Specialty Matcha Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4uIvpxzwyVbQRTeRrnrlvW?si=KqUfE4DJQFmM0Tw6Cue9Lg
Ryan and Zongjun (Sam) discuss the lack of unique perspective in contemporary matcha branding. Topics range from the emerging specialty matcha playbook, to chanoyu as a source of inspiration and a trap, the equipment and access barriers that limit experimentation, and why taking a risk in this industry is so expensive.

In this episode hosts Ryan and Zongjun (Sam) discuss the narrative differences between Chinese and Japanese made matcha. Sam has recently come back from Hubei and Henan, where he and a friend discovered Yabukita and Okumidori seedlings for sale. They learned a lot of interesting insights about how they got there and a 1990s Chinese-Japanese partnership to produce Japanese-style teas in rural China to aide in poverty alleviation.
Ryan was at the Paris Tea Festival, where he attended a talk from Katrin Rougeventre, author of L'Empire du thé: Le guide des thés de Chine (The Tea Empire: a guide to Chinese teas), on Chinese matcha. She presented a fresh framing about quality improvements in contemporary Chinese matcha, and that it's low-quality reputation is a very outdated characterization.
Opens with a tangent on the disappearance of Uji's old trees. More about "What happened to Uji's old trees?" soon on substack.

Recorded: Early May 2026
In this episode, Ryan and Zongjun (Sam) record live from Canton Fair in Guangzhou to map the Chinese matcha scene in 2026. They cover what changed in two years: "average quality" material that now rivals "average quality" Japanese tencha at 50 to 150 US dollars a kilo, the 8+ provinces producing tencha, Chinese cultivars like Longjing 43, Echa 10, and Fuding Da Bai, GuiCha confirming 4,000 tons of annual output nearly equal to all of Japan, and Ito En quietly sourcing Chinese tencha. Plus ball milling versus imported ishi usu, pesticide residue and EU export compliance, and why seven competing grading systems prove ceremonial grade means nothing.

In this episode, Ryan and Zongjun (Sam) close out the Uji matcha series with a debate: can Uji matcha actually be defined? The episode maps the full spectrum of definitions, from the least conservative, where Uji is a processing and blending culture and the leaf can come from neighboring Yamashiro towns or entirely different prefectures, to the most conservative, where true Uji matcha means tencha grown in Uji itself. They test the legal, cultural, historical, and genetic definitions against each other, from the ochashi blending houses and tencha auctions to the thought experiment of foreign producers acquiring abandoned Uji plots. Along the way: why yabukita grown in Uji is arguably less "Uji" than Uji native zairai cultivars like Asahi, Samidori, Uji Hikari, and Okunoyama, what was lost when seed-propagated zairai gave way to clonal cultivars 50 years ago, why Asahi is struggling in a changing climate, and what Chinese matcha marketed as "Uji grade" reveals about the name. Wherever you land between those two extremes, believing in Uji matcha means holding a contradiction in your mind.

Companion to the Uji-no-Matcha Substack series, with "What Happened to All of Uji's Old Tea Trees?" coming soon!

https://sankomatcha.substack.com/p/uji-no-matcha-the-inconvenient-truth?r=3mxquk

Ryan and Sam (Zongjun) discuss the recent GI status granted to Japanese tea, its implications for the industry, and the problems associated with the definition.

https://www.maff.go.jp/j/shokusan/gi_act/register/0179/index.html
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/84493979276a5984cb6ec8c0e6b987dc1a33edd6