Gotcha Matcha

Today I started my quest to find the one ingredient for my Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes that I have never purchased before. I quickly realized that it is not such a common ingredient. I found myself searching the coffee / tea isle of my favorite local grocer. Empty handed I quickly moved to the organic / health food isle. Still no luck. Not being a fan of driving all over town to find one single item I decided to start researching online. I could purchase this particular green tea product from any number of online retailers but would be paying more than the cost of the tea to get it to me in time to make my creation by the delivery date. This option was tossed aside. Now I turned to searching for any possible place that Matcha might be sold in this little town. I called local whole food stores. The cheery employees on the other line quickly told me they were very sorry, but they did not carry the product I needed. How can you call yourself a "Superstore" and not carry a finely ground powdered high quality green tea? I was beginning to think that this stuff was reserved for smoothie shops and Japanese Tea Ceremonies. Don't get me wrong...Mr. Miyagi and Yukie shared a beautiful moment during Karate Kid Part II but did that one love renewing scene back in 1986 really make Matcha so popular that it is this hard to find? I had to tell myself I would not let the allusiveness of my heart's desire get in the way of my first dose of cupcakes. I thought back to the trucks you see pull up outside Asian Restaurants. They surely use products that they cannot order from the local food service company. I quickly typed "Japanese Grocers." Specifically those that would be found in my sleepy little town. Expecting the worst I was happy to see a listing for the east side of town, picked up the phone, dialed and asked my very important question...."Hi, do you carry Matcha Green Tea Powder?" ... "Please hold"....Another voice came on the line loudly repeating the name of the business, so I asked again, waited and heard the 3 little words I longed to hear "Yes we do." Thank you Japanese Grocer dude, I will see you soon.