Buying matcha in Switzerland: prices by grade and region

What does matcha cost in Switzerland?

The price depends mostly on what a matcha is sold for. In October 2026 we collected prices from 16 Swiss online shops: tea shops, matcha shops, large online retailers and supermarkets. The table shows the ranges per 10g and per 2g serving.

Sample of 16 Swiss online shops with 61 prices, as of October 2026; prices can change. We counted single-purchase prices without shipping or subscriptions and left out sold-out products. Each product is grouped by how its product page labels it. A region only counts when the shop names it.

For matcha sold as “ceremonial” or first harvest, half of the prices fell between about CHF 8 and CHF 10 per 10g. The cheapest items were 100g bags with no harvest stated, at about CHF 2 per 10g. For Nishio, Yame and matcha from China we found too few products for a range of their own.

What does the raw tea cost in Japan?

Matcha’s raw material is tencha: the shaded, steamed and dried tea leaves that matcha is ground from. Public price data exists mainly for tencha. These prices are in yen per kilo of unground raw tea in Japan, before milling, packing, shipping, import and VAT. That is why they cannot be compared directly with retail prices per 10g.

• Japan, 2025 average: 8,562 yen per kilo across all harvests, 10,030 yen for the first spring harvest (ichibancha) and 4,950 yen for the second harvest.
• Kyoto, including the Uji region: At the first tencha market in May 2026, machine-harvested tencha averaged 13,972 yen per kilo.
• Kagoshima: At a large tencha trading day in May 2026, the average was about 19,000 yen per kilo, around 1.8 times the 2025 level.
• Shizuoka: We found no tencha prices of its own. According to the agriculture ministry, tea from the 2026 first spring harvest there, not only tencha, traded about 70% higher than the year before.
• Nishio (Aichi): We found no tencha prices of its own. According to a prefecture document, tea prices in Aichi were about 20% higher in 2025 than the year before, with no tea type given.
• Yame (Fukuoka): We found no public tencha prices.
• China: We found no official tencha price statistics. According to People’s Daily, Zhejiang province produced 8,851 tonnes of matcha in 2025, worth about 1.1 billion yuan. That works out at about 124 yuan per kilo of finished matcha, or roughly 2,900 yen.

The figures from Japan and China measure different things: in Japan the market price of raw tea, in China the production value of finished matcha. Why raw tea prices have risen so sharply is covered in Why has matcha become more expensive? What a region tells you about a matcha is explained in Uji and other matcha regions.

What should you check when buying matcha?

Many packs say “ceremonial grade”. There is no official standard behind the term. The ISO technical report on matcha (ISO/TR 21380) describes what matcha is and how it is made, but sets no quality grades. More in What does “ceremonial grade” matcha actually mean?

Concrete details tell you more. This checklist works for any product:

1. Origin: country and region.
2. Harvest: ideally the first spring harvest, with the year.
3. Organic certificate: with the certification body named.
4. Price per 10g: makes different pack sizes comparable.
5. Freshness: best-before date and packaging.
6. Lab reports: testing for residues and heavy metals.
7. Foam test: the simplest quality check at home.

Where does the matcha come from?

“Japan” alone tells you little. A region such as Uji, south of Kyoto, or Kagoshima in southern Japan tells you where the tea was grown. In our sample, almost half of the prices came without a region.

A region is not a quality guarantee. Every region produces simple teas as well as excellent ones, and the regional price ranges overlap a lot.

Which harvest is it from?

High-quality matcha comes from the first spring harvest. The young leaves are greener and less bitter. Later summer or autumn harvests use older leaves, which usually taste harsher and look less vivid. That explains part of the price range.

Many product pages state the harvest, few state the year. If both are missing, it is worth asking the shop.

Is it really certified organic?

“Organic” on a pack should be backed by a certification body. In Switzerland, the pack usually shows a code in the format CH-BIO-xxx. The Federal Office for Agriculture lists the Swiss certification bodies and their codes, for example bio.inspecta with CH-BIO-006.

A certificate confirms that the tea is grown and inspected under organic rules. It says nothing about harvest or taste. If a matcha is not certified, lab reports help you judge it.

How do you work out the price per 10g?

Packs range from 10g to 250g, so the pack price can mislead. The maths is simple: price divided by grams, times 10. Example: CHF 30 for 40g is CHF 7.50 per 10g. One 10g portion makes five 2g servings.

Small packs usually cost more per gram. In our sample, the smaller pack usually cost about 10 to 45% more per gram than the largest pack of the same product, and in a few cases twice as much.

For baking, a cheaper matcha from a later harvest is fine. In a cake, the difference to a first harvest is hard to notice.

How fresh is it?

Once opened, matcha slowly loses colour and aroma. Worth looking for:

• a best-before date on the pack
• airtight, light-proof packaging
• a pack size you can finish within about three months of opening

The best-before date is not the harvest date. Producers set it differently, for example at one or two years for the unopened pack. The harvest year says more about freshness.

Are there lab reports?

A lab report shows what a matcha was tested for and what the results were. Typical tests cover pesticide residues and heavy metals. The most useful is a recent report from an independent lab for the specific harvest. If no report is online, you can ask the shop for one.

How can you test matcha at home?

The foam test takes a minute:

1. Briefly moisten the bamboo whisk (chasen) in warm water.
2. Put 2g matcha in the matcha bowl (chawan).
3. Add 40ml water at no more than 80°C.
4. Whisk for 10 to 15 seconds in a zigzag, like an M or W.

Good matcha forms a fine, dense microfoam that holds. The colour is vivid green. Lower-grade matcha barely foams and looks olive or yellowish. In taste, good matcha shows umami and a light natural sweetness, with little bitterness.

For reference, our own matcha: the organic matcha 60g in a resealable pouch costs CHF 49.90, which is CHF 8.32 per 10g or about CHF 1.66 per serving. It comes from the first spring harvest in Uji and is certified organic (CH-BIO-006).