The article stated the difficulties faced in scaling up production, but didn't address the elephant: why couldn't macha be grown/produced outside of Japan?
Is it yet another case of if it's not from the specific prefecture in the mountains it's just simply sparkling green tea?
Other countries produce a huge amount of matcha. People simply want to buy Japanese matcha. While I don't consume it regularly, I would prefer Japanese matcha as well. Perhaps this situation will cause pressure to improve foreign matcha production.
I'm really surprised at the appeal of matcha and matcha flavored items and question how lasting of a trend it'll be.
Me too! But I have been questioning it for 10 years now and every few years we ask, "is this peak matcha?"