Drinking matcha green tea has been a time-honored tradition in Japan for more than 900 years. Buddhist monks valued matcha as a health elixir and consumed it prior to meditation. Matcha is cultivated from a high-quality leaf known as tencha. The tencha leaves are sheltered from the sun to produce a vibrant shade of green due to the increased amount of chlorophyll. Matcha leaves are carefully harvested by hand and briefly steamed to protect the leaves from oxidation.