Brands That Give Back: Shoshin Matcha

Our Founder, Joe, met the people behind Shoshin Matcha, John and Sabrina, last year in Tulum. They chatted all things environment and a shared passion for conservation was realized. Shoshin have now partnered with one of our tree planting partners - Eden Reforestation Projects, to give back too! Read on for their inspiring story!

What is Shoshin Matcha?

We are Australia's first sustainable & environmentally focused Matcha company. Our goal is to give back to the world while providing our customers with the best premium organic Japanese Matcha going around.

Shoshin is a concept from Zen Buddhism which translates as “beginner’s mind”. It’s the act of having an open mind, letting go of all preconceived notions and looking at every aspect of our lives from a fresh, untarnished perspective. At Shoshin Matcha, we always try to let go of our preconceptions and approach life with the openness of a beginner; from our beliefs around matcha and its importance to our business model. We are always learning and evolving.

There is such an interesting story about why you got started. Can you please tell our readers what inspired you to start the business?

Shoshin Matcha was founded in 2017, but our inspiration to start the business goes way back in time. My grandma Tieco (Sabrina speaking here) migrated to Brazil from Japan in 1930 to work in the coffee farms.

As most immigrants, she struggled to get by and support her three kids. Life was not easy and she missed home, the food and the Japanese way of living, but one of the Japanese traditions she kept alive was drinking Matcha.

Every month grandma would always save some money and go to the Japanese district to buy some imported Matcha. It wasn’t cheap, so she would have only one cup of Matcha a day with dad and his brothers. It was a family moment. She would talk about her family back in Japan, their traditions and stories. Dad grew very fond of Matcha and passed on the tradition to me and my sister.

When I moved to Sydney in 2015, I went on a mission to find good Matcha. I tried a lot of brands, but when you are passionate about something, you can become really picky because you want the best! One thing that frustrated me is that most brands would sell the same type of Matcha for tea and cooking. Other brands would have drinking Matcha and cooking Matcha, but wouldn’t tell me which grade of drinking Matcha they were selling.

John saw my frustration and said I should import my own. Maybe even sell it. So that’s what we did… We then started our search for the best Organic Japanese Matcha producers. We spent over a year trying different samples, working on the website, design, labels, etc and we launched our website in April 2019.

What made you decide to give back to the environment?

As we like to say, we all have two homes: our body & earth and we should take care of them both. It’s 2019 and it’s very clear that caring for our planet and all the living things that call it home is essential for the survival of us and the world and as a responsible and socially engaged business we felt like we could do something. At the same time, we were aware we are still a small business and we knew we would need a partner to make it happen. We believe that every business should at least in some way give back to the environment. A mate put us in touch with Eden Reforestation Projects and we loved their ideas and the way they do things. By planting trees, we are protecting the environment, providing jobs for locals and giving back to the communities that truly need help.

Tell us about your goals partnering with Eden Reforestation Project, and why you chose to work with them.

Our goal is very simple, yet very complex: plant millions of trees around the world! By planting those trees, we want to help people that truly need our help. People who have no jobs and struggle to put food on the table. People who live in countries where their government and social programs can’t do or are not doing enough for them. We also want to help fix the damage that has been done to our planet and we could not find any better way to do all that than planting trees. We did some research about organizations we could work with and by chance at a friend’s wedding we were speaking with a mate and he offered to introduce us to Eden Reforestation Project. We loved their story and what they do with the local communities where the trees are planted. They make the whole process of partnering with them and donating money easy for a small business like ours.

If readers want to learn more, where can they find you?

At our website: www.shoshinmatcha.com . We are also very active on social media: @shoshinmatcha on Instagram, facebook.com/ShoshinMatcha/ and @Shoshinmatcha on Twitter.