About RYOKU
Green tea, the way I was looking for it myself
My story with Japan starts early: as a teenager I spent an exchange year there, and I’ve been in love with the country ever since. One of the things that stayed with me was a love of green tea. Through my studies and later in working life I had to make do with so-so green tea for a long time, until at some point I realised how much better fresh, carefully processed tea from Japan really is — in taste and in the way it works. That was long before the matcha hype.
For me, a good, fresh organic green tea is an essential ritual to start the day (my clear favourite for that is the RYOKU Signature Blend with matcha and sencha), and a faithful companion for all the moments life brings along. Deep work session? Not without my Matcha Genmaicha. A cosy winter evening? Not without Hōjicha. Friends coming over? They get their favourite teas, whether a matcha latte or a fresh cold brew Matcha Genmaicha.
The problem: in Switzerland, high-quality, fresh Japanese organic green tea was hard to find — and when you did find it, rarely in a way you could afford as a daily companion. That’s exactly the tea I wanted: high-quality, organic, fresh and made for every day. Because it didn’t exist, I decided to take the problem into my own hands with RYOKU.
The road to our farms
I searched for a long time, spoke with many tea farms in Japan and eventually found partners with whom I could develop the RYOKU teas together. When I first stood on the fields myself — in the mountains of Shizuoka and in volcanic Kagoshima, where our tea grows — I was stunned: I knew that tea growing is hard work and an incredibly fascinating craft. But how much handwork, experience and love goes into every harvest, I only really understood once I was helping to weed the tea fields and getting to know the people and communities behind the teas. When the farming family’s little daughter gave me a walking tour of the village. When I got to watch the young leaves growing on the tea bushes.
That’s why a good cup of green tea is more than a drink to me. It’s a ritual that connects me to the moment. And that connects me to the farmers who, with their dedication and daily work, turned the tea leaf into the glowing green cup that gives me energy, enjoyment and joy every day.
Beyond Matcha
Matcha gets a lot of love these days — rightly so. But that love is also deserved by the other fantastic green teas from Japan that aren’t as well known: fresh, glowing green or amber-brown, with many unique health and functional qualities, and as layered in taste as good coffee or wine. So at RYOKU you’ll find matcha and the teas beyond it — from the Signature Blend for the morning to roasted Hōjicha for the evening.
Why organic
Organic isn’t a marketing decision for me. It’s the best thing for you as a consumer — and just as much for the health of the farmers and the land they cultivate.
RYOKU means green
緑 (ryoku) is the Japanese word for green, as in the Japanese word for green tea, 緑茶 (ryokucha). Written differently, 力 (ryoku) also means strength or energy. My wish is that RYOKU’s teas can accompany and support you in your everyday life. Green tea is no cure-all, but I hope it sweetens and eases your path to your goals just as it does mine every day — whether that’s health, productivity, lovely tea breaks with wonderful people, or mindfulness. I hope RYOKU can help build an awareness of what good green tea really is. Just as coffee had its second and third wave, it’s time for a new wave of tea.