Japan has begun to see a shortage in matcha, which could spell bad news for your morning matcha ritual.

Soaring global demand for the green tea has prompted warnings of shortages this year, and with no sign of slowing down – the matcha market is expected to grow from £2.2 billion in 2023 to almost double by 2028 – shortages and purchase limits could become the norm.

Despite matcha production tripling in Japan over the past decade to 4,176 tonnes, according to Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, supply has failed to keep up with what Fumi Ueki, the chief of one of Japan's largest tea companies, called a 'record high' in an interview with The Japan Times.

While matcha shortages are sometimes caused by the tea's harvest schedule and tend to happen periodically across the year – matcha is harvested from late April to early June – experts are predicting that the matcha from this month's harvest will only plug the gap temporarily.

As reported by The Japan Times, social media matcha content and promotion is a huge driver behind the spike in global popularity. Matcha's hold on social media users is clear – you'd be hard pressed to scroll through TikTok without seeing one of Blank Street Coffee's blueberry-flavoured matcha iced lattes, or a new flavour drop from Gen Z favourite, JENKI.