Yame Matcha: What It Is, How It Relates to Yame Tea and Yame Gyokuro, Production, Uji Compared, and What to Check When Buying

Alongside “Uji matcha,” cafés and online shops overseas also sell matcha labelled “Yame matcha.” Yame is a tea region in southern Fukuoka Prefecture, known for gyokuro (a premium green tea grown under shade before picking). Checking public sources for what the name Yame matcha refers to, and how much of its raw material is made, makes it easier to compare what suppliers tell you.

What is Yame matcha?

Yame matcha is matcha made from aracha produced in Yame city, Fukuoka Prefecture, and the surrounding area, and finished inside Fukuoka Prefecture. It is registered with the Japan Patent Office as a regional collective trademark (a trademark that combines the name of a region with the name of a product). Aracha is tea before final processing: picked leaves that have been steamed and dried at a factory in the growing area.

The conditions registered with the Japan Patent Office

The regional collective trademark “Yame matcha” (registration number 6266776) covers matcha that meets the following conditions:

• It uses aracha made by tea growers in Fukuoka Prefecture
• The aracha is made in Yame city, Fukuoka Prefecture, and the surrounding area
• It is finished inside Fukuoka Prefecture

The holders are two organisations: the Fukuoka Prefecture Tea Commerce and Industry Cooperative, based in Yame city, and the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (JA Zen-Noh).

Source: Japan Patent Office, “商標登録第6266776号 八女抹茶” (Trademark registration No. 6266776, Yame matcha) https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/trademark/gaiyo/chidan/shoukai/ichiran/6266776.html

What the holders say

In the “Features of the goods and services” section of the same page, the holders explain that gyokuro production is active in Yame’s mountain areas, and that they use these gyokuro growing techniques to make matcha. In the Japan Patent Office’s list of regional collective trademarks (checked on 13 October 2026), there are five trademarks with “matcha” in the name: Yame matcha, Uji matcha, Nishio no matcha, Kakegawa matcha and Kawagoe matcha.

Yame tea, Yame matcha and Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro: the differences

Teas with the Yame name are covered by trademarks and a GI, and the only one registered as a national GI is gyokuro. Matcha is not covered by the GI. A GI (geographical indication) is a system in which the Japanese government protects the link between a region and the quality of its product.

The three names compared

The Yame tea trademark states that it also includes aracha made in the parts of Kumamoto and Saga prefectures next to the Yame area. The Yame matcha trademark has no such note.

The Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro GI is a gyokuro GI

Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro was registered as GI No. 5 on 22 December 2015. Its registered specification sets the final product as finished gyokuro. The GI conditions are as follows:

• The tea bushes are not trimmed into an arched shape; their natural form is kept (natural training)
• A shelf frame is built over the field and covered with rice straw or sumaki (a coarse weave of rice straw and reeds)
• In the final stage about 90 to 98% of sunlight is blocked, and the tea is covered for 16 days or more (about 20 days)
• Only the soft parts of the new shoots are picked, by hand

Source: MAFF, “第5号：八女伝統本玉露” (No. 5: Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/shokusan/gi_act/register/0005/index.html

The GI conditions apply to gyokuro, not to Yame matcha. For green tea as a whole, including matcha, there is the GI “Japanese Tea,” registered on 10 July 2026.

Where Yame is and the history of its tea

Yame is a tea region in southern Fukuoka Prefecture, in the Yabe River basin, where gyokuro has been made in the hilly and mountain areas. Fukuoka Prefecture explains that the large difference between day and night temperatures, which makes fog likely, suits tea growing.

Climate

The GI specification gives the climate of the Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro area as an average annual temperature of 15.2°C and annual rainfall of 2,019 mm (normal values at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Kurogi AMeDAS station). Articles by overseas shops give Yame’s rainfall as 1,300 to 1,400 mm in one case and 1,600 to 2,400 mm in another, so the figures do not agree.

History

According to the specification, Yame tea is said to have begun in 1423, when the Zen priest Eirin Shuzui founded Reiganji temple in what is now Kurogi town, Yame city, and planted tea seeds he had brought back from China. At first the area mainly made sencha, but it was found to suit gyokuro, and full-scale production of Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro began in 1904 in the former Hoshino village (now Hoshino village, Yame city). 2023 marked 600 years since the start of Yame tea, and Fukuoka Prefecture’s public relations magazine ran a feature on it.

