto Prefecture, I have not been there for years. When I visited, in 2008, I went primarily to visit Byodo-in and was greeted with matcha-flavoured everything as soon as I left the train station, in fact, the entire street leading to Byodo-in was a tea shopping and snacking street!

It could be that the more matcha is sought after, the more visitors might go visit Uji and its famous tea stores, so be prepared for crowds and empty shelves. There are certainly plenty videos on social media on “Matcha runs” about. Pretty much every matcha you will buy in Kansai is likely to come from Uji, and Iji is the most famous matcha growing location of Japan.

The famous producers and shops that keep popping up are Terashimaya Yahei, Kanbayashi Shunsho, Horii Shichimeien, Marukyu Koyamaen and Yamamasa Koyamaen. The first three are on or near the souvenir road leading up to Byodo-in, the latter two are in Ogura (near the Nintendo Museum). I have read that these places get very busy, with queues forming before opening time, so don’t expect an off the beaten track secret shopping here.

I shall update this post if and when I visit.

Elsewhere in Japan

Now, that is the question. I am pretty sure that matcha will be available everywhere in Japan in larger tea shops – matcha isn’t an everyday drink in Japan, but matcha is a popular flavour.

I am planning to visit Tohoku next, and I will certainly make some enquiries. I would like to buy another small tin, since that Ginkaku-ji tea is being drunk as we speak. I will see find out whether the matcha tea craze has spread to Iwate, Miyagi and Yamagata!

Where to Stay

To be honest, you won’t necessarily need to stay near any of these places, but since affiliate links to Booking.com are the only way this blog is monetized, I appreciate your support if you were going to look for accommodation in Japan – and I share some of my favourite Kyoto places to stay.

First on the list, and in walking distance to both Shimizu Ippoen and Otanien (and Kiyomizudera) is Guesthouse Soi, a charming modern guesthouse, mostly with private rooms in a lovely Western-Japan hybrid style. They also rent some nice bicycles (and helmets) for about 500JPY a day, keeping you mobile for your sightseeing.

Another two of my favourite hotels, very convenient for Downtown Kyoto Shopping, yet quiet and relaxing, are Tabist Kiki Sanjo Takakura and Prince Smart Inn Kyoto Sanjo. Both are in a quiet side street, both are within a five-minute walk to the Kyoto Metro and bus stops. Tabist Kiki Sanjo Takakura Hotel is somewhat smarter, with a proper reception and large quiet rooms with Western beds and Japanese tatami seating areas with Sou-Sou soft furnishing. Prince Smart Inn is a bit more like a business hotel with comfy smaller Western Style rooms and a large cafe/coworking area on the ground floor. You can walk to Ippodo in ten minutes from the Prince Smart Inn, or, even better, cycle, for the Prince Smart Inn has designated guest bicycle parking. I stayed at both when visiting the Gion Matsuri in 2024, and they were perfect for that, just a short walk from the festival venues yet uncrowded. Also you have the Teramachi Shopping Arcade just around the corner, which has some lovely shops in it.

The Small Print

I hope this post helps you to find good matcha on your trip! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me! I know Kyoto fairly well as a tourist.

I would also like to point out that I last visited Kyoto in April 2025, and it appears the matcha craze has gained even more momentum since then. Most of my “matcha shopping” was done in 2024 and in small quantities, and I never had to queue.

All recommendations are, of course, unpaid. The only monetisation is some affiliate links to Booking.com at the end of this post.

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