Matcha ice cream has been available in the United States since the late-1970s, primarily in Japanese restaurants and markets, and became more mainstream in the late 1990s.

There is a theory that Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537 - 1598) ate shaved ice with matcha and millet sugar added.

There was also a shaved ice called Uji Kintoki (宇治金時) with matcha and anko (sweet bean paste) added.

[5] For example, ice cream with hikicha was listed on the menu of a court banquet for Prince Vittorio Emanuele, Count of Turin, a member of the Italian royal family, who visited Japan in 1898.

[7] When Charles Lindbergh of the United States flew to Kasumigaura, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 1931, he was presented with matcha ice cream by the Japanese tea association and was very pleased.

[13] In 1995, Maeda-en USA in California began selling green tea ice cream in Japan.

[14] Häagen-Dazs Japan started producing green tea ice cream in 1996;[15] it became an immediate hit, having twice as many sales as the previous favorite flavor, vanilla.