Tea ceremony classes in Japan are bearing the brunt of an acute shortage of matcha as a recent global boom in green tea has led to soaring prices of the product.While the farm ministry is seeking to increase production of tencha, a tea leaf typically ground into matcha powder, the industry has struggled to respond as the farming population ages and the number of successors dwindles."I may have to resort to whisking an empty tea bowl," said a woman in her 50s who teaches tea ceremony classes in Tokyo and neighboring Saitama Prefecture. She said she has had to switch stores as it became incre…READ FULL ARTICLE
