Matcha wholesale supplier for New York

Who we supply in New York

The city supports every level of the category at once: specialist tea rooms sourcing at the top of the market, cafés running matcha as a serious second program, boba operators at volume across Flushing, Sunset Park, and the East Village, and a large concentration of brands looking for a Japanese supplier behind their label. Upstate, Buffalo, Rochester, and the college towns are separate markets with their own economics.

• Manhattan and Brooklyn cafés where matcha is a named menu item rather than an option.
• Boba and dessert operators in Flushing, Sunset Park, and across Queens.
• Japanese restaurants and tea rooms with customers who know the reference.
• DTC and CPG brands needing a documented Japanese origin behind their packaging.

Getting matcha from Japan into New York

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest East Coast gateway, with most terminal capacity physically on the New Jersey side. JFK handles substantial international air cargo including direct freight from Japan. Whichever route, the practical constraint in the city is not the port but the last mile.

• Ocean: Port of NY/NJ, with the container yards and most warehousing across the river in New Jersey.
• Air: JFK, with direct freight capacity from Japan and routine food import clearance.
• Onward: delivery windows, loading access, and street constraints matter more in the city than the distance does.

Licensing and compliance on the New York side

Beyond the federal import requirements, New York State's Department of Agriculture and Markets licenses food processing and food storage operations — the Article 20-C license is the one most wholesale buyers encounter — while New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene permits food service establishments within the five boroughs. Confirm both where they apply.

• An Article 20-C food processing license is the usual requirement for repacking or storing wholesale food in the state.
• In the five boroughs, food service permitting runs through the city rather than the state.

Selling into a market that already knows

New York has specialist importers bringing in single-cultivar matcha from named Uji and Kyoto producers, and customers who have paid for it. That means two things for a wholesale buyer here. Your matcha will be compared against a real reference rather than a vague idea of quality, and a story about origin is not enough on its own — it has to hold up in the bowl.

We think this is the right market to be tested in. What we would ask is that the test be fair: taste our lot against your current one at the same dose and temperature, in the drink you actually sell. Where a Japan-based supplier tends to win is on the combination of grade and price at wholesale volume, and on being able to name the region and cultivar for the lot you receive rather than a house blend that changes. Where a specialist retailer will beat us is on the very top of the range in tiny quantities — and if that is what your menu needs, we will say so.

How a first New York order works

Most New York accounts start the same way: we talk through what you actually serve, send samples of the two or three lots that fit, and you brew them on your own equipment with your own milk before anyone talks about volume. A powder that shines in a tasting bowl can still fall apart in a 16 oz iced latte, so the test that matters is the one done in your bar.

• Tell us the drink, not just the grade. Iced, hot, oat milk, sweetened — each pushes toward a different lot.
• Sample first, commit second. We would rather lose an order than have you stuck with 20 kg that doesn't match your menu.
• Then we quote landed. Freight to New York City included, so the number you compare is the number you pay.