The Fascinating Story of the Matcha Green Color
The Fascinating Story of the Matcha Green Color
The romantic history of Céladon, green hex code inspiration, and a recipe for making a perfect matcha latte
Céladon – The Fascinating Story of the Matcha Green Color
Six parts, forty stories, and sixty books in 5,399 pages — Honoré d’Urfé, the French playwright created a lengthy love story that took the 1600s by storm.
Encyclopedia Britannica describes his story, L’Astrée, as “the life and adventures of shepherds and shepherdesses whose main preoccupation is love. The book derives its title from the pair Astrée and Céladon, who are unable to marry because of their families’ mutual enmity.”
Though arrested for his political beliefs and navigating a pretty hectic and tragic personal life, his play gathered immense popularity. It was the rom-com of the century. It was translated across Europe and stage play adaptations took place in royal courts.
The main character, Céladon, had a costume full of green and grey hues that became closely associated with his character. The play was SO prevalent, it created a trend in French fashion and the “Céladon” color became popular to wear.
In the East, the Chinese had made ceramic pottery of a similar green-ish hue (青瓷) as early as 25-220 AD. Production of this popular style of pottery spread throughout Korea, Japan, and Thailand.
In China, the color was called, mi se, or mysterious color, as the pottery was created only for royal households and unseen by curious commoners. The grueling process of creating a piece in this hue was incredibly costly and therefore remained only deep inside the walls of royal households. It wasn’t until the 1980s that a secret tomb filled with pottery was discovered by archeologists, and mi se was finally rediscovered.
In the 1600s, by the time this pottery was traded, brought from China, and ended up in Europe – it had very little information attached to it regarding the painstaking creation process or even a proper name.
Europeans quickly dubbed the pottery, “Céladon,” after their favorite shepherd. The green color closely resembled the robes of the character that has started the fashion trend.
Today, Pantone has filed the color as 13-6108 TPX, and its hex code is #ace1af.
How To Make The Perfect Matcha Latte:
If matcha seems intimidating, do not fear! I am here to help!
So you’ve probably seen matcha everywhere - but what actually is that pretty green drink? Matcha is powdered green tea. So imagine green tea leaves (some of ours for reference) smashed and crushed until they are condensed into a tiny, powerful powder. It’s a chalky texture, unlike your traditional tea, and it basically becomes a power-up in this transformation.
“Farmers grow matcha by covering their tea plants 20–30 days before harvest to avoid direct sunlight. This increases chlorophyll production, boosts the amino acid content, and gives the plant a darker green hue.
Once the tea leaves are harvested, the stems and veins are removed and the leaves are ground up into a fine powder known as matcha.
Matcha contains the nutrients from the entire tea leaf, which results in a greater amount of caffeine and antioxidants than typically found in green tea.”
Matcha contains about the same caffeine content as coffee, yet it is scientifically proven to treat your body a lot better. You can read more about that here.
Real, good matcha should taste earthy but creamy, not as sweet as Starbucks, but not bitter either.
Color Theory matcha is of the highest quality, and a fantastic matcha to start your green dreams with!
P.S. As you may know, matcha lattes from coffee shops are averaging $7-$8 now - so it’s a VERY good time to learn how easy these are to make from home!
It’s actually not difficult to create a delicious matcha latte from home. And if you get the process down, a life of delicious breakfast lattes awaits!
Here is a step-by-step guide on how we make our favorite lattes:
What you’ll need:
The steps to create matcha magic:
1. Heat up 1/4 cup of water to 175°F
2. Scoop 1 teaspoon of matcha into a small bowl
3. Pour water over the matcha, then whisk until there are no clumps left
4. Froth & warm 12 oz (1 and a half cups) of your milk of choice
5. Pour matcha over milk, and sweeten if desired (my favorite is honey)
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Matcha green photo sourcing found here
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