Zen culture and Matcha

Matcha Historuy in China and Japan

Matcha has been around for a long time, in fact it was discovered in the late 1180s, by a Japanese Buddhist Monk called Eisai Myoan during his trip to China. Eisai is also the founder of Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. He believed tea was an herbal medicine which kept him from illness and went on to write a book 喫茶養生記, Kissa Yōjōki. There are a few versions of where Eisai exactly planted his first tea plant in Japan. Regardless of the location, we can be sure that he played a prominent role in Japanese tea history and that Japan produces the finest quality matcha.