One-Of-A-Kind Teas From Japan's Most Out-Of-The-Way Farms
We just wanted some decent Japanese tea. That's really how it began.
A desire that set us off on a quest, led to some great discoveries shared with friends, and resulted in a growing band of local devotees waiting on each new shipment.
Beyond The Bean
We'd moved to Melbourne from Tokyo, and we were jonesing for some decent green tea. We love our coffee -- and Melbourne's cafes serve up some of the best on the planet -- but there's only so much you can drink in a day. Green tea is our primary fuel. Our break from coffee.
So we figured let's just order some tea from Japan. And if we're gonna be paying all those shipping costs, then let's make it worthwhile -- let's get our hands on the good stuff.
So we figured let's just order some tea from Japan. And if we're gonna be paying all those shipping costs, then let's make it worthwhile -- let's get our hands on the good stuff.
The Haus Of Cha
And so it began: tracking down specialist farms, following recommendations, sourcing teas that other growers spoke of with reverence, and buying up small lots.
Curious friends became converts and wanted us to order extra for them. Then friends of friends wanted in. The next thing we knew, we had a Japanese tea master on our tasting team ... who invited another Japanese tea master. (Yes, somehow we've ended up with two Japanese tea masters.)
So we expanded our orders, got better deals, and were introduced to new growers. Our personal tea importing became something bigger, and Cha Haus was born.
Cha Haus to us is about discovering amazing Japanese teas and bringing them to the world.
Deep Tea Exploration
How deep do we go? We scour Japan's main tea-growing regions, going off the beaten track to find the really passionate tea growers, the ones who've stuck with it for generations, continuing even as others moved away to the cities to work in offices. We find the ones who have it down to an art.
While we're there, we spend time with our growers, inspect farms and sample teas. Lots of sampling. Cha Haus works closely with small-lot farmers at the top of their field -- families who have centuries of experience in growing, grinding and distributing the best in tea products.
We stock single-source small-lot teas from a diverse group of growers. And we never deal in mass product from massive industrial farms. When you drink a tea from Cha Haus, you're sharing the same tea that our growers drink at home with their families.
Much of our tea has never been tasted outside of Japan.
In fact some of our growers were stunned that non-Japanese were even interested in their tea. Most of them have no online presence or even an email address; we communicate by phone and fax(!). There are even a few holdouts who refuse to send their product overseas, and we need intermediaries just to get the tea out of Japan.
Sometimes, when we're lucky, we get our hands on microlots of matcha -- the tiny portion that is the cream of the crop. And by tiny, we mean about 1-2kg of matcha powder. Total.
At Cha Haus we spend a little more time finding our tea, there's less of it and sometimes it costs a bit more. But it's the best out there. If we can't do better than what's already on the market, then we don't touch it.
Join Us
The more people who join us, the more access we get to growers, the more varieties we can sample, and the more range we can source.
Best of all, the more we order, the more we help our friends in Japan to continue producing such amazing teas.
And over here in the coffee capital, we've achieved our own small victory; we now have Melbourne cafes serving Cha Haus teas.
Madoka Mills, Owner and Japanese Tea Ambassador