Ceremony’s story begins long before the matcha latte became a fixture in cafes around Cape Town.
Many years before the Matcha Bar served its signature Triple Matcha on the Sea Point Promenade, and before we began importing from the hills of Japan’s Kyushu Island, the journey started with a single cup of matcha on a balmy summer's day in New York City.
Back in 2014, I was introduced to matcha by a friend while visiting Manhattan. My first taste was an iced drink from Cha Cha Matcha in Soho. I had never been much of a coffee drinker, often finding that the caffeine left me feeling anxious and overstimulated. On reflection, matcha seemed like an obvious recommendation, but it would mark a turning point that would quietly alter the course of my professional and personal life.
From the first sip, matcha felt different. The experience was subtle yet memorable, bringing a sense of calm focus paired with a rich umami taste profile that I had not encountered in a drink before. As someone drawn to savoury flavours, I found it surprisingly comforting and noticeably unique. Over the following weeks, the drink slowly became part of my daily routine, joining me on walks along the Hudson River and serving as a rewarding post-pilates and yoga treat. It naturally fit into a lifestyle I had built around movement and mindfulness. More than that, it became a steady presence in my anxious moments where focus and calm were most needed.
As my relationship with matcha deepened, so did my curiosity with the culture that surrounded it. There are stories of Zen Buddhist monks who would drink ceremonial-grade matcha before meditation to help them stay alert without distraction. There is the centuries-old traditional tea ceremony, called the Chanoyu, a ritual that captivated my imagination until I was lucky enough to visit Japan and experience it for myself. There are even stories about samurai warriors drinking matcha to fuel them for battle. The more I learned, the more I realised this beautiful green powder was meant to be much more than just a drink.
It was a ritual.
By 2019, the name Ceremony had already been brainstormed. Written on a yellow exam pad and tucked amongst a handful of other business ideas, the word ‘Ceremony’ captured how matcha made me feel and what the drink had come to represent for me. The word represented a ritual, mindfulness, the beauty of slowing down, and a softer way of moving through the day.
I returned to South Africa to continue my studies in Cape Town. Moving to a new city at the beginning of a global pandemic added an extra layer of difficulty to an already uncertain time. There were fewer opportunities to meet people and build a lasting community. Constantly feeling older than my classmates and slightly out of place, I had a strong inner desire to create something of my own.
Within this period of uncertainty, something became strikingly obvious. The matcha in South Africa simply wasn’t very good. Every tin revealed the same issues. Dull colour, a muted flavour, and the absence of the signature umami of true ceremonial-grade matcha. This felt deeply underwhelming, and having experienced high-quality matcha in New York and overseas, I knew exactly what was missing and what good matcha was capable of being. It was at this moment that I identified a clear opportunity to introduce a different standard of matcha to South Africans.
I remember one Health Bar in Cape Town at the time that prepared matcha the way it was intended. It was called DOING WELL and was founded by Kira Jacobs, a long-time family friend and now the creative force behind our Ceremony Matcha Bar menu. Looking back, this feels like a full-circle moment for Ceremony. Aside from DOING WELL, I knew that with every subpar matcha powder, more consumers would taste the product and decide it was not for them. In many ways, this helped explain why matcha took longer to gain traction in South Africa than in other cities with access to high-quality matcha powders.
By 2022, everything began to align. Ceremony took shape with a clear focus on bringing fresh matcha into the local market. From the first batch of imports, I chose to work directly with farmers and suppliers in Japan, sourcing some of the highest grades of matcha that is milled and shipped to Cape Town immediately after packaging. This approach required committing to each harvest in advance. We pay for the product before the milling process begins, to ensure we receive the powder at its freshest point. Handled this way, every bowl of Ceremony matcha is in its most intact form, featuring the full spectrum of matcha benefits like L-theanine, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.
These are the pillars that define exceptional matcha and set us apart from the rest. There is no time for Ceremony matcha to sit on shelves or in warehouses for months at a time, and that is one of the key differences between our product and others. We had introduced South Africans to a matcha powder that most had never encountered before.
You can explore our Matcha Range Here.