Tencha production in Fukuoka Prefecture

Fukuoka Prefecture produced 280 tonnes of tencha (the tea leaves used as the raw material for matcha) in 2025, about 4% of Japan’s total. The largest type of aracha in Fukuoka is sencha (865 tonnes), and MAFF data puts Fukuoka third in Japan for gyokuro production.

Tencha by prefecture (2025 harvest)

According to the National Federation of Tea Producers’ Associations, Japan produced 6,278 tonnes of tencha in 2025.

Shares are calculated from the National Federation of Tea Producers’ Associations figures. The Fukuoka figures cover the whole prefecture; we found no statistics showing tencha volume for the Yame area alone.

Yame tencha by volume

Fukuoka Prefecture’s tencha is about one tenth of Kagoshima’s and about 30% of Kyoto’s. The Fukuoka Agriculture and Forestry Research Center writes that, as demand for matcha grows and machine-picked tencha spreads, Fukuoka is a small tencha region and needs to set itself apart from the large ones.

How tea is shaded in Yame

Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro is covered with rice straw laid on a shelf frame. For tencha, the Fukuoka research center is testing improvements to the conventional method of laying black synthetic netting directly on the tea bushes. Shading blocks sunlight before picking. The GI specification says Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro contains more amino acids such as theanine, a source of umami, and fewer catechins, a source of astringency.

Shading of gyokuro and tencha compared

Fukuoka’s two-stage covering

The Yame branch of the Fukuoka Agriculture and Forestry Research Center has set out “two-stage covering” as a way to raise tencha quality under direct covering. When two leaves of the first-flush shoots have opened, black kanreisha that blocks 60 to 70% of sunlight is laid on the bushes. Five days later, kanreisha that blocks 80 to 85% is laid on top, and the tea is covered for 20 days in total. In the center’s evaluation, the total score of the sensory evaluation, which scores appearance, aroma, taste and other items, was higher than with the conventional method of using only the 80 to 85% kanreisha. The extra layer needs more materials and more labour.

We found no statistics showing how much of Fukuoka’s tencha field area uses shelf covering and how much uses direct covering.

How Yame compares with Uji and Kagoshima

The trademark conditions and production volumes clearly differ, but there is no public data showing that one tastes better than another. Overseas shops and personal blogs describe Yame matcha as “sweet and mellow” in some cases and “grassy” in others, and some of these are based on tasting a single product.

What public sources allow you to compare

Figures are for each whole prefecture (National Federation of Tea Producers’ Associations, 2025 harvest). Features are from MAFF’s “The situation of tea.” The definition of Uji matcha is covered in detail in What Is Uji Matcha?

The awards are in the gyokuro section

Yame is known for its awards at the National Tea Fair competition. According to Fukuoka Prefecture, Yame city received the production area award in the “gyokuro section” for 25 years in a row up to 2025. This is the result of judging gyokuro, not the section for tencha, the raw material for matcha. The prefecture’s own tea competition (the Fukuoka Prefecture Tea Fair), held every year by the Fukuoka Prefecture Federation of Tea Growers’ Associations, also had two sections in 2026: sencha and gyokuro. When a supplier says the tea is from an “award-winning region,” check which section the award was in.

Yame matcha in Thailand and Singapore

Fukuoka Prefecture’s Bangkok office reports that in Thailand, matcha from high-volume regions used to have the advantage, but more customers now enjoy differences in flavour by region, and specialist shops serving them have appeared. According to the December 2023 report, most restaurants and cafés in Thailand did not pay much attention to the taste of tea, so tea from Kagoshima, Kyoto and Shizuoka, which produce a lot of tencha, had the advantage over Yame tea.

What the report says

The report says that more consumers enjoy differences in matcha flavour by cultivar and region, and that the flavour and aroma of Yame tea are highly rated in Thailand. It also describes a matcha specialist café in Bangkok that mainly uses Yame tea and Uji tea, whose owner has visited Fukuoka and Kyoto and talked directly with growers and tea merchants. The report says that inviting such shops to the growing region to see the tea fields and factories would be a starting point for trade.

We found no similar report about Singapore.

