Made in London,ground in Uji.

During my time travelling in Japan, I stumbled across a small family-run tea shop in Kyoto. A hundred years old, selling only the finest matcha, made from the finest tencha.

The family invited me in to try their matcha. It was nothing like anything I'd had at home. I knew straight away it was too good not to share with the world.

That trip is what led me to start Raku Matcha. To bring the same authentic taste of Japan to matcha lovers, new and old.

Our partner has been making matcha for over two centuries. The process is unchanged: shade-grown tencha leaves picked at first harvest, steamed, dried, then milled into a fine green powder. What has not changed is the standard.

Their tea appraisers judge every batch by eye and by hand. Colour. Fragrance. Depth. The best tencha leaves are selected and blended into a matcha that holds its quality from one tin to the next.

That is the matcha we get sent to London.

Hōjicha comes from the same Uji source as our matcha, made differently. First-harvest tencha leaves, slow-roasted to a deep amber, then milled into a fine powder. You whisk it like matcha.

The flavour is warmer: toasted nuts, mellow cocoa, an earthy finish. Naturally low in caffeine, so it works in the evening when matcha would keep you up.

For our bowls we work with T. Nishikawa & Co., Inc., a family-run maker in Kyoto's Kiyomizu temple district. Founded over a century ago, it is one of the last producers of Kiyomizu Ware, a 400-year-old ceramic tradition specific to the city.

Every piece is hand-thrown, hand-glazed, and hand-painted using the layered keshiki technique. The iron-rich glazes break and pool unpredictably in the kiln, creating a landscape of colour that is genuinely one of a kind. No two bowls are ever the same.