The Kettl Story

The story of Kettl is the story of Japanese tea

What makes Kettl unique?

From the source

All of our teas are sourced directly from growers and producers who we know - and visit several times a year. They are more than suppliers - they are our teachers, our partners and our friends.

HOW IS KETTL TEA SO FRESH?

Obsession with freshness

All of our teas are purchased weekly from the growers and shipped to our Fukuoka, Japan based packaging facility where they are repacked into our own date-stamped oxygen free packaging, cold stored until dispatch, and then air-shipped to our customers directly from Japan.

Buying direct and fulfilling from origin allows us to keep our prices lower - supplying pinnacle-grade tea at reasonable prices, direct to our customers.

Our company is built on transparency, honesty, and an obsession with quality.

HOW DID KETTL START?

Our Beginning

Kettl began from a sincere desire to make the finest teas of Japan available to customers throughout the world. In 2010, after working for Japan's largest green tea company, owner Zach Mangan took a solo one month trip to Japan and realized immediately the freshest and most delicious products stay within Japan's domestic market. The supply chain in Japan is short and customers more often than not drink fresh, local tea. Driven by a simple to desire to shrink the supply chain and to connect these incredible teas with a wider audience, Zach began a two year process to develop relationships with several of Japan's most notable tea producers. Generally, the best teas come from rural, isolated areas of Japan where small volume and high demand make procuring them difficult - and if they have been available, keeping them fresh has not been a high priority. We saw this as an opportunity and challenge worth undertaking.

kettl today

Invested in the future of Japanese tea

With offices in Fukuoka and Brooklyn, owners Zach and Minami Mangan continue to create connections between Japan's most distinguished tea producers and our discerning customers. Opened in 2021, Kettl's flagship cafe and gallery space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn offers our complete line of Japanese tea, ceramics and incense. Kettl also continues to support restaurants and cafes - with our clients holding a combined 40 Michelin stars.