Performative males didn’t do much for matcha sales

So, matcha shops must’ve seen huge numbers around these events, right? Not so fast: according to Stonemill Matcha, the Valencia Street boutique cafe that helped turbocharge the local matcha craze,  the performative male contests this weekend didn’t bolster sales, despite being held blocks away from the shop.

In fact, Shion Aikawa, a consultant for Stonemill Matcha, had no clue about performative men until a conversation Tuesday afternoon. He seemed bemused, as if my explanation of the phenomenon was an alien transmission from another universe.

There’s a bit of an irony, he points out, in matcha being a trend for mass consumption when its history in Japan is so centered around slowing down and finding peace in a shared space. “It’s weird to consider matcha as a performative act versus something that brings people in a room to calm down,” Aikawa told Gazetteer. 

Not that he’s complaining, of course: “It’s funny in a way that something like that turns into a sensation, but whatever it is, any news is good news!”

Aikawa noted that Stonemill’s customers are “a good mix” of young people, Japanese families, and women coming from yoga studios, but he’s not ruling out a performative male bump in the future.  “Maybe we should think about catering to TikTok and all that stuff down the line,” Aikawa added.