Matcha tea lovers are turning on each other after a growing demand for the Japanese beverage resulted in global shortages, skyrocketing prices and gatekeeping from matcha fans accusing others of hoarding supplies. The traditional green tea’s meteoric rise in popularity has put a huge strain on the small number of Japanese vendors who produce it each year, resulting in tourists bulk-buying the product, others accusing them of hoarding it, and TikTok users who post videos of the tea-making process having the amount of powder they use to make the brew ruthlessly scrutinized by scorned matcha purists. “It’s a little bit insane that you’d see these tourists just come and buy so much that they’ll carry big bags of 50 or more tins of matcha,” travel agent Michi Sato told the Wall Street Journal, adding locals are now forced to compete with hoarders and scalpers for the historic tea. “I really am against gatekeeping in general, but I think that there’s some merit in not allowing these people to just ruin the whole culture of it,” added matcha enthusiast Ermis Vassilopoulos. But not everyone is convinced by the outrage: “Japanese people have been drinking it for centuries. They are the only ones, basically, who are allowed to be mad,” tech journalist Laura Pippig told the publication.
Read it at Wall Street Journal
