Long before "That Girl" went viral on TikTok, touting matcha as a key to the social media movement's COVID-era holistic and healthy lifestyle, there was Dr. Andrew Weil.
Weil has been singing matcha's praises for decades.
No one was listening back in the 1980s, but today, courtesy of a major push on social media that started with TikTok during the pandemic and has grown exponentially since, the Japanese-grown green tea has arrived.
Dr. Andrew Weil went directly to the source of matcha in Japan's lush tea farms when he filmed his new documentary that explores the cultural, spiritual and healthful benefits of Japan's tea.
"We've just seen the market explode here especially among younger people," said Weil, who is regarded as the country's foremost expert on matcha.
Weil will share some of his expertise on Wednesday, March 11, when Fox Tucson Theatre hosts the premiere of his film, "Zen and the Art of Matcha." Admission is free if you register at foxtucson.com.
The film, which Weil made with Santa Fe, New Mexico, filmmaker Scott Garen last summer in Japan, explores matcha's origins and looks at its place in "the tea culture and spiritual matrix" of Japan.
"I had long wanted to make a documentary film about matcha to show how it's grown, how it's produced, all of the rich cultural tradition in Japan around it," Weil said.
The film takes viewers to the lush fields where matcha is grown "in a very special way" that includes heavily shading the plants "for about three weeks before harvest, almost a 90% shade cloth," Weil said.
"And in response to that, the leaves get bigger, thinner and much brighter green," he said.
Tucson health guru Dr. Andrew Weil traveled to Japan to film his documentary "Zen and the Art of Matcha."
As a result, the tea has more chlorophyll and flavor compounds that lead to more beneficial compounds.
Once the leaves are dried, they are stone ground to a fine powder a fluorescent shade of green.
"It's the only form of tea in which you consume the whole leaf, you know, rather than an extract of the leaf," Weil said.
Weil, one of the world's foremost authorities in integrative medicine — he founded the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in 1994 — was first introduced to matcha at 17, when he spent a year as an exchange student in Japan.
"On the second night I was in Japan, my host mother, we had very little language in common, took me to meet her next door neighbor, who was a practitioner of tea ceremony," he said. "That was the first time that I saw or tasted matcha. I fell in love with it, with the color, with everything about it, and I just was very interested to introduce it to people I knew."
When he was 17, Dr. Andrew Weil experienced matcha for the first time in a tea ceremony like this one shown in his film, "Zen and the Art of Matcha," being premiered at Fox Tucson Theatre on Wednesday.
But that was 1959 and there weren't a whole lot of people interested in drinking bright green tea.
It wasn't until years later that Weil began learning about the health benefits of tea and of matcha, whose high levels of antioxidants help fight cell damage and reduce chronic disease risks, according to widely publicized studies. Other health benefits include increasing your metabolism and promoting heart health by lowering LDL cholesterol and blood pressure.
Some social media influencers also praise matcha for boosting their energy without giving them the jitters sometimes associated with coffee.
"Personally, I think it's a much better thing to drink than coffee, and I'm pleased to see that many young people are switching from coffee to matcha," said Weil. "I think it has a much better effect. And I like to go on at great length about the problems with coffee, but I think matcha is a much superior beverage."
Weil tried marketing matcha on his website in the 1990s, but "nobody was really interested." Ten years ago, he and a partner, Andre Fasciola, launched Matcha.com, a company that imports "the best quality matcha" from companies working with multi-generational farmers in Japan.
"And we've just seen the market explode here, especially among younger people," said Weil, who included matcha on the menu of True Foods Kitchen, a restaurant venture he launched with Sam Fox in 2008. "We're one of the largest importers and distributors of matcha in the world now."
The doors of the Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St., open at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Taiko drummers and Japanese dancers will perform at 6 followed by the screening at 6:30 p.m. Those attending are asked to wear different hues of green in honor of matcha. To register and for more information, visit foxtucson.com.
