Podcast Summary: Culture & Code

Episode: The Matcha Craze: How It Started
Hosts: Rei Inamoto & Tara Tan
Date: October 28, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the meteoric rise of matcha in Western culture, particularly the US, and uses the matcha trend to decode how product ideas are discovered, commercialized, and made mainstream. Rei and Tara discuss the cultural roots of matcha, the evolution of how it’s consumed, and the broader patterns that enable innovation and the adoption of “exotic” foods and beverages globally.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Matcha’s Cultural Roots & Western Adoption

• Ceremonial Origins and Growing Up in Japan

  • Matcha holds a unique, ceremonial place in Japanese culture, often used in formal tea ceremonies and not commonly consumed daily.
  • Rei recalls childhood memories of matcha as an acquired taste:

    “I remember the first time that matcha ice cream was on the market... it was so bitter that I couldn’t eat it.” (03:02)

• Contrast of Traditional vs. Modern Consumption

  • In Japan: matcha is highly ritualized, not an everyday part of most households.

    “It’s not an everyday occurrence that you go to a Japanese person’s house and you see a matcha ceremony... it’s become a peculiar aspect of the larger Japanese culture.” (05:11)

  • Outside Japan (US in particular), matcha has become commoditized and creatively adapted, e.g., matcha lattes, desserts, and fusion drinks.

2. The “Fast Foodification” and “TikTokification” of Matcha

• Rapid Americanization and Business Models

  • Tara highlights how brands like Blank Street Coffee fast-tracked matcha’s popularity with highly customizable, sugary, and Instagram/TikTok-friendly drinks:

    “They do crazy customization to it. So like blueberry matcha, white chocolate matcha... it's caught everyone by storm because plain matcha is quite bitter.” (06:15)

• Visual Culture Drives Adoption

  • The visually appealing green and pastel colors lend themselves to social media, creating viral drink trends.

    “Having a mix of green and white is much more Instagram friendly or TikTok friendly in terms of the visuals...” (07:11)

3. From Japan to Silicon Valley: The Kuzen Matcha Story

• Spotting the Trend Early

  • Rei shares a behind-the-scenes look into Kuzen Matcha (San Francisco-based), whose founder (Eijo Skada) noticed early signs of matcha’s US potential during a trip to New York in 2014-2015:

    “He noticed just enough people drinking matcha at multiple places in New York that he felt, oh, this could be an indication of a new trend.” (07:52)

  • Convinced Suntory to kick-start a matcha business in the US, leading to ventures like Stone Mill Matcha.

• Why Did It Take So Long?

  • The slow diffusion of matcha, compared to other drinks like coffee or boba, is linked to smaller Japanese diaspora, deep-rooted rituals, and fewer cultural cross-pollinations.

    “Matcha just happens to be so specific... there isn’t as much diaspora of Japanese people or matcha drinkers going to other cultures.” (09:51)

4. The Innovator's Dilemma Applied to Culture

• Cultural Lock-In vs. Outsider Innovation

  • Tara draws parallels to “the innovator’s dilemma”:

    “It’s classic innovators dilemma... an adherence to [tradition]; typically it takes an outsider or... something on the fringe to disrupt it.” (14:46)

• Audi Racing Analogy

  • Rei tells how Audi revolutionized endurance car racing not by more speed, but by needing fewer pit stops—a metaphor for breakthrough innovation by focusing on overlooked factors.

    “It was about making the car stop less... sometimes it just takes a slightly different perspective to make something new drastically better.” (17:09)

5. Modern Trends: Customization, Price, and Globalization

• Commoditized Beverage Market

  • Tara notes that coffee, tea, and similar beverages are now largely interchangeable; brands compete on:
    • Customization/personalization (unique flavors, aesthetics)
    • Price (as in Luckin Coffee’s low-cost strategy)

    “Dimensions where highly commoditized industries can differentiate would be either hyper-customization or personalization, or just price.” (23:28)

• New Entrants and Cross-Border Brands

  • Discussion of Luckin Coffee’s aggressive US expansion, using price as a lever and culturally targeted promotions (e.g., free trips to Kyoto).

    “It's this Chinese brand trying to make it in the US selling matcha and then giving away a trip to Kyoto.” (23:14)

6. Broader Implications and Future Trends

• Food as a Gateway for Cultural Innovation

  • Beverages are high-margin, easily commoditized, and ripe for differentiation—offering lessons for other product categories.

• Patterns of Exported Culture

  • Boba’s journey from niche Asian American beverage in the late 1990s to a mainstream U.S. phenomenon is echoed as another case study.
  • Hosts speculate about potential new “winners” in food/beverage and other cultural exports.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Western Matcha Drinks:

  "Is matcha latte blasphemous to the Japanese?"
  — Tara Tan (04:14)

• On Instagram Influence:

  "...the visual representation, presentation aspect of it, I think helped quite a bit in the recent rise."
  — Rei Inamoto (07:07)

• On Cultural Fluidity & Diffusion:

  “Maybe coffee is much more present everywhere because of a lot of immigration... Matcha just happens to be so specific to come from a singular culture.”
  — Rei Inamoto (09:45)

• On the Innovator’s Dilemma:

  “It’s classic innovators dilemma... typically it takes an outsider... to disrupt it. And a lot of big companies struggle to do that. I wonder if that applies to culture as well.”
  — Tara Tan (14:46)

• Audi Racing Analogy:

  "...it was about making the car stop less so that over the course of 24 hours... they won by the biggest margin."
  — Rei Inamoto (17:09)

• On Commoditization and Differentiation:

  “It’s either on the dimension of taste, which is customization, or price. Those are interesting levers to play with.”
  — Tara Tan (24:26)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Traditional and Modern Matcha in Japan vs. US: 03:02–06:00
• How Matcha Went Viral—Fast Foodification/TikTokification: 05:45–07:11
• Kuzen Matcha & Early Market Spotting: 07:11–09:10
• Culture vs. Commerce: Innovator's Dilemma: 14:46–19:36
• Analogy: Audi’s Disruptive Racing Strategy: 15:56–18:51
• Customization & Price Wars (Luckin Coffee): 21:40–24:23
• Key Takeaways & Conclusions: 24:23–25:36

Key Takeaways

• Successful cultural exports often depend on breaking traditional boundaries—through outsider perspectives, mass-market customization, or reframing cultural products for new contexts.
• Commoditized markets can still be disrupted, primarily by doubling down on personalization or aggressive price strategies.
• Sometimes, the simplest innovations (changing “how” rather than “what”) can create dramatic industry shifts.

This episode provides a rich, engaging analysis of how trends like the matcha craze signal deeper patterns in cultural exchange, business innovation, and the fusion of tradition with viral, digital-era consumption.