Gen: The Story of Our Producer Partnership

a story told by the matcha freak founder, Katy.

I had always imagined a world of tea. A world that felt accessible, that invited people into a landscape of flavors that they had never beheld before. A world of riches, passion, gentleness, and understanding.

When I was concepting Matcha Freak, I knew that in order to build the brand I envisioned I would need to find the perfect matcha. Not only would it need to be absolutely delicious, lip smackable, and approachable to most…it would also need to be accessible in price to many. 

I didn’t want to build another tea company that offered a premium product shadowed by ambiguity and then tried to claim value by pricing it at a seemingly random high price. Isolating its audiences before they even had a chance to try it.

I wanted to tell the story of value and of values well practiced. I wanted to cut out the middle men that always seemed to want more than their cut to show why and how direct trade can bypass certain capitalistic practices that made us believe that they were necessary when they absolutely are not.

So the plan was to go direct to the source and really lean into the power of direct relationships. The power of two parties reaching across oceans to build a bridge of trust and reverence.

From my experience in both tea and wine, I knew that I really wanted a coastal grown matcha. In an environment created by the benevolence of the sea — cool, salt air brushing up against the tea leaves, the minerality of the porous soil, the gentleness of the sun when shrouded by regular morning fog. I knew that my umami filled, naturally sweet and gracious matcha would be found where ocean meets land. 

I literally took to a map of japan to guide me to my treasure. On it I saw Uji and Kyoto, the home of matcha, and looked for the nearest costal matcha producing region. And that is when I found Ise Bay. A wonderful little inlet just southwest of the Uji Prefecture. On Ise Bay, the Mei Prefecture rests on the eastern side. It is an area filled with mountains, large valleys, bamboo & hinoki forrests, and a gorgeous coastal area that just so happens to also be home to the famous Ise-jinugyu Shrine. A holy place for all the people of Japan. A place of pilgrimage and connection. 

It is there that I began my search.

The first tea producer that I made contact with, was the one that changed my life.

I emailed Gen, didn’t hear back, and then threw a hail mary by stocking him online. I found a contact on linkedin that I thought might be him, and I messaged with the soft pitch of the matcha freak concept. 

He messaged back within a few days. Thank the goddess .

He just so happened to be in Portland and we decided to meet up. 

He had just graduated college and was going to be the next in line to learn and take over the family company. I was his first customer that he brought in.

I pitched the concept that was based in accessibility that aimed to bridge both Japanese and American culture through things like animation, art and music. I showed him the visual ideation that had already taken place that used young, fun colors. And he got it immediately. By the end of the first meeting, we knew it was the beginning of a much longer story.

Within a week, samples of all of the tea and matcha that his family produces had been air-shipped to me. 

The very first matcha I tried, the Kaigan, was our first matcha in our line. From the first sip, I knew that it was the magic matcha that I had been quietly been looking for years.

The relationship with Gen quickly became on of the most important in my life. It is held by trust, earnest transparancy, compassion and understanding.

He and I share a value system that we have built ourselves. It relies on our similarities as much as it relies on our differences. We use both as tools to build a rock solid foundation that we plan on building on top of for the rest of our lives.

At first when I started Matcha Freak, I kept the possibility open that I may be looking to grow to sell. These days, all the boss ladies tell you that the smart way to own a business is to  aim to sell. And I was young enough in my career to consider it as a possibility. 

But after traveling to visit Gen and his family and feeling the tangibility of the impact of what we had created together, I knew that selling was a goal that I would never make. They made me want to build a business that not only I wanted to be a part of for the rest of my life, but also one that Gen and the generations before and after him would want to be a part of alongside me and my family. 

Gen and his family are my compass and my fuel.

Without them all I have is an idea.

With them I have a tangible, lived in experience of a product with a story that is thousands of years old. With them I have a family that spans generations of collective knowledge. And I would a complete and absolute idiot to reduce that relationship down to a monetary number that is will never translate to the substantive value that we have created together. 

Our value is the power of two parties equally dedicated to one another — and in that dedication we are able to cultivate and spread the magic that can be found on the divine coast of Ise.

I have found and true partner in Gen.

We not only do business together… we dine, drink, listen to music, travel, and onsen together. I have found a true friend and we both feel the luckiest that we get to live in the matcha freak reality that we are actively creating together. And that all of you are a part of as well.