where does your matcha really come from? why transparency matters

Turn over almost any pack of matcha and you'll find one word: Japan. Sometimes not even that. For a product you drink as a whole, ground leaf, that's surprisingly little information.

At asa matcha we think you should know exactly where your matcha comes from. Not because it sounds nice on a label, but because origin decides almost everything about what ends up in your cup: taste, colour, quality and safety.

Japan is not one matcha

Matcha is grown in several regions in Japan, and each one is different. Soil, climate, altitude and the way farmers shade and harvest their tea all shape the final powder.

• Uji (Kyoto) is the historic heart of matcha, known for smooth, deep and umami-rich tea. Our ceremonial matcha comes from Uji.
• Kagoshima, in the warm south, gives fresh, bright and lightly umami tea. It's where our asa go comes from.
• Shizuoka is Japan's largest tea region, known for green tea and roasted hojicha.

"Japanese matcha" can mean any of these, a blend of them, or a lower-grade powder from a later harvest. The label alone won't tell you.

"Ceremonial" isn't a protected term

There is no official standard for what "ceremonial grade" means. Any brand can put it on any pack. That's why the word on its own says very little. What does say something: the harvest (first harvest leaves are the youngest and smoothest), the region and the farm, and whether the tea was shade-grown and stone-ground.

Why origin matters for safety too

Because you drink the whole leaf, everything the tea plant takes up from the soil ends up in your cup, including trace amounts of heavy metals like lead and cadmium. How much depends on the soil and the way the tea is grown. That's exactly why origin and testing go hand in hand. We explain this in detail in does matcha contain heavy metals?

5 questions to ask before you buy matcha

1. Which region does it come from? Not just "Japan", but Uji, Kagoshima, Shizuoka or another region.
2. Which harvest? First harvest (spring) gives the smoothest, least bitter matcha.
3. Is it certified organic? And by whom? Organic means no synthetic pesticides or fertilisers.
4. Is every batch lab-tested? Once is not enough. Every harvest and every batch is different.
5. Will they show you the results? A brand that tests but won't share is asking you to take their word for it.

How we do it

We source directly from tea farms in Uji, Kagoshima, Shizuoka and Izumo. Our sourcing team visits the farms regularly and works closely with the farmers throughout the season, from the first spring harvest onwards.

Our matcha is certified organic (SKAL, NL-BIO-01), and every batch is tested by Eurofins, one of Europe's leading accredited food labs, for lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury. The results sit well within the European limits of EU Regulation 2023/915.

Good matcha shouldn't need you to trust a word on a label. It should show you where it comes from.

Questions about where your matcha comes from? Email us at drink@asa-matcha.com.