Rows of tea bushes on a hillside in Kyoto

One farm · Kyoto, Japan

Farming

How Gokou is grown and made, and how we work with the people who grow it.

Rounded tea bushes growing under black shade netting

In the field

Grown slowly

  • One cultivar, Gokou, grown on a single tea farm in the hills of Kyoto.
  • The tea bushes are shaded before picking, for a deeper green and a smoother taste.
  • Picked at the first harvest of the year, in May.
  • Steamed, dried and stone-milled into a fine, emerald-green powder.

From leaf to powder

How it's made

  • Tea farmer pulling black shade cloth over tea bushes, the shading step used to grow leaves for matcha
    01Shaded before picking
  • Tea farmer hand-picking fresh tea leaves in a tea field
    02Picked at the first harvest, in May
  • Fresh tea leaves moving through a steaming and processing machine at a tea factory
    03Steamed, dried, then stone-milled
THAT MATCHA founder Amelia loading a traditional tea drying machine at the factory in Kyoto

Our partnership

Working with the farm

  • We buy direct from the farm, with no one in between.
  • We set a fair price together, and we pay it.
  • I visited, worked alongside the team, and saw the working conditions for myself.
  • It's a long-term relationship, not a one-off order.
It's not a big company. It just has the best matcha, and I pay them fairly.
Amelia, founder
Path through tea fields with bushes under shade covers

Grown in the shade, in the hills of Kyoto.

Workers loading fresh tea leaves into a processing machine

Respecting the culture

Learning from the people who grow it

What I know about growing and making matcha, I learned from the grower and the team at the farm. We follow their way of making it and sell it as they make it: 100% ceremonial grade green tea, nothing blended in and nothing added.

Hand holding a single fresh tea leaf above shaded tea bushes

From Japan to the UK

Direct from Japan

Our matcha travels straight from the farm in Kyoto to the UK, with no one in between. Every order is packed and sent by us, to homes and cafés across the country.

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