May Chen remembers vividly the moment she wanted to pursue her childhood dream of opening a matcha café.
It was during a power cut five years ago. She was sitting in her room, in the dark, thinking about what she wanted to do with her life. She was a full-time accountant, and it was something she was good at. “But it wasn’t something I wanted to do,” Chen recalled.
Cousins and co-founders of online matcha store Thea May Chen (left) and Enna Ye. Image: Supplied/Thea
She knew she wanted to own a café or restaurant, and then the thought of running a matcha café struck her. Growing up in Auckland, Chen and her cousin Enna Ye noticed an absence of high-quality matcha – powdered green tea - in the market. “So why not do it?” she said.
The pair were taking a risk - at the time, matcha wasn’t a popular drink in New Zealand.
However, that didn’t wither their entrepreneurial spirit. The duo decided to test the water by starting Thea - their online matcha store. Opening an online business is hard, but it’s even harder when there is a lack of awareness of the product. So here they were, rolling up their sleeves and coming up with strategies to change the stereotype of matcha. “People think matcha tastes bitter, but it’s not true,” Ye said.
Just like coffee, matcha has different grades. “Our research in 2015 and 2016 shows that there wasn’t really a split grade in New Zealand at the time,” she explained. “It was mainly low grade passing around the market with a high price because of a low education around matcha.”
Matcha is a green tea, grown from tea leaves and ground into a powder. Image: Supplied/Thea
The pair knew what they wanted in their matcha: good-quality, freshly ground, and organic but still affordable. That was when their journey of finding “the one” began. After countless hours spent tasting matcha, they found it - a “goldy” and “mellow” matcha from two farms in Uji, Japan.
Matcha was first discovered in the Song Dynasty of China (10-13th century), but by the 12th century, it had crossed the border to Japan, where Zen Buddhists developed a new harvesting method to maximise the tea’s health benefits. At the time, matcha was seen as a status symbol given its limited quantities.
It took Chen and Ye a year before they launched their first product, Premium Organic Matcha Powder. It was a busy year of testing over 50 samples of matcha, contacting their farms, sorting out shipping and taxes, designing packaging, and filling out a bunch of paperwork. “We were amazed at the amount of paperwork involved in opening a business,” Ye chuckled.
But raising awareness of matcha, she said, remained the biggest challenge.
The matcha from Thea is sold online and sourced from specific farms in Uji, Japan. Image: Supplied/Thea
“It was quite hard when we first launched. It took quite a long time to get matcha into people’s hands, to convince retailers and café to stock matcha. While some came on board quite early on, there were still places unsure about it,” she recalled.
2019 was a big change for them: it was time to put more effort into growing Thea. It was also the year they introduced sustainable packaging and refill options. “The traditional packaging, like foil bag, is non-recyclable. So it wasn’t an option that I wanted to put our matcha in,” Ye said. “If you can create a brand that you believe in and you’re proud of then you will attract the same people.”
During lockdown last year, Thea took off on social media. Influencers started mentioning them on Instagram, more people started learning about their matcha and more businesses started importing their products.
“The biggest moment for us was when we realized we can start re-sharing stories [across Instagram] almost daily now,” Chen said. Their matcha is now stocked and served across Auckland, Hamilton, and Wellington. It also became the key ingredient for Duck Island Ice Cream’s popular Matcha Strawberry Crumb flavour.
Thea has been built up over the last few years, selling its organic matcha online. Image: Supplied/Thea
It wasn’t long until they had their first out-of-stock. “We were panicked,” both chimed in. It was their first out-of-stock, first pre-order, and first time knowing their side hustle could turn into their full-time job.
Like how Chen sparked up her business idea in a blackout, it was lockdown when she questioned herself again whether she wanted to spend her life as an accountant. She’d put the decision off for years, but it finally became clearer during the pandemic.
“When I realised that I could die any moment, or could get COVID, I decided to go for what I wanted to do,” Chen said. She quit her corporate job earlier this year, as did Ye.
Since then, their daily life has changed: Chen focuses on digital content creation and spends her day designing graphics for Thea, editing videos, trying to get YouTube tutorials “into [her] brain,” and working on personal projects to find her styles.
Ye also wears multiple hats while running Thea. From a digital marketing manager, she is now a procurement coordinator, a digital marketing strategist, an administrator, an order packer, and sometimes a delivery driver.
“I was paid quite decently, and then this sudden pay cut. So, I knew quitting my job was risky. But I believe in Thea.” Ye said. “It has been amazing having Thea and learning how a business works from the bottom to the top.”
One of the farms in Japan which grows the tea matcha is made from. Image: Supplied/Thea
What also kept Ye going is the special bond she shares with Chen, who she called her “little sister.” They both agree that they share similar interests and personal stories: growing up in a takeout kitchen. Needless to say, the fond memories of helping their parents’ takeaways have fuelled their passion for cooking.
The cousins have been partners for years. In addition to Thea, they spend their time experimenting and perfecting recipes for their cooking blog – May & Enna. They also competed in a reality cooking TV show a few years ago, showcasing their heritage by creating Western-Asian fusion dishes. “When we were in the show, we had someone from London reaching out to us, and they said they were proud of us and glad to see more Asian in the media,” Chen recalled.
While Thea has been their passion, the pairs admitted they sometimes run out of steam. “From time to time, the business is what you do 24/7, and you get no break,” Ye said. “But I wouldn’t swap it for anything else.”
Along with the increasing popularity of Thea in New Zealand, Ye and Chen hope to continue delivering high-quality but affordable matcha to many Kiwis. “There are many little things that cost much higher for us as a small business due to efficiency. So we try to absorb as much as possible without hindering our business,” Ye said. “For now, we don’t factor many things like marketing because we still want to offer affordable matcha to people.”
The pair aims to expand their team in the future to achieve their long-simmering goal of entering the United States and Australian markets.
Banner image: Cousins and co-founders Thea May Chen (left) and Enna Ye. Image: Supplied/Thea
- Asia Media Centre
