Learn about Industry & Trade Terms in matcha

The matcha industry speaks three languages at once. Japanese producers use terms like aracha, shitate, and gogumi — vocabulary rooted in centuries of tea processing. Western retailers invented “ceremonial” and “culinary” grades in the early 2000s to sell matcha to consumers who had never encountered it. And international traders negotiate in FOB, CIF, and MOQ, the standard shorthand of global commodity sourcing.

If you’re buying matcha beyond the retail shelf — sourcing for a cafe, importing for a brand, or evaluating suppliers — these industry and trade terms are the baseline vocabulary. Japan exported 5,092 tons of matcha in 2024, a record fifth consecutive year of growth. Knowing the language helps you read the market.

Western Grades vs. Japanese Reality

“Ceremonial grade” was coined by DoMatcha founder John Harrison in the early 2000s — no regulatory body in Japan or elsewhere defines what it means. Any company can print it on a label. The term emerged as matcha entered North American health food stores and needed a consumer-friendly quality hierarchy. “Culinary grade” followed as the lower tier, and “premium” or “latte grade” filled the middle. None have standardized definitions.

Japanese tea culture doesn’t use these categories. Quality differentiation in Japan relies on:

• Harvest flush: ichibancha (first, highest quality) vs. nibancha (second) vs. sanbancha (third)
• Cultivar: Samidori, Gokou, Okumidori, Yabukita — each with different amino acid profiles
• Shading duration: 20–40 days under oishita cultivation
• Competition ranking: Classes 1–3 at the National Tea Competition, scored on a 200-point scale
• Auction price: the market itself determines quality through competitive bidding

The gap between Western labels and Japanese evaluation matters when sourcing. A “ceremonial grade” label tells you nothing about harvest timing, cultivar, or shading. An auction lot from Uji with a Class 1 competition score tells you everything.

How Tencha Auctions Work

The primary tencha auction takes place at the JA Zen-Noh Kyoto distribution center in Joyo City, where more than 40 tea wholesalers inspect aroma and taste before placing bids. The June 9, 2025 first auction averaged JPY 8,235 per kilogram — 1.7 times higher than 2024 and shattering the previous record of JPY 4,862/kg set in 2016. Some individual lots sold at 5.5 times the average.

These aren’t open-market events. Hinpyokai (品評会) — formal tea appraisal auctions exclusive to Kyoto since 1974 — are curated for established wholesalers who seek specific flavor, aroma, and color profiles for their blending programs.

Tencha is what gets traded. Matcha is the finished powder. Tencha is the shade-grown, steamed, dried leaf — not yet ground. Every bag of matcha starts as tencha on an auction floor or in a direct farm-to-mill relationship.

The National Tea Competition

Japan’s most prestigious annual tea event — now in its 78th year — runs across eight categories. In 2024 (held in Shizuoka, August 27–29), tencha received 108 submissions out of 787 total, the highest count of any category. The winner was Ippei Yamazaki from Uji City.

Judging uses a 200-point deductible scale across four criteria:

1. External appearance — shape, uniformity, gloss of the dried leaf
2. Aroma — presence of ooika (覆い香), the sweet-marine scent unique to shade-grown tea
3. Liquor color — clear green, no cloudiness
4. Taste — umami, sweetness, minimal astringency

Prize-winners fall into Classes 1–3. The top award is the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) Award. A competition-winning lot commands prices several multiples above the auction average.

From Field to Powder: The Production Pipeline

Matcha production follows a four-stage pipeline — field, aracha factory, finishing, and milling — with distinct Japanese vocabulary at each stage. Understanding these terms lets you trace exactly where in the supply chain a product originates.

The critical distinction: aracha is the crude dried leaf (about 5% moisture) coming off the factory line. Shitate-cha is the finished tencha after deveining and quality grading. Matcha is the final stone-ground powder. These are three different products at three different price points, and conflating them is a common sourcing mistake.

Wholesale and Sourcing Language

International matcha trade uses standard Incoterms — FOB Shimizu, CIF Los Angeles, EXW Uji — alongside industry-specific specifications for particle size, certification, and batch traceability. If you’re placing orders with Japanese suppliers, here’s the vocabulary that matters.

Trade Terms

Sourcing Specifications

• MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity): typically 1 kg for premium/ceremonial, 5–20 kg for B2B, 100+ kg for bulk culinary
• COA (Certificate of Analysis): lab document certifying pesticide residues, heavy metals, microbial counts, and nutritional composition per batch
• Lot number: unique identifier linking matcha to a specific production batch, harvest date, field, and processing run
• Mesh size: premium matcha = 800–1,000 mesh (holes per inch); commercial = 200–400 mesh
• Micron count: ceremonial grade = 5–10 microns; culinary = up to 25 microns
• OEM / private label: contract manufacturing where a Japanese producer grinds and packages under your brand

One specification worth memorizing: stone mill output is 30–40 grams per hour. That’s 5–6 lattes’ worth of matcha per hour per mill. Granite grooves need hand re-carving every 100–200 hours of operation. This structural bottleneck is why genuine stone-ground matcha costs more — and why jet-milled alternatives dominate the culinary tier.

Quality Metrics: How Merchants Measure Grade

Japanese tea merchants evaluate matcha using three objective metrics — color (L*a*b*), amino acid content, and catechin ratios — alongside sensory assessment by trained tasters. These numbers drive auction prices and wholesale negotiations.

Color: The L*a*b* System

The CIE L*a*b* color space provides objective measurement:

• L* (lightness): moderate values — not too dark, not too light
• a* (green-red axis): strongly negative = vivid green. The single most important color metric.
• b* (blue-yellow): low positive or neutral. High b* values mean yellowness — a sign of insufficient shading or poor storage.

A 2024 study in Food Control used hyperspectral imaging to predict matcha color with correlations of R=0.93 for L* and R=0.88 for a* — approaching the precision of lab measurement from a camera alone.

Amino Acids and Catechins

The ratio that defines quality: L-theanine to catechin content. High L-theanine (up to 44.65 mg/g in top-grade matcha) means umami and sweetness. High catechins (especially EGCG) mean bitterness and astringency. Premium matcha has a high theanine-to-catechin ratio; culinary matcha has the reverse.

Counterintuitively, lower catechin content signals higher quality in shade-grown tea. Extended oishita cultivation suppresses catechin synthesis while preserving amino acids. A matcha with low EGCG and high L-theanine was shaded long enough to justify its price.

Certification and Compliance

Three certification frameworks govern matcha trade: JAS Organic for production standards, JGAP for farm management, and FSMA for US import compliance. Each serves a different purpose and audience.

JAS Organic

Japan Agricultural Standards organic certification, maintained by MAFF, requires 3 years without synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizers before certification. It holds mutual recognition agreements with USDA Organic, EU Organic, and Canada’s COR — meaning a JAS-certified matcha can carry USDA Organic labeling without separate US certification.

The practical challenge: organic tencha cultivation is hard. Shade structures reduce natural pest control effectiveness, and nitrogen restriction under organic rules limits L-theanine production. Competition-grade matcha from Uji is almost never organic — the amino acid trade-off is too steep for top-tier umami.

JGAP and Import Compliance

JGAP (Japan Good Agricultural Practices) covers food safety, occupational safety, and environmental protection. It requires 100% conformity with Major Must standards and 95%+ on Minor Must, with annual audits. JGAP is benchmarked against GLOBALG.A.P. and recognized under GFSI.

For US importers, the FDA’s FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) requires a Foreign Supplier Verification Program. Key import facts:

• HS Code: 0902.20 (green tea, powdered) — 0% base tariff for Japanese origin
• Prior notice: electronic notification required before shipment arrives at US port
• MRL (Maximum Residue Limit): Japan’s positive list system defaults to 0.01 ppm for any compound-commodity pair without a specific limit
• Labeling: nutrition facts, ingredients, net weight, country of origin in English — no health claims permitted

The matcha vocabulary divide between Japan and the West isn’t just semantic. When a Kyoto blender says “first-flush Gokou from a 30-day oishita field, Class 2 at the National Competition, gogumi-balanced for umami” — that’s a precise description of what’s in the tin. When a Western brand says “ceremonial grade” — that’s a marketing choice. Learning the industry and trade terms doesn’t make you fluent in Japanese tea culture, but it does make you harder to mislead.

For anyone sourcing beyond the retail shelf: request the COA, ask for the harvest flush and cultivar, and compare the L-theanine content between suppliers. The numbers don’t lie, even when the labels do.