Chaora did not begin with a business plan.
It began with one of our co-founders, Lyric, and a genuine, long-standing love of matcha.
Over the years, Lyric tried matcha from different origins, brands and grades. While living in the UK, Lyric went through the same process as many consumers and independent cafés: tasting, comparing and searching for a product that felt right.
Some matcha tasted excellent but came at a very high price. Others were more commercially accessible but compromised on colour, aroma or consistency. Some performed well in one batch but struggled to deliver the same experience in the next.
Gradually, Lyric realised that this was not simply a personal frustration. For many independent cafés in the UK, finding matcha that achieves a sensible balance between flavour, colour, consistency, supply and commercial cost can be equally difficult.
The question that set the search in motion was simple: as someone from China with a genuine love of matcha, why not go directly to the source to learn about the matcha produced there?
With the benefit of language, cultural understanding and direct communication with Chinese suppliers, Lyric began tracing the supply chain further upstream—from products available online to retailers, distributors and larger tea suppliers, and eventually to the factories involved in growing, processing and producing the tea itself.
As the search developed, Lyric began communicating directly with producers and visited production sites in China.
There, Lyric saw the scale, processing systems and production capacity behind China’s tea industry. But we also came to understand that scale and capacity alone do not make a matcha right for a café.
The more important question is:
How does it perform in the drinks a café actually serves every day?
Does the matcha flavour still come through clearly when mixed with milk or oat milk? Does the finished drink maintain a consistent colour? Is it practical for baristas to prepare? Is its performance consistent from batch to batch? Do the cost per cup and continuity of supply support the café commercially?
Built around these questions, Lyric’s personal search gradually became our shared long-term project.
We began studying raw materials and processing methods more systematically, comparing samples and batches, and evaluating matcha in real café applications—including lattes, iced drinks and flavoured matcha beverages.
That is how Chaora began.
We do not position Chinese matcha as a cheap substitute, nor do we try to imitate the traditions of another origin.
Chaora focuses on selecting Chinese matcha at source for modern café drinks, while considering the commercial realities of running an independent café.
Because we are matcha drinkers ourselves, finding something that is simply “good enough” is not where the work ends. We continue to communicate with producers, manage our product standards, compare batch performance and develop ways to reduce supply risk.
Independent cafés need more than attractive packaging.
They need matcha that customers want to order again, that baristas can prepare consistently and that owners can purchase with confidence over time.
Our purpose
Matcha that works in the cup—
and for the café.
That is what Chaora is working to provide.