Mizuba Tea Co.

Mizuba Tea Co. is a woman-owned, family-run American tea company that specializes in stone-milled, traditional Japanese matcha and heritage loose-leaf teas. Based in Portland, Oregon, the company was founded by Lauren Purvis and has built its identity around direct, long-term relationships with tea producers in Uji, Japan — the historic heart of Japanese matcha production. Mizuba describes itself as a conduit for the skill, dedication, and craftsmanship of Japanese tea artisans, and it positions its teas as an accessible entry point into a world of flavor that most grocery-store tea drinkers have never experienced. The company's core offering is matcha: finely milled, shade-grown green tea powder traditionally used in the Japanese tea ceremony. Mizuba emphasizes that most of its matcha is stone-milled rather than jet-milled, a slower and increasingly rare production method that the company says imparts superior character and flavor. Its matcha lineup includes everyday and ceremonial grades, organic and single-cultivar selections, and limited tasting sets. Beyond matcha, Mizuba sells a wide range of Japanese loose-leaf teas — sencha, gyokuro, genmaicha, kamairicha, Japanese oolong, and hojicha — as well as tea tools and accessories such as chawan (tea bowls), chasen (bamboo whisks), kyusu teapots, and canisters. Mizuba sells primarily through its own e-commerce website, mizubatea.com, and also offers subscriptions and curated gift sets. The brand's educational content — guides on how to make matcha, explanations of what matcha is, and comparisons of tea styles — is a central part of its marketing, reflecting a mission to deepen understanding of Japanese tea culture. The company describes itself as fostering connections around the enjoyment of Japanese tea and invites customers to take a "Matcha Moment." As a small, independent, direct-trade-oriented tea brand, Mizuba competes in the specialty tea segment rather than the mass grocery market. Its emphasis on origin transparency, producer relationships, and traditional production methods differentiates it from commodity matcha brands. The company remains privately held and family-run, with no public listing.

Mizuba Tea Co. was founded by Lauren Purvis and has grown over more than a decade into a recognized American specialty tea brand focused on Japanese matcha and heritage loose-leaf teas. The company is based in Portland, Oregon, and operates as a woman-owned, family-run business. Its founding was driven by a desire to share the depth and character of specialty Japanese tea with American consumers who had only encountered commodity tea from grocery stores. A defining feature of Mizuba's history is the depth of its relationships with tea producers in Japan. The company states that it has over a decade of personal friendships with its tea-producing partners, and that these longstanding relationships allow it to source a range of exceptional, hard-to-find teas. Mizuba works directly with tea producers in Uji, Japan — a region with centuries of matcha-making heritage — and describes its role as stewarding the integrity and quality of the teas its partners entrust to it. This direct-trade model is central to the brand's identity and marketing. From its early years, Mizuba differentiated itself by emphasizing traditional production methods, particularly stone-milling. Stone-milling is becoming rare in matcha production, with most matcha now jet-milled; Mizuba states that the vast majority of its matcha is still stone-milled, and that when it features a ceramic-milled matcha, it does so because the tea is exemplary in character and flavor. The company sources its matcha from a friend's 100-year-old family matcha manufactory in Uji, where tea is shade-grown and stone-milled to order for freshness. Over time, Mizuba expanded its product range beyond matcha into a broad selection of Japanese loose-leaf teas, including sencha, gyokuro, genmaicha, kamairicha, Japanese oolong, and hojicha. It also developed a line of tea tools and accessories — chawan, chasen, kyusu, canisters, and curated sets — to support both beginners and experienced tea drinkers. The company introduced subscriptions, tasting sets, and gift offerings, and built an extensive educational content library on its website covering how to make matcha, what matcha is, and how to choose among tea styles. Mizuba has remained a privately held, independent company. Its growth has been driven primarily by direct-to-consumer e-commerce through mizubatea.com, along with wholesale and specialty retail channels. The brand continues to position itself around authenticity, education, and community, inviting customers to take a "Matcha Moment" and to discover the rich heritage in each cup.

• 2013

  Mizuba Tea Co. founded by Lauren Purvis, based in Portland, Oregon.

• Established direct, long-term relationships with tea producers in Uji, Japan.

• Expanded product line from matcha into heritage Japanese loose-leaf teas and tea tools.

• Launched tea subscriptions, tasting sets, and educational content on mizubatea.com.

Specialty, direct-trade Japanese tea brand focused on stone-milled Uji matcha and heritage loose-leaf teas, positioned as an authentic, educational, and relationship-driven alternative to commodity grocery-store tea.

• Organic Signature Matcha

  Organic ceremonial-grade matcha, a core offering.

• Daily Matcha Green Tea

  Everyday matcha with light toasted vanilla aroma and creamy, milky flavor; suitable for koicha preparation.

• Yama Matcha Green Tea

  Matcha offering priced from $33.00.

• Shirakawa Matcha Green Tea

  Matcha offering priced at $55.00.

• Koshun Tasting Set: One Cultivar as Three Styles

  Tasting set showcasing a single tea cultivar prepared in three styles, priced at $49.00.

• Hojicha

  Roasted Japanese green tea, described as an all-day, everyday delight, priced at $25.00.

• Organic Gyokuro

  Organic gyokuro green tea, priced from $17.00.

• Koshun Organic Sencha Green Tea

  Organic sencha green tea, priced from $13.75.

• Origami Matcha Set — White Chawan

  Elevated gift set with everything needed to make matcha at home, priced from $119.00.

• Hario Glass Matcha Set

  Glass matcha set priced from $99.00.

• Kotodo Sakura Tin Tea Canister

  Tea canister priced at $69.00.

• Nankei Chrysanthemum Kyusu with Strainer

  Japanese teapot priced at $114.95.

• Hasami-Yaki Bronze Yunomi Cup

  Japanese teacup priced at $50.00.

1. 1Japanese Matcha Green Tea | Mizuba Tea Co.mizubatea.com
2. 2About Mizuba Tea Co. - Meet the People behind Pure Japanese Uji Matchamizubatea.com
3. 3Daily Matcha Green Tea | Mizuba Tea Co.mizubatea.com
4. 4What is Matcha? Learn about the Benefits of Green Tea | Mizuba Tea Co.mizubatea.com