Early in her career, Founder Hannah Habes worked for a heavily-processed food and beverage company and her eating habits mirrored the company lifestyle: fast, processed, and on-the-go. This way of living began to catch up with her, and she developed digestive issues and began to experience hair loss. After meeting with multiple doctors and nutritionists, it became clear to her that her diet was the culprit. Wholesome, organic food would soon turn her health around.

A close friend had spent time in Japan and introduced Hannah to matcha. It was love at first sip. The energy she got from drinking matcha was unlike anything she’d experienced before: alert, yet calm. After learning more about the history and health benefits of this unique tea, she began to explore more deeply. Most matcha companies offered little-to-no visibility into where their matcha actually came from. The matcha was grown on a farm, sent to a distributor, often blended with matcha from other farms, making it basically impossible to identify the original source.

Hannah had a vision to source high quality, organic matcha with a transparent supply chain and environmentally sustainable practices. She began importing matcha from Japan, taste testing over 100 varieties. On a trip to Japan, Hannah met a farmer whose sustainability practices were inspiring—tea leaves were shaded beneath solar panels that generated power for nearby towns. Additionally, he managed the entire process of making matcha in-house, never losing sight of the tea. This was the beginning of Matchaful’s single-origin line… and the genesis of all things Matchaful.