In 1950 we opened our doors directly to those who drink our tea. In 1970 we took the name Maiko no Cha, Maiko Tea, and began selling under our own name the leaves we had spent generations learning to grow and refine. The formal name of the house remains Maikonocha-Honpo to this day.
What carries across those years is simple. The same family that tends the fields chooses what reaches your cup. We are not a shop that buys and resells. We are the source.
Masayasu Tamiya
Our house is led today by Masayasu Tamiya, the third generation of the family to give his life to tea. He is a tea master in the truest sense. He walks the fields, tastes through each season, and selects and blends the leaves himself, by hand. A blend carries his judgment in every measure, the work of someone who has spent a lifetime learning what a fine matcha or a great gyokuro should taste like, and refusing anything less.
This is why our matcha is our most loved tea and our gyokuro our signature. They are the truest expression of what the Tamiya family has learned to do.
From our fields, by our hands
Everything we sell is grown and finished by the family at our Kyotanabe workshop. The leaf is selected, shaded, steamed, and blended under one roof, by the people whose name is on the tin.
Because nothing passes through a chain of resellers, what you taste is exactly what we intended. Nothing is lost between the field and your kitchen.
For our signature gyokuro, that care has a name. The late Yamashita Toshikazu — Yamashita-san — was the quiet master craftsman whose name the range still carries. Today, his grandson Shinki Yamashita continues that same standard in the same fields.
Fresh from Kyotanabe, shipped by air
Green tea is at its best when it is new. The matcha, gyokuro, sencha, and our seasonal shincha, the first leaves of the new harvest, are all shipped directly from our Kyotanabe workshop by air. They reach you in weeks, not months. You taste the harvest while it is still young and bright, the way we taste it here at home.
From Fugenji to the world
A look inside our world
The people who carry it there
Ben Moskovich
Our bridge to the world beyond Japan. He carries the questions of our international friends back to the family, and their care back out to you.
Miki Hiroe
Works from the Japanese side of the business, coordinating with the family and helping steer where Maiko Tea grows next.
Mami
Looks after our social media and the creators who help carry the Maiko Tea story further than we could alone.
Dr. Ralph Faerber
A mentor and guiding force behind our efforts to share Japanese green tea with the world, and a lasting friend of the house.
The people behind the cup
Behind every order is a small team that takes the same care the Tamiya family takes with the leaf. We pack each tea so it arrives sound and fragrant, we answer with patience, and we treat a first cup of matcha with the same seriousness as a lifetime of drinking it. Our work is to make the journey from our fields to your table feel as short and as personal as it truly is.
“In the past, I found Matcha to be bitter and harsh. Maiko’s Matcha was sweet and not bitter at all.”
“I love having this tea with my breakfast. Everything was perfectly wrapped, and it smells so delicious that I cannot wait to brew another cup tomorrow morning.”
“This is the best green tea I have ever tried.”
For those who serve our teas in their own cafes and shops, we welcome wholesale enquiries and would be glad to begin a conversation. Get in touch.