Our journey

I never imagined that I would leave a career in life science to work with matcha.

If you had told me that in 2016, I would never have believed you.

That year, I travelled alone to China and Japan. That’s where I had matcha for the first time – during traditional tea ceremonies, prepared by tea masters. I wasn’t completely sold at first. The flavour was intense, concentrated, and very different from anything I had tasted before.

But the experience stayed with me.

When I returned home, I wanted to try it again. The more I searched in Sweden, the clearer it became: the matcha I had experienced in Asia simply wasn’t available on the Swedish market. Perhaps that is also why matcha has gained an undeserved reputation here – bitter, astringent, and difficult to drink. Not surprising when the quality has often been far from what I had experienced in Asia.

I started learning more about cultivation, origin, shading, harvesting, and production. I began sourcing matcha independently and exploring different producers, regions, and countries. What started as a search for something I wanted to drink myself soon grew into something much bigger.

As I learned more, I also began looking beyond what was already established.

South Korea came into the picture through my partner, who had lived there for several years. I discovered that matcha was not limited to Japan – South Korea has its own matcha industry, with small producers and a distinct matcha culture.

Today, I source directly from small farms in Japan, China, and South Korea, looking for the kind of matcha I had been searching for from the beginning — vibrant and full of flavour, but also with a sense of place and something that makes me want to come back to it.

What started as a personal search became something much bigger. In 2025, I decided to turn that passion into a business, leaving my career in life science to build the kind of matcha company I had been looking for in Sweden.

That’s what it’s all about — bringing matcha with personality to Sweden, carefully sourced from the places and producers I’ve discovered along the way.

And that is how Yumeki began.