What’s going on with the matcha and chai obsessions?
Your local neighbourhood coffee shop today serves more than just a reliable cappuccino; it now might also boast a blueberry whipped matcha iced latte. As an Indian girl, I always make jokes about my ancestors looking down at me with shame every time I order my vanilla oat milk dirty chai. In Western countries, Asian ingredients have rapidly become viral as can be seen with matcha taking over TikTok and more and more people in the West buying, making, and consuming chai. Yet, what exactly is so different about these beverages? Where does this obsession come from?
The truth is, Asian products like chai and matcha have been around for centuries. Whilst today in Canada you can get these ingredients in lattes, pancakes, smoothie bowls and tiramisu, matcha originates from the Tang Dynasty in China (7th-10th Century CE), and was introduced to Japan in the late 12th Century CE. Matcha soon became an important part of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony; it was not only a drink, but developed into an art form and a meditative ritual. Japanese Zen Buddhist monks incorporated the careful preparation and consumption of matcha into meditation, as the tea helped improve focus and contemplation – enhancing the practice of mindfulness, balance and presence. With this focus on conscious, careful consumption, the matcha craze in Western countries is in stark contrast with the drink’s original meanings.
Matcha’s artisanal nature means that it is not a product suited for huge consumer demand. Ceremonial-grade matcha requires shade-grown leaves that are finely stone-ground, yet the rise in matcha’s popularity in North America demands an impossibly infinite supply. The result of this high demand is lower-grade matcha blended with filler substances being sold as high-grade, thus surmounting pressure being placed on the Japanese tea industry. With the heatwaves in Kyoto this summer severely reducing matcha production, this once sacred tea is facing never-before-seen shortages. Uji, the historic matcha capital in Japan, saw its shelves wiped clear this summer, unable to keep up with the craze.
Thus, a drink meant to evoke mindfulness, wellness, and simplicity is eviscerated by insatiable consumer demand. Matcha, rebranded and repackaged in the West, is now simply associated with health by virtue of its easily marketable signature green colour and so-called purity. Matcha, therefore, becomes a watered-down version of itself – it is wellness and mindfulness that has been commodified and gentrified, served with a dollop of strawberry cold foam.
Similarly, chai’s history and tradition are negated by its rebranding in the West. Chai, simply meaning ‘tea’, has ancient roots in the Assam region of India, yet its commercial production dates back to the 19th century when the British colonial administration established tea plantations in India for British consumption. These plantations relied on the indentured labour of Indians to satiate the British demand for tea and are perhaps reminiscent of contemporary manifestations of Asian markets catering to Western interests in “exotic products”.
In the early 20th century, when the British led campaigns to boost tea-drinking in India, the distinct flavour of masala chai was created by Indians in response. Meanwhile, tea, despite being produced in India, had been branded a distinctly British product – symbolizing British culture and national pride. Yet as Indian calls for independence grew, tea needed to be rebranded into an Indian product to shake off tea’s imperial association. As a result, tea in India, despite British protest, was made sweeter with the inclusion of spices and additional milk, thus creating the national Indian drink of masala chai. Knowing this history, it becomes ironic that masala chai, once transformed into a uniquely Indian drink under an anti-imperial context, is now being re-appropriated in the Western world in the form of a chai latte.
That being said, I’m not calling every barista, TikTok food influencer, and beverage enthusiast a neo-imperialist, nor am I asking for a historical disclaimer next to every coffee shop menu. But it is worth asking – why do these drinks start trending? Matcha and chai have the appeal of being ‘exotic’ as they are sourced from Asia and delivered to your local coffee shop. They transform your regular drink order into something more niche than just a basic flat white. These beverages are cultural capital, whereby Western consumer culture cherry-picks from global traditions and severs them from their roots, all while profiting off their aesthetic. With the boom of wellness culture in the 2010s and the rise of social media, these ingredients became ripe for commodification. TikTok algorithms provide the speed and scale for the Instagrammable aesthetics of matcha and chai to go viral, with their meanings collapsed into a “vibe”. Ultimately, the marketing of these drinks benefits from an association with the “exotic”, whilst still being palatable to the Western consumer through the incorporation of frothy soy milk and hazelnut syrup.
With this in mind, this raises the question: which ‘exotic’ drink is going to go viral next? Creators of colour on TikTok have taken to guessing – will it be Thai iced tea next? Has bubble tea had its moment already or will it see skyrocketing demand in the seasons to come? While it’s amazing that we can try and taste food items from around the world, it’s always important to consume with awareness, lest we perpetuate cycles of erasure and appropriation, even if the crime seems as innocuous as a cup of tea.