How it started
Sho met Tatsuki — of the Hatatani Family Farm, the growers behind our Premium Matcha — while Tatsuki was in New Zealand on a working holiday. Talking together, we realised something: New Zealand wasn't short on matcha — it was short on the real thing. Plenty of tins on the shelf technically say "matcha" without ever being properly matcha.
So Sho started HINSHITSU (品質) — Japanese for "quality," because someone needed to say it out loud. The idea was simple: bring the actual umami flavour of real matcha to New Zealand, made the proper way. That means starting from tencha — shade-grown leaf, dried whole, never rolled. Roll it, and you've made a nice green tea — just not matcha.
UJITAWARA, KYOTO — FIRST HARVEST — STONE MILLED
HINSHITSU (品質) means quality — and for us, that's not a slogan, it's the whole point.
We work directly with small tea farms in Ujitawara, Kyoto: Kyugoro Tea Farm for our Ceremonial Matcha, and the Hatatani Family Farm for our Premium Matcha, produced exclusively for us outside Japan. Both farms value quality over quantity, giving each harvest the time and care needed to bring out its natural character.
What makes it real matcha? Our non-negotiable is tencha (碾茶) — shade-grown leaf that's dried whole, never rolled. A lot of powdered green tea on the market actually starts as gyokuro or kabusecha, teas that are rolled during processing — a step that changes the leaf entirely. Whatever the label says, that isn't matcha.
Why stone milled? From that tencha, there are two ways to finish it into powder. Stone milling grinds slowly with no friction heat — the traditional method, chosen for flavour and the foam it gives when whisked. It's also painfully slow: a single stone mill produces only around 40g an hour, which is exactly why most brands skip it. We don't.
Our Hojicha takes a different path entirely: leaves and sweet stems are selected for how well they hold up to heat, then roasted at around 200°C until the bitterness and caffeine burn off and that soothing, toasty aroma blooms — stopped at the exact peak and rapid-cooled before it turns muddy. From there it's jet-milled, not stone-milled, into an ultra-fine, consistent powder built for whisking into lattes and baking.
HINSHITSU is designed in New Zealand by KATO & CO LIMITED — every batch is sealed fresh in Japan, straight off the mill, so the powder never sits exposed before it reaches your pouch. From the tea fields of Kyoto to your cup — quality isn't a choice. It's our standard.