India's First Commercial Matcha Is Assam's, Made on a Black-Tea Estate
Chota Tingrai Tea Estate in Tinsukia says it has produced India's first commercially manufactured matcha, after a decade working with Japanese partners. The first lot sold at the Guwahati auction on July 3.
The first commercially made matcha grown in India is Assam's. Chota Tingrai Tea Estate, in Tinsukia district, said it produced the country's first commercial batch of the shade-grown, stone-ground Japanese green tea and sold the inaugural lot at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre on July 3, the Sentinel and the Free Press Journal reported.
The lot went through as Sale 27, Lot 7001, brokered by J. Thomas & Co. and bought by the Guwahati firm Sheosons Chai Co. for Rs 3,000, the Free Press Journal reported. The estate said the batch followed roughly a decade of work with Japanese partners and the installation of Japanese machinery and matcha-production technique.
Matcha is a departure for the valley. Assam's name is built on robust, malty black tea, most of it made by the CTC method for the mug and the milk. Matcha is the opposite end of the craft: a green tea from shade-grown leaf, steamed rather than fermented, dried, destemmed to tencha, and ground on stone to a fine powder that is whisked into water rather than steeped and strained. Until now the matcha sold in India was imported, chiefly from Japan.
"Your favourite Matcha brew will now be produced in Assam," Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. "Furthering our glorious tea legacy, Assam becomes the first State in India to commercially produce Matcha tea." Mrityunjay Jalan, a director of Chota Tingrai, said the batch was "the result of a dedicated partnership with our Japanese counterparts" and said the estate expected its matcha to "find a home in households worldwide."
One auctioned lot is a debut, not a market. Whether Assam matcha reaches households at a price against established Japanese grades, and whether the estate can hold the quality shade-grown tencha demands across a full season, are questions the coming sales will answer, not this one. What the July 3 sale settles is narrower and real: the first commercially made Indian matcha exists, it was grown in Tinsukia, and it has a buyer.
Sources: The Sentinel, "Assam Becomes First State to Commercially Produce Matcha Tea" (July 3, 2026); The Free Press Journal, "Assam Becomes First Indian State To Commercially Produce Matcha Tea" (July 3, 2026); ANI, "Assam tea estate launches India's first commercially produce Matcha tea" (July 3, 2026).