Welcome to The Matcha Program 🍵
Hi, we’re Jules Reyes and Marc St Raymond. For over a decade, we’ve had the privilege of building our careers in the matcha industry.
Together, we were part of the founding team at Jade Leaf Matcha, where we scaled the brand from a single Amazon listing into the #1 selling matcha brand in the U.S.—an omnichannel, multimillion-dollar company acquired in 2020. Though we’ve since exited, we’ve remained closely connected to our network of tea producers in Japan and the community of matcha lovers we helped cultivate in the U.S.
After Jade Leaf, we each deepened our connection to tea: Jules advised U.S. and Japan-based specialty brands on DTC and B2B strategy, consulted CPG companies incorporating matcha, and supported cafes in elevating their programs. Marc celebrated meaningful personal milestones—most notably getting married—before we reunited to start building something new together.
Why We Started The Matcha Program
While our main focus is growing Mindful, we remain passionate about supporting small businesses—especially high-volume cafes. Matcha demand keeps growing, yet most programs don’t get the same intentional support and systems that coffee programs do. And baristas, often on the frontlines of matcha education, are left without the training or resources they need.
That’s why we created The Matcha Program: to scale the kinds of resources, stories, and systems we’ve shared behind closed doors so operators can thrive. Think of it as our consultation services translated into practical guidance you can keep in your pocket.
What is a Matcha Program?
A matcha program is the intentional way a cafe sources, prepares, serves, and educates around matcha (much like a coffee program signals quality and care). It includes everything from vendor partnerships and staff training to recipe development, menu design, and customer experience. A strong matcha program doesn’t just add matcha to the menu; it reflects the cafe’s standards, systems, and storytelling. In an increasingly competitive market, it can also be the key differentiator: setting a cafe apart, attracting discerning customers, and justifying premium pricing.
A Little Note on Perspective
Our love for matcha spans over a decade, and along the way we’ve each had our own stories that deepened our appreciation for it—through our careers, our communities, and in Jules’ case, even her body (with matcha-inspired tattoos). We don’t claim to know everything. The industry is evolving, and so is the information we have about it.
Our perspective comes through the lens of building a brand, working closely with foodservice, and staying connected to tea producers in Japan—all while being lifelong matcha consumers. We’re not tea ceremony practitioners, nor do we run a foodservice business. While we hold deep respect for matcha’s origins and traditions, the insights we share are rooted in community building, industry experience, and the vantage point we’ve gained building Jade Leaf into one of the top-selling matcha brands in the U.S.
What to Expect Here
We won’t be diving into broader topics that don’t directly serve cafes—things like health benefits, scientific studies, at-home recipes, or brand reviews. There are already excellent resources dedicated to those areas. Our focus is practical, context-driven education for high-volume environments, where systems and storytelling make all the difference.
Every week, you’ll find deep-dive publications on topics that matter most to specialty cafes and businesses:
FAQs on matcha preparation, batching, storage, and menu design
Sourcing and storytelling frameworks that add value to your program
Insights into balancing efficiency and quality in high-volume settings
Guideposts you can adapt to your own needs (never one-size-fits-all rules)
Our Hopes for the Industry
Matcha today feels like specialty coffee in its early years—full of tension between tradition and innovation, but also full of opportunity.
Leveraging our insights from years of brand building, foodservice collaboration, and close ties with tea producers in Japan, we see a tremendous opportunity to broaden perspectives and create more openness—for mindful preparation, thoughtful innovation, and a more inclusive global matcha culture.
The Matcha Program is our way of championing that balance: equipping cafes with resources tailored to their unique realities, while advocating for an industry where tradition and innovation can coexist and strengthen one another.
Collaboration and Community
We also hope to learn from you—whether you’re a matcha brand founder, cafe owner, seasoned barista, new pop-up concept, or devoted matcha lover. Join the conversation in the comments, share your experiences, and connect with others.
If you’re a barista, cafe operator, pop-up creator, or passionate enthusiast, we hope this publication becomes a place where you feel represented, informed, and inspired.
If you’ve made it this far, drop a 🍵 in the comments to let us know. And if you feel comfortable, share a quick intro and what brought you here—we’d love to get to know you.
Thanks for your time and for being here. Let’s build something special together.
💚 Jules & Marc
