Ceremonial Grade Matcha is Bull***t

A scene from Yasujirō Ozu’s Late Spring (1949), where the calm precision of the tea ceremony mirrors the film’s quiet tension between tradition and inevitable change.

As long as human beings have been consuming caffeine, which likely goes back farther than we can deduce, it has been used as a social accelerant. Not, social lubricant, mind you. It doesn't function in that way like alcohol does, loosening inhibitions etc. It’s in many ways the opposite. Caffeine in social settings sharpens attention, deepens connection, and ignites the intellect in a way that enlivens conversation, laughter, company. In short, caffeine consumption is deeply tied to community and the strengthening of bonds. It’s perhaps for that reason, that across history, caffeine has been consumed with reverence and tradition, which are after all, really just the expression and performance of communal identity. Across cultures, these drinks are honored; their preparation, their roasting, their grinding, are imbued with rites and observance. Their tools are meaningfully ornamented. It’s all beauty, and ceremony.

All of that said: “ceremonial grade” matcha is a marketing invention. It’s bullshit.

This month, I set out to write about matcha itself. Its growing popularity, its impact on the coffee industry, and why so many people are turning toward it. I love matcha. Most mornings I begin with coffee, but during that 1pm to 3pm lull I occasionally switch to matcha. The taste is wonderful, the latte form especially, and the caffeine effect is distinct: slower, gentler, and paired with a subtle euphoria. Unlike coffee, which delivers a sharper spike of caffeine that fades more abruptly, matcha’s caffeine is released gradually thanks to its natural L-theanine, creating a calm, sustained alertness. It’s beautiful.

But in researching, I kept stumbling across discussions about how “ceremonial grade,” is nonsense and it fascinated me. When we think of grading, whether it’s food or coffee, it usually follows a clear scale—A, AA, AAA, or, in coffee’s case, the familiar 100-point system. We might come across terms like ‘culinary grade’ meaning that it’s good enough to be used in fine dining. With matcha, though, “ceremonial”... why? A quick Google search and you’ll get a dozen articles explaining that the term has no basis in any grading system and is not a term in Japanese or Asian markets at all. It’s almost entirely a Western invention and only used in the US, Europe, etc.

The term is also has a clear racial undertone… I'm not sure you can say it’s outright racist, but it’s most definitely reductive. The idea in the western mind of ceremony and Japanese culture. Obviously, Japan, like every rooted culture in the world, has ceremonies. Still, this marketing works. I’ve seen, on the shelves of friends, the pricier “ceremonial grade” matcha. I’m sure these people bought it believing it must be higher quality.

One of the funny ironies is that in places where I’ve attended real coffee ceremonies, in Ethiopia and the Middle East, the beans used are often of lower grade. If someone tried to sell me “Saudi Arabian ceremonial grade coffee,” I’d assume it wasn’t very good. So why does “ceremonial” in matcha suggest luxury?

I’m honestly not entirely sure. Japanese culture is synonymous with excellence and so maybe we assume that the things this culture uses in their ceremonies much be even more excellent. That’s probably true. But I think there’s something even deeper happening. 

What is more luxurious than meaning? What expresses wealth and excellence more than  deep, rich intentionality? What makes us more human than taking an everyday act and elevating it into ritual, or taking an everyday object and ornamenting it? That moment when something we’re experiencing ceases to be mundane and becomes sacred, that to me is the only thing worth living for. 

So yes, “ceremonial grade” matcha is a nonsense term. But the impulse behind it points to something real. It reflects our hunger for ritual, for significance. Marketing might twist that longing, but it can’t erase its truth.

I think I’ll follow up this blog soon with more on matcha’s actual history and ceremonies. I have friends in the industry I want to speak with, because while the phrase “ceremonial grade” is meaningless, the reality of matcha ceremonies is not. They exist, they matter, and they are profound. I want to talk to them because, while I have not problem speaking authoritatively about coffee and some of its rituals, Matcha is a bit out of my wheel house.

For now, I’ll leave you with this: what is the reason the West associates ceremony with luxury? is because of its own loss of ritual, its own hollowing out of ornament and intentionality? It makes sense doesn’t it? We long for something we’ve lost. Too bad a tin can filled with yummy green powder probably won’t be enough to fill that hole.