An Introspection of America’s Infatuation with Matcha
In a world that is constantly changing and shifting, social trends tend to make their way in and out of popularity. Specifically in America, one of the more popular trends of today is taking particular interest in health and wellness. In a society that is known for its greasy food and surging obesity rates, Americans have never been regarded as a “health conscious” society. But in the past couple of years, there has been a big effort to shift such ideologies. Now, I’m not saying that double-double cheese burgers and deep fried ice cream are no longer consumed by Americans, I am simply stating that a vast majority of the population has recently made a bigger effort to try and lead a more healthy lifestyle. One of the most popular and easy ways people have begun to do this is through seeking healthier coffee options. Recent studies have suggested that consuming coffee can have short and long term health risks such as insomnia, nervousness/restlessness, upset stomach, nausea and vomiting, increased heart/breathing rate, and other side effects. In an attempt to find a more sustainable and healthier solution, health and wellness followers have turned to matcha as their source of caffeine. A green and fluffy powder that can be mixed with milk or water, hot or cold has been the solution to thousands of Americans across the country. Matcha has played and continues to play a huge role in helping people lead healthier lifestyles. While some believe that matcha’s popularity in the US is based solely on its health aspects , I argue that its popularity comes from its original cultural values of tranquility and peace that it originally was used to obtain in Japan because these values are some of the principal driving forces behind America’s emerging health and wellness culture. While the integration of another nation’s product into society sheds light into a different culture, it’s essential to also view how Americans, in an attempt to embrace diversity, takes something historic and unknowingly attempts to strip away its cultural context to make a better profit.
Matcha’s origins can be traced back to Japan. It wasn’t until the last decade that matcha began to sweep across western countries leaving a wake of matcha addicts in its wake. The first green tea seeds were brought to Japan by a Zen Buddhist monk, Myoan Eisai who traveled to China in 1187 AD. The monks in China were the first to discover the concept of powdered tea; breaking of a chunk of green tea that was then turned into a fine powder with mortar and pestle before being whisked in hot water. This form of tea was used to help monks stay awake during long meditation sessions. Tea powder was soon forgotten in China, but the concept was wholly embraced by Japanese monks. Eisai thought highly of the green tea powder and strongly advertised it in Japan, which serves to explain why the beverage soon became popular amongst the wealthy soon after his introduction. By the 15th century, consumption of matcha was fully incorporated into philosophies of Zen Buddhism which gave birth to the Japanese tea ceremony. The tea ceremony is a “ritualized and focus way of making and drinking matcha.” By the 16th century tea masters had been created and drinking matcha became an art form for the nobles and samurai warrior classes. The tea ceremony is based on four main principles: harmony, purity, tranquility, and respect. This matters to the way Americans have been so taken by the green frothy drink because not only are they consuming a historically significant form of tea but also actively take part of the symbolism that accompanies the original use of matcha.
As a result of the cultural aspects matcha serves to represent, it has helped make the drink popular amongst people who actively seek to also obtain similar principals in their lives. The reason why matcha has caught on well in the states is because the principles of harmony, purity, tranquility, and respect that matcha serves to represent coincide with the principals that so many in the health and wellness culture seek to incorporate more of in their lives. By this I mean that the health and wellness culture found in the United States share the same principles that make up the Japanese tea ceremony that revolved around consuming matcha. The shared beliefs makes the drink then more enticing and “on brand” than drinking something like an energy drink or cup of coffee. Commonly, the “coffee culture” found in America promotes a high energy and buzzed feeling that a cup of coffee can give a drinker. But the intended energized feeling can sometimes lead to anxiety and feelings of jitters that has consumers looking for something not quite as aggressive, but still provides that needed boost to get through their day. Matcha not only advertises values essential to leading a healthy lifestyle, but it also provides that extra pep in your step so many caffeine users seek in their lives. It provides the perfect balance of promoting meditative and pure intentions while also offering the added bonus of excess energy without the side effect of rapid heart rate or insomnia; essentially it’s an easy solution that kills two birds with one drink.
In the same way that the historical preparation of matcha has played a role in the popularity of the drink, the way in which the drink is advertised as a mindfulness aiding drink has also played into its mass consumption. In early Japan, Myoan Eisai preached the magical effects matcha had on his meditation practice and did so so effectively that it soon became an integral part of his religion. As it became part of Japan’s tea ceremony, matcha consumption and early “advertisement” was based more around the bonding experience that accompanied being part of the tea ceremony and the mindfulness that came out of it. As matcha traveled west into the states, many matcha cafes and coffee shops attempt to maintain the mindful aesthetic when advertising various matcha inspired drinks. Starbucks for instance, incorporates words such as “ceremonial matcha” to their advertisements to connect back to the original way the drink was consumed. Other stores have instead tried to embody the aesthetic that goes along with meditation and mindfulness by creating campaigns that are simplistic, clean, and minimal so as to present matcha in a calming and soothing way to lure in their health and wellness seeking customers. Such a finding means that it’s not the actual health aspects attributed to the drink itself, but the popularity of matcha comes from the ideas, beliefs, and lifestyle attached to the way matcha is advertised to the public. It’s the original cultural values that surround matcha that has helped it become popular amongst health gurus and hipsters. Because of the common shared beliefs and ideologies between matcha’s Buddhist background combined with the simplistic and mindful goals of America’s health and wellness culture, it comes as no surprise that matcha has become so popular.
Admittedly, it could be argued that matcha has gained its popularity simply because of the ways in which companies have commodified it to shape better into America’s consumer culture; that the original ceremonial drink was converted into something else entirely, something that holds no deeper symbolic meaning or ideology. The biggest change that companies have made to the traditional matcha drink is the sweeteners that are more commonly added to the powdery drink. As Americans are known for their junk food and overall unhealthier diets, it only makes sense that to make the product more appealing to non-health seeking customers, sugar and other guilty pleasures got added to matcha’s appeal. But it’s important to note that in order for large scale companies to mass produce and advertise matcha, it had to have been previously known and consumed on some sort of scale to attract the attention of larger companies. Even though some companies choose to add sweeteners to their version of matcha, the way the drink is advertised by companies like Dunkin’s Donuts still adheres to the basic original purpose of matcha by promoting their variation of matcha as “the perfect coffee alternative to help deliver that much-needed mental break” that originally translates to the ideal balance between serenity and zest.
In conclusion in a typical American fashion, Americans have made adjustments to the original matcha tea drink. Where it originally was consumed by only mixing powdered tea and water, many places have adjusted the recipe to include creams, milk, and sugar of various forms. Now, matcha drinks not only appear in various shades of greens, but lavenders, pinks, blues, and yellows. The commodification of the tea ceremony drink speaks volumes to the American way of taking what once had great cultural significance and catering it to fit the capitalistic society we currently live in. While the original traditions and beliefs attached to ceremonial matcha coincide nicely with the newly emerging health and wellness culture, the truth of the matter is that large brand companies don’t really care about historical significance, but care more about how quickly they can make money off the latest health trend. If that means adhering to the original beliefs and concepts attach to the drink to attract better business, companies will have no shame in reaping those kinds of benefits. Through the commodification of matcha we can clearly see why America struggles with a modern day cultural identity as we have a greater tendency to take what’s not ours and strip it of everything that’s meaningful. Once regarded as the “melting pot” of people, the United States has yet to establish any means of tradition that surpasses superficial significance. So as it relates to the globalization of culture, I’d say that in the United States, true culture is hard to come by as seen in our fast paced, money making society.
