Must-Have Matcha: Discover the Secrets of Japan’s Most Popular Tea

Get the complete matcha experience, from growing and manufacturing to brewing and drinking

Nishio is one of the regions in Japan where high-quality matcha is grown, and this convenient two-hour experience provides deep insights into Japan’s green tea industry, covering everything from growing and manufacturing to brewing and drinking.

The tour starts with a 10-minute video that takes you through the history of Nishio matcha. Then it’s time to change into a traditional tea picker’s costume and head out to the Inariyama Tea Garden to see the tea in the field and take some atmospheric photos. Depending on the time of year, you may even get to see the tea plants covered with black netting. This shade cultivation technique is what produces tea leaves with less astringency and deeper umami—in other words, tea leaves that are just right for making matcha.

Next up is a half-hour tour of the factory. Your English-speaking guide will introduce you to all the different processes that go into making matcha. Particularly striking are the 120 stone mills all rotating as they grind the leaves down into powder. You can even try turning a stone mill yourself.

Then it’s time to switch from the making to the consuming side of things. Enjoy a cup of matcha whipped up from powder using the chasen bamboo tea whisk, with a traditional Japanese sweet to go with it. In just two hours, you will have seen the whole process and become a tea aficionado.

Access: Take the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya (about one hour 35 minutes). Walk over to Meitetsu Nagoya Station and take a train to Nishio Station (about 50 minutes). From Nishio Station, it is about 10 minutes by car.