Hato Matcha was born in Hong Kong, with matcha sourced from Japan and a point of view shaped by this city we call home. We wanted to make something that could hold both: the care and attention we admire in Japanese tea, and the rhythm of a place where life rarely stands still.
Hato is the Japanese word for pigeon: the bird that flies far and always finds its way back. Pigeons aren't native to Hong Kong. They came from far away, found that the skyscrapers looked enough like their old cliffs, and made the city home. Everyone here is doing some version of the same thing, arriving, adapting, building a life in a place that never slows down. The pigeon felt like the right bird for Hato. It's ordinary, resilient, at home in the city, and always able to find its way back.
Tea has its own long history of returning people to the present. In chanoyu, the Japanese way of tea, the making and sharing of tea is treated with care. The bowl matters. The water matters. The tools, the person in front of you, the moment itself. Nothing is rushed, but nothing is made grand for the sake of it either.
That spirit is what drew us to the ritual of making matcha. We don't try to recreate the tea ceremony at home, but we carry something of its attention with us. For us, it becomes smaller and more everyday: sift, pour, whisk. A few deliberate steps, repeated often enough to become familiar.
At Hato Matcha, we believe a life well lived is made up of simple pleasures, paid attention to. Some days that means five quiet minutes in the morning; other days it happens in the afternoon, between one thing and the next. However far the day takes you, making matcha is something you can return to, a small daily returning, and a reminder that home can be something you practice as much as somewhere you live.
That's why we started Hato. We're glad you're here.
With care,
Regina & Angelica