Inside, the walls are washed in green. Foreign tourists crowd the hall, perched on moss-colored couches and sipping lattes so vibrantly green they look almost painted.
At the center of the room, a barista demonstrates the centuries-old ritual of brewing matcha: two grams of powdered tea leaves poured into a bowl, a thin stream of near-boiling water, a bamboo whisk spun until a delicate foam forms.
The first sip, from a porcelain bowl, tastes grassy yet faintly tart. The latte version, sweeter and creamier, lingers with a thicker perfume of tea.
“About 60 percent of our customers come from abroad, and most are here for matcha,” a barista at Osulloc, the teahouse chain run by South Korea’s Amorepacific Group, told AJP. “They’re looking for something calming that’s not easy to find outside Korea.”
Matcha — or malcha in Korean — is a finely milled green tea that traces its roots to ancient China and Japan. Once the domain of monks and court officials, it has become one of the most recognizable health symbols of the 21st century.
On Instagram and TikTok, celebrities pose with green lattes in hand; in Los Angeles and London, matcha cafés now rival coffee bars.
The numbers mirror the craze. The global market, valued at $3.67 billion in 2025, is expected to top $6.2 billion by 2030.
Yet demand is outpacing supply. In Japan, the largest producer, harvests are shrinking under record summer heat, while its tea-farming population is rapidly aging. Tariffs on Japanese exports have added to the strain, creating a shortage that producers elsewhere are eager to fill.
That gap has created an opening for South Korea, where tea cultivation dates back more than a millennium. Green tea farming flourished as early as the 13th century in Hadong County, which today remains the country’s largest tea-growing region, accounting for half of all domestic output.
Osulloc, with sprawling tea fields on Jeju Island, reported a more than tenfold increase in online matcha sales this March compared with a year earlier. On Amazon, its premium matcha sales climbed 170 percent. Smaller exporters are also riding the wave: Nousbo, which markets under the Seein Tea brand, credited overseas demand for boosting both sales and profits.
Hadong’s county-run Tea & Bio Foundation has been exporting between 60 and 80 tons of powdered green tea to Starbucks in the United States since 2017, with plans to expand to 100 tons a year.
The foundation is also opening a promotional teahouse in Manhattan and recently launched a training school in France’s Basque region to teach European growers Korean techniques.
“We see this as a chance to share our heritage,” said Kim Jong-cheol, the foundation’s director.
Domestic retailers, too, are rushing to capitalize.
At convenience stores, 7-Eleven now sells matcha ice cream bars, chocolate sandwiches, and even a version of makgeolli, the traditional rice wine, infused with green tea powder. Rival GS25 has launched its own take on matcha makgeolli. Shelves are crowded with matcha-flavored cakes, chocolate crunches and moon pies.
The government is also investing in innovation. The National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science recently developed a new varietal of tea plant, Geumda, which yields golden-tinted leaves with a richer, less astringent flavor. But the process is slow: tea trees require five to seven years to mature.
“Like brewing tea itself, patience is key,” said Hong Ha-rim, a researcher at the institute. “But as more people turn from coffee to tea for health, we believe this culture will only grow.”
reporter
Kim Dong-young
davekim0807@ajupress.com
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