This post was updated Jan. 27 at 7:57 p.m.

Andrew Dong is bringing premium matcha to a new generation of tea enthusiasts – and he’s doing it all on his own terms.

After working at cafes and tea shops since he was 16, the UCLA graduate said he finally decided to turn his obsession with matcha into something bigger. Dong launched his own matcha company, Moocha Matcha, in October 2024, during his senior year of studies as an international development studies student. The online matcha company has become big in the competitive tea market by building real connections with Japanese farmers and refusing to compromise on quality. However, he said his family was a bit surprised when he first started.

“No one in the family really went into entrepreneurship,” Dong said. “Everyone in my family has a stable nine-to-five, so it was a really big shift.”

Not long after thinking up the concept for Moocha Matcha, Dong said he flew straight to Japan to meet farmers face to face, including a fifth-generation producer in Uji whose family has been farming since the Edo period, which spanned from the 17th to the 19th century. Dong said these personal, authentic relationships are what make Moocha different.

“They (the farmers) told me not