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The matcha craze needs more champagne
In the face of Chinese competition, Japan needs to do more to protect its world-famous powdered tea.
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In terms of mass-market production, the green tea game has surely already been lost to China, which has 30 times as much farmland as Japan.
PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
David Fickling
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If you think it’s hard work selling coal to Newcastle or ice to an Inuit, how about selling matcha to Japan?
That’s what China is hoping to achieve, as the biggest tea producer spots an opportunity in the worldwide craze for putting Japan’s richly flavoured green tea powder into everything from lattes and cookies to cheesecake and KitKats.