What to check when buying “Yame matcha” overseas

Even if a product says “Yame,” how much of its raw material is Yame tea varies by product. Under the “Green Tea Labelling Standard” of the Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association (a voluntary industry standard), a region name may be shown on the label only if at least 50% of the raw material comes from that region, and if it is less than 100%, the label must make clear that it is a blend.

What to confirm with your supplier

When buying matcha as Yame matcha, confirm the following in writing:

1. Where the aracha was made: whether it is from Yame city and the surrounding area, and whether the municipality is known
2. Where it was finished: whether it was finished inside Fukuoka Prefecture
3. The share of Yame raw material: whether it is 100% or a blend with other regions
4. How it was shaded and picked: shelf covering or direct covering, hand-picked or machine-picked
5. If it says “award-winning” or “GI”: which section the award was in, and which GI (Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro is a gyokuro GI)

The order to choose in for a café

The right grade depends on whether you use the matcha for lattes or whisk it and serve it straight. Decide the use first (Matcha grades), work out the buying price you can afford from the cost per cup (How to Choose Matcha for Café Lattes), then taste Yame matcha side by side with matcha from other regions such as Uji and Kagoshima under the same conditions. Why prices are rising is covered in Is There a Matcha Shortage?, and the regions Omakase Matcha works with are listed on Origins.

Sources

• Japan Patent Office, “商標登録第6266776号 八女抹茶” (Trademark registration No. 6266776, Yame matcha, in Japanese) https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/trademark/gaiyo/chidan/shoukai/ichiran/6266776.html
• Japan Patent Office, “商標登録第5116871号 八女茶” (Trademark registration No. 5116871, Yame tea, in Japanese) https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/trademark/gaiyo/chidan/shoukai/ichiran/5116871.html
• Japan Patent Office, “商標登録第6226519号 宇治抹茶” (Trademark registration No. 6226519, Uji matcha, in Japanese) https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/trademark/gaiyo/chidan/shoukai/ichiran/6226519.html
• Japan Patent Office, “地域団体商標登録案件一覧” (List of registered regional collective trademarks, in Japanese) https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/trademark/gaiyo/chidan/shoukai/ichiran/index.html
• MAFF, “第5号：八女伝統本玉露” (No. 5: Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro, in Japanese) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/shokusan/gi_act/register/0005/index.html
• MAFF, “八女伝統本玉露 明細書” (Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro specification, in Japanese) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/shokusan/gi_act/register/0005/pdf/0005_specification.pdf
• MAFF, “茶をめぐる情勢（令和8年10月）” (The situation of tea, October 2026, in Japanese) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/tokusan/cha/attach/pdf/ocha-201.pdf
• Aichi Prefecture, “2025年産茶の生産状況” (Tea production in 2025, National Federation of Tea Producers’ Associations survey, in Japanese) https://www.pref.aichi.jp/uploaded/attachment/622005.pdf
• Fukuoka Agriculture and Forestry Research Center, “直掛けてん茶の品質を高める二段階被覆技術” (Two-stage covering to raise the quality of directly covered tencha, in Japanese) https://www.farc.pref.fukuoka.jp/farc/seika/r06/06-15.pdf
• Fukuoka Prefecture, “グラフふくおか 2023秋 福岡の八女茶 発祥600年” (Graph Fukuoka, autumn 2023: 600 years of Fukuoka’s Yame tea, in Japanese) https://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/somu/graph-f/2023autumn/special/index.html
• Fukuoka Prefecture, press release on Yame tea tea bags from the National Tea Fair competition (30 October 2025, in Japanese) https://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/press-release/yametea-omotesenke251108.html
• Fukuoka Prefecture, press release on the Fukuoka Prefecture Tea Fair winners’ visit to the governor (19 June 2026, in Japanese) https://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/press-release/yamecha20260625courtesyvisit.html
• Fukuoka Prefecture Bangkok Office, “タイの日本茶の市場動向と八女茶輸出拡大に向けた取組について” (Japanese tea market trends in Thailand and efforts to expand Yame tea exports, 20 December 2023, in Japanese) https://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/209294.pdf
• Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association, “緑茶の表示基準” (Green Tea Labelling Standard, in Japanese) https://www.nihon-cha.or.jp/pdf/hyoujikijyun.pdf