I love the historical reference of today's matcha hype parallel to 19th century British tea demand. And the accuracy of how matcha fell out of fashion in ancient China (heard about this from a tea shop owner in China). This made me think critically of my own consumption habits as well. Thank you!
This was an incredible read, and highlighted so many of my frustrations! I am half Japanese living in Australia and the sudden matcha boom is just quite strange as someone who's gone from secretly loving the mysterious green chocolate, soft serve, drink to it being totally normal to like those things now. Also having just read Babel all of the stuff you wrote about the opium wars in your piece gave a lot of context that I didn't have before. So thank you! I wrote a piece that talked a little bit about the trendification of Matcha on my page if you're interested - it's mostly about the rise of bag charms, but discusses the issue of Asian things being stolen and repackaged in general. Again, LOVED this and felt so seen in my frustrations over matcha and also learned some new things!
I love the historical reference of today's matcha hype parallel to 19th century British tea demand. And the accuracy of how matcha fell out of fashion in ancient China (heard about this from a tea shop owner in China). This made me think critically of my own consumption habits as well. Thank you!
thanks so much for making it to the end of this mammoth piece! happy to hear you enjoyed the historical parallels :)
This was an incredible read, and highlighted so many of my frustrations! I am half Japanese living in Australia and the sudden matcha boom is just quite strange as someone who's gone from secretly loving the mysterious green chocolate, soft serve, drink to it being totally normal to like those things now. Also having just read Babel all of the stuff you wrote about the opium wars in your piece gave a lot of context that I didn't have before. So thank you! I wrote a piece that talked a little bit about the trendification of Matcha on my page if you're interested - it's mostly about the rise of bag charms, but discusses the issue of Asian things being stolen and repackaged in general. Again, LOVED this and felt so seen in my frustrations over matcha and also learned some new things!
Thank you so much for reading and for sharing your experience! Would love to read your piece too