Japanese studies librarian Rebecca Corbett was recently quoted in an NBC News story examining the global matcha craze—and the supply shortages and rising prices now facing cafés and consumers alike.
Corbett, a recognized expert in the history and practice of Japanese tea culture, provided historical context about the origins of matcha and its longstanding appeal. As she explained to NBC News, the tea plant Camellia sinensis was brought to Japan from China around 750 CE, but matcha itself wasn’t made in Japan until roughly 1250. Over time, its production became uniquely Japanese:
“People do like the health benefits of matcha, and that’s not new,” Corbett told NBC. “In the 1200, 1300s, people in Japan were talking about that and promoting drinking matcha as a cure for hangovers, for example.”
Corbett also commented on matcha’s rising cultural cachet, noting how social media have contributed to its mainstream popularity: "There’s also the cool Japan factor, the sort of aesthetics of trendy minimalism. It’s all being packaged around matcha."
Corbett is the author of the 2018 book Cultivating Femininity: Women and Tea Culture in Edo and Meiji Japan, which explores how tea practice for women was understood, taught, and promoted from the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries.