Green tea ice cream

Green tea ice cream (抹茶アイスクリーム) or Matcha ice (抹茶アイス Matcha Aisu) is an ice cream flavor popular in Japan and other parts of East Asia. Green tea ice cream is also sold in Monaka form. It has been available in the United States since the late 1970's, primarily in Japanese restaurants and markets, but was becoming more mainstream in the late 1990's.

Background
Matcha is powdered tea made from a special type of green tea called tencha (碾茶). Tencha is a tea grown in the shade and is one of the most expensive of all green teas, and is used in the Tea Ceremony in Japan.

Matcha is sweeter and less bitter, and is used today in a variety of sweets. In Japan, the Food Labeling Law prohibits the sale of powdered green tea made from any green tea other than Tencha as Matcha. Therefore, it is important to note that calling Matcha ice cream simply "green tea ice cream" may be misleading.

There is a theory that Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537 - 1598) ate shaved ice with Matcha and millet sugar added. In the Edo period (1603-1867), there was also a shaved ice called Uji Kintoki (宇治金時) with Matcha and Anko (sweet bean paste) added.

Matcha ice cream was served as ice cream with hikicha (挽茶入氷菓子) at court luncheons and banquets in Japan during the Meiji era. Hikicha (挽茶) means ground tea, i.e., Matcha. For example, ice cream with Hikicha was listed on the menu of a court banquet for Prince Vittorio Emanuele, Count of Turin, a member of the Italian royal family, who visited Japan in 1898. In addition, a 1907 cookbook includes instructions for making Tencha ice cream. Tencha (碾茶) is tea before powdered Matcha.

Also in 1926, a proposal by a Japanese American living in Texas to advertise Matcha in the U.S. with a newspaper ad for "Matcha ice cream" was claimed in a Japanese tea industry report.

When Charles Lindbergh of the United States flew to Kasumigaura, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 1931, he was presented with Matcha ice cream by the Japanese tea association and was very pleased. He was the first American to eat Matcha ice cream on record.

In 1958, a tea company in Wakayama Prefecture developed and sold a soft serve ice cream containing Matcha named "Green Soft." A coffee shop menu book published in 1968 listed Matcha ice cream, which was already a standard ice cream served in coffee shops at that time.

In 1983, a confectionery store in Kyoto Prefecture sold Matcha ice cream and soft serve. In 1983, Meiji Dairies sold Matcha ice cream under the Lady Borden brand (the Japanese brand name of the American Borden Company).

The amount of imported ice cream increased in the Japanese market after the import liberalization act of ice cream in 1990. In 1995, Maeda-en USA in California began selling green tea ice cream in Japan. The same product was soon imported and distributed to convenience stores and supermarkets in Japan as well and it was introduced in some Japanese newspapers.

Häagen-Dazs Japan started producing green tea ice cream in 1996; it became an immediate hit, having twice as many sales as the previous favorite flavor, vanilla. The product is now sold in Japanese grocery markets and has become one of the company's most popular flavors.

Statistics from the Japanese Ice Cream Association show that green tea ice cream was ranked third in the "Favorite Ice Cream Flavor" study.

Popularity
Green tea ice cream has been available in the United States, the country with the largest ice cream consumption, since the late 1970's, primarily in Japanese restaurants and markets. It is becoming mainstream and can also be made at home.

The U.S. saw rapid growth in Japanese cuisine and sushi popularity in the mid-1990's, which resulted in a big expansion of the Japanese restaurant business in the U.S. This development gradually helped people learn about green tea, resulting in green tea ice cream becoming a typical dessert.

With other dishes
Green tea ice cream could easily be integrated into various decorations and arrangements with other ice cream flavors. It could be served with other Japanese sweets such as Azuki (小豆), Dango (団子), and Monaka (モナカ).