✈️ Japan is so 2025
MATCHA FREAK IS GOING on winter break!
Hi all! It’s Katy, the founder and operator of Matcha Freak.
I hope that you all are having a wonderful start to 2025 and are taking the time to dream about where you want to go and what you want to accomplish this year. Over here at Matcha Freak, I am currently putting together lists of cities that I want to visit. First on the list is Ise, Japan!
In 8 short days, I will be getting on a plane to Nagoya, Japan where I will then travel to Ise to spend a few days with Gen, our Production Partner. Gen’s family owns a tea production house that sources leaves from many small farmers in the Ise area. They produce many traditional Japanese varietals ranging from our beloved matcha, to the popular genmaicha, to specialty varietals like Gyokuro. They have been processing tea leaves since 1945 and have cultivated a trusted network of multi-generational small farmers who work tending to the camellia sinensis (tea plants) that fill the fields for miles surrounding the production house.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty details, I want to let you know what this means for you Matcha Freaks. I love a clear and concise highlight list, so here we go:
Matcha Freak will be going on its first WINTER BREAK from
Monday, January 13th till Monday, January 27th.
What does this mean for you? The website will be open for business, and orders can be placed during this time, but they will not be shipped out until JANUARY 27th at the earliest.
Wholesale Accounts: Please get all orders in for the product you require for service during that time ASAP. I hope to get all wholesale orders delivered and sent out by this Friday, January 10th.
Customer Service emails will be checked and answered weekly while we are on break.
Why shut it all down while I travel? Good question….are you ready for a peak behind the curtain??
Matcha Freak has been a self-funded, self-run enterprise from the beginning. I have been the one and only employee of the company since we launched 2 years ago. Ya, this means I have touched every one of the thousands of orders that have gone out. Many of you might be surprised by this and that is fair.
Matcha Freak, as a brand, does a really good job of taking up space and that has been intentional. Our number one goal has ALWAYS been ‘ MATCHA FOR THE MASSES’, and with your help, we are well on our way to achieving that. Our number one company value that makes mass consumption possible, is ACCESSIBILITY.
I created this brand with the idea of bringing matcha back down to the people. Matcha Freak is meant to make everyone a Matcha Freak despite where you are located, how much money you make, or how much tea experience you have. The brand itself is familiar, fun, and without many barriers to entry.
Our pricing is a true reflection of this value system. Whereas other brands charge double what we do, for the same quality and amount of product, we proudly are cheap as fuck.
I knew that this would mean less revenue, lower salary, and slower financial growth. But for the sake of matcha and living a life that I loved, it was worth it. So I took a leap of matcha-filled faith and left my very stable job to create something that I was extremely proud of in every way.
I am a single mom, and I do not come from money. I grew up in a small desert town in Arizona and have been working in restaurants since I was a teenager. I put myself through college, intending to become a diplomat. But after undergrad I went back to restaurants to pay off school and fell deeper in love with food and the sense of community that existed in food spaces.
I never left. I spent my 20s in Arizona, Vermont, Los Angeles and Portland running restaurants and cafes for amazing brands and with phenomenal people. It is a HUGE part of my story and I am so goshdarn proud of it.
So, I am used to the hustle. I knew creating this brand was going to be a grind, especially the first few years, but I have found that good, long-lasting things always are.
Luckily, the idea has panned out so far. In 2024, our second year of business, we grew more than 700%. Online sales have skyrocketed nationally, and in Portland, our hometown, we are starting to become a household brand name.
All revenue has been put back into the business to support that growth… product, packaging, advertising, the list goes on. They weren’t lying when they said… costs money to make money. And after two wild years, I am starting to finally see a world in which I can hire part-time employees. We are growing so fast that we need to, but before we do, I gotta go to Japan.
I have never been. Wild, I know. I had a trip planned for April 2020… and we all know what happened to cancel that one. And since then, there have been quite a few life events including launching this business that have kept me stateside.
After 2 years of playing ‘big business,’ I was nervous about people’s perceptions when It came to us shutting down operations while I travel. But, what I have come to understand is that our story IS our value. When it comes to competing in a landscape filled with the Amazons of the world, Matcha Freak, as an online direct-to-consumer CPG brand, needs to show what it is and who it is made of to maintain space in the market
We are not trying to achieve the unattainable and unsustainable perception of perfection…if we were, we would be a VERY different company. We are a brand driven by community, creativity, stories, plants, and all of the humans that bring these to life.
Capitalism is interesting… to say the least. And we gotta play in the system, but every now and then, we realize the power of our agency to choose differently from the status quo.
Today, I choose to show my cards and ask for understanding and support so we can further grow this amazing little business that strives to support small farmers, small businesses (helloooo wholesale accounts! Without you matcha freak would have shuttered long ago), and a national community of Matcha Freaks.
I am going to be documenting every moment of this trip to Japan. I will be posting mid-trip and post-trip recap blog posts. But if you want to follow along even closer follow these accounts:
I am so thrilled to get the opportunity to visit Ise. To meet the plants and farmers, spend time with Gen and his family at the production house, and explore the Ise & Kyoto regions.
It’s a literal dream come true.
I plan on bringing back a ton of inspiration for the next phase of Matcha Freak and new products to add to our catalog!
Thank you for being here.
Until next time!
