The powdered green tea matcha is valued around the world — and on Kauaʻi — for its unique umami flavor. But there is apparently only one matcha mill in Hawaiʻi, and it’s easy to miss.
The rare machine and culinary treasure, about the size of a mini fridge, is tucked away in a corner of the Collab Café, a restaurant in Kapaʻa that is dominated by a massive coffee roaster.
The dimensions of the matcha mill belie its 500-pound weight. When operating, twin 60-pound stones complete 59 revolutions per minute, grinding dried tea leaves known as tenscha into fresh, bright-green matcha.
Govinda Rubin does not mind the time-consuming process.
“It’s so relaxing,” he said. “I get to be here preparing beautiful tea with a traditional stone mill … I’m not climbing 50-foot coconut trees.”
Rubin knows what he’s talking about. A full-time palm trimmer with a passion for tea, he and his wife Sayuri Handa have milled in Collab’s commercial kitchen since March 2023. Their business, Aloha Matcha, expanded later that year to include a teahouse at Anahola Market.
The couple freshly mill all matcha served at Collab. The couple also packages seven distinct varieties under the Aloha Matcha brand, all sourced from the 800-year-old tea village of Wazuka outside Kyoto in Japan.
“They’ve been essentially growing natural tea for hundreds of years,” Rubin said. “Their quality and consistency, the care that they put into the tea, I feel that’s first and foremost.”
The generational farmers of Wazuka grow Camellia sinensis. It’s the same plant found in any bag of black or green tea, only cultivated, picked and processed according to certain requirements.
To make matcha, plants are shade-grown before their leaves are picked, steamed, cooled, dried, sorted, kneaded and dried again. This process results in tensha that must be cut, sorted and dried before it can be milled into matcha.
Rubin and Handa purchase their tensha from a family friend who lives and leads tours in Wazuka. Rubin puts in two 12-hour days at the mill each week, producing a mere 40 grams of matcha an hour, up to 24 cups of tea.
The verdant color of matcha calls to mind bright sunlight, rich earth and burgeoning flora. Rubin’s fresh product is much smoother than flour and feels like silk when rubbed between thumb and forefinger. Its constituent particles measure 0.5 microns, or one millionth of a meter, across.
“We can do more and faster, but when the quantity increases, the quality can decrease,” Rubin explained. “You’re not going to do a ton, quick, but you’re going to have a very good quality.”
The United States is home to very few stone matcha mills, according to Rubin, who only knows of three others: in Minneapolis, Brooklyn and somewhere on the West Coast. He said those mills also produce relatively small quantities.
“You can’t get it any finer, better or smoother with another way,” Rubin said.
The process requires time because a fast mill produces grainy matcha. Rubin compares mills and matcha to vinyl records and turntables: If your favorite LP has a playback speed of 33 revolutions per minute, it won’t sound right on a turntable set to 45 or 78 rpm.
Matcha, while ubiquitous in Japan for centuries, burst into global popularity within the past decade. United States consumers’ demand for matcha-flavored beverages grew by 202% in 2015, according to the matcha company Tenzo, which reported comparable gains in the United Kingdom and Spain.
More recently, news outlets reported a global matcha shortage in late 2024, when suppliers could not meet a surge in demand prompted by health trends on social media.
The global matcha market, which reached a value of nearly $2.86 billion in 2023, is now on track to reach a value of $4.69 billion by 2028.
Starbucks reportedly revamped its matcha formula in January. Regional and international chains like Peet’s Coffee, Jamba Juice, Whole Foods, Wawa, Dunkin’ and Tim Hortons also market matcha-flavored beverages.
Handa’s Anahola teahouse does not serve concoctions like Jamba Juice’s matcha green tea blast or Starbucks’ iced nondairy salted caramel cookie matcha latte. She instead offers simple hot and cold teas, four days a week, and tea ceremony by appointment.
Handa was born in Osaka and raised on the volcanic landscape of Kumamoto in Kyushu. An enthusiastic house, hip-hop and breakdancer, Handa met Rubin in 2004 while visiting Kaua‘i with a group she had met at that year’s Merrie Monarch festival.
Handa still dances today.
“I catch all of the sounds in my heart, mind and body,” she said, admitting with a burst of laughter: “I dance crazy!”
Friends and acquaintances are shocked to learn the exuberant Handa is a student of Japanese tea ceremony, a centuries-old tradition steeped in precision, method and meditative silence. Handa, however, studied tea ceremony in Japan before joining the local group Urasenke Kaua‘i Doko Kai in 2019. She treasures the tranquility inherent to the practice.
The Aloha Matcha teahouse, nestled at the rear of Anahola Market, reflects this sensibility. The converted shipping container’s windows illuminate a cozy space decorated with friends’ artwork and decor collected during visits to family.
“No one knows we’re here,” Handa said while preparing matcha last Saturday morning. She had just redecorated the teahouse following her most recent trip to Japan, and was eager to demonstrate tea ceremony within the room’s new configuration.
Handa, dressed in a red kimono, welcomed her guests with small cups of green tea and requested them to select ceramic bowls to be used during the ceremony. The guests then sat on tatami while Handa, kneeling on a low platform, prepared their matcha using two pots of water and a bamboo whisk and ladle.
The ceremony’s quiet atmosphere was punctuated by the guests’ questions and Handa’s softly-uttered instructions. She also invited them to eat a tiny treat prior to drinking each bowl of matcha. Bursts of sweetness from bites of mochi, matsukaze and a small lump of sugar grown on Shinkoku complemented the matcha’s bitter earthiness.
As the tea ceremony drew to a close, Handa asked her guests to study the bowls they had drunk from. The little matcha left in one deep-blue bowl, now a sodden green, had dried below a thin halo of foam. It was the last, physical trace of a peaceful morning.
“In life, everybody’s so busy,” Handa said. “But when you have tea with yourself or with friends, that’s a different place, and that’s important.
“Treasure this moment,” she concluded. “Teatime is touching your heart and home.”
Aloha Matcha is now available for purchase at Collab Café, its teahouse and HealthGo Market in Līhu‘e. Hoku Foods and Fish Bar Deli will begin to offer Aloha Matcha products sometime this month.
Current teahouse hours can be found under Aloha Matcha’s Google Business Profile. Follow Aloha Matcha on Instagram, call 808-647-4666 or email alohamatcha@icloud.com for more information.