“Everyone is always like, ‘matcha tastes like grass, matcha tastes like grass.’ Well, if matcha tastes like grass, I am simply a cow,” went the viral TikTok soundbite.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, matcha, a traditional Japanese tea powder, became popularized in the United States via the social media app TikTok. Soon, the demand for matcha as an iced drink, pastry topping and more outpaced the speed at which Japan could supply it.
Since matcha is produced in yearly harvests, once the reserve ran out, it was completely gone. As a result, prices for the coveted green tea powder skyrocketed, forcing local Riverside businesses to adapt in creative ways.
Geoff Gouveia, CBU alumnus and co-founder of the Riverside coffee shop, Mikey G’s, shared his company’s experience with serving matcha.
Sourced from Mizuba Tea Co. in Portland, Ore., Mikey G’s matcha lattes quickly became a popular Riverside commodity. Unfortunately, this spike in popularity occurred during global shortages and rising prices. Gouveia described the situation as “nerve-wracking” when they were unable to keep up with consumer demand.
Kiley Navarro, sophomore political science and philosophy double major, said that many of her favorite local coffee shops were constantly out of matcha. As a frequent matcha-consumer herself, Navarro noticed that high quality matcha in stores had increased in price as well.
“I think that the shortage is a direct result of overconsumption and the high demand of matcha everywhere,” Navarro said. “I think, unfortunately, that this will mean less matcha for me and quite possibly others too.”
Mikey G’s, determined to keep matcha in supply, decided to figure out a way to consistently get shipments The previous year, Gouveia and his partners traveled to Portland to have tea and build a relationship with Mizuba Tea Co. That connection allowed Gouveia to contact the owner of Mizuba directly and discuss faster options for acquiring batches of matcha.
Even with a consistent supply, Mikey G’s focused on conserving their use of the fine powder.
“[Other] shops are also using matcha a lot more,” Gouveia said. “They’re putting a ton of matcha into the drinks and maybe too much… making them go through it faster.”
Instead of following similar excessive behavior, Mikey G’s organized the ratios of their drinks down to a science, paying attention to the grams of matcha in each cup.
“We have a spreadsheet that sets that up,” Gouveia said, “But that way, it’s the same amount per drink, whereas some shops do it by volume… it’s a fine powder, so it should be by grams.”
Besides meticulous measuring, the company paid attention to consumer likes and dislikes to preserve their matcha usage. For example, many matcha consumers appreciated a strawberry or vanilla cold foam on top of their matcha lattes.
The special addition created more room for cold foam and less room for matcha in a cup. Then, Mikey G’s could charge a bit more for the cold foam rather than the latte itself, resulting in the drink’s final price paying for what a typically priced matcha would be.
According to Gouveia, the whole idea was to create new drink experiences for the consumer by tweaking one small thing.
Anyone could make a matcha or coffee at home, Gouvia said, but when there was an experience or aesthetic offered, there was also a market. This was the driving force that helped Mikey G’s and other local coffee shops thrive. But what if high prices tainted that experience?
“We haven’t added more onto the matcha price,” Gouveia said. “We haven’t passed that onto the consumer yet.”
Before matcha prices exponentially rose, Mikey G’s already had a plan in place. Their prices were set high in the beginning, built on the possibility of a matcha-boom. This created a buffer that allowed them to maintain their price.
Currently, the demand for this fine powder is high and supply is low. Therefore, the price of matcha is high. Inevitably, Mikey G’s matcha prices will most likely rise. However, Gouveia predicts Japan and other countries will exponentially increase their production, causing a flood of the commodity in the market and a decrease in its price.
“This has been happening forever,” Gouveia said. “It happens randomly as well.”
If matcha was still too high for the average consumer, Savannah Prather, junior applied theology major, offered an alternative solution. Prather often made her matcha lattes at homes from store-sourced tins, which generally cost less than frequently purchasing lattes at a shop.
“It’s honestly way more affordable to buy your own supplies,” Prather said, “But I would say that, matcha, in general, has gone up in price everywhere–whether you are buying tins of matcha or a drink at a cafe.”
Whether consumer sipped an iced latte in an aesthetic coffee shop or whips up their own drink at home, the shortage of this coveted export continued to affect Riverside businesses and U.S. consumption until the trend of matcha has ran its course. Regardless, it remained clear that businesses and individuals would always find a way to adapt to the ever-changing market of supply and demand.
