A Window into the Green Tea Culture of Japan

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The global demand for green tea has dramatically risen over the past few decades (Dufrene, 2013). With the increasing trend of being fit and healthy, Western countries have realized that green tea offers many health benefits and since then the tea has become much more popular. Chefs and companies from Western countries started incorporating matcha flavours into many different kinds of products. People seemed to enjoy the flavour along with different foods, and also people might have believed because there was green tea in the product, it was assumed to be therefore “healthier”. Even with the globalization of Japanese green tea, there seems to be only a very limited range of types that are available at local grocery stores. For example, the Real Canadian Superstore (a mega grocery store considered to sell a diverse range of foods from different world regions) there are only two or three different selections of green tea. Although in technical terms it is considered green tea, for someone like my mother who was born and raised in Japan, she refuses to drink this tea as she does not consider this to be the authentic Japanese green tea from her childhood. This is because the many varieties of green tea around the world have become, in a sense, homogenized. The blending together of teas through the process of globalization has washed out all the significance and meaning of green tea from different cultures like China and Japan. In Western countries, green tea products are not even labeled with their culture of origin; rather, it simply labeled green tea. Like many other products, the cultural aspects of the food’s importance and meaning are lost and are instead aggregated to a specific food type. The cultural aspects of the food can be entirely lost in the process. My mother says that the taste of green tea is very plain, missing the bitterness from the leaves-so she asks my grandma to send over packages of authentic Japanese green tea every few months. It is through this that I have also come to understand the difference between what is considered authentically Japanese green tea and generic green tea in name only. As being half Japanese but having been raised in Canada my entire life, it is very easy for me to lose touch with my Japanese identity. Having been able to participate in several authentic Japanese tea ceremonies has allowed me to feel connected with my Japanese identity and I feel as though I were reliving the rituals that my ancestors used to perform.

Globalization of foods has made it possible for people to have access to a diversity of foods; however, the cultural meaning behind them have been lost through this process. This is evident with the generic green tea labels which are available at grocery stores in Western countries. With the homogenization of the green tea itself, plus the marketing deemphasizing the various varietals that exist, the importance in Japan of hosts preparing and pouring the beverage as a sign of welcoming and warmth toward their party member(s) is lost. Matcha in Western countries is not used for the purpose of taking part in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony which has been performed over many centuries. Rather, it is bought and then consumed because of the known health benefits and because of the taste of the product. This leads to a question that deserves great attention: will globalization eventually lead to all foods losing their cultural significance over time? Further studies could look into ways globalization could preserve the cultural meanings behind foods.

References

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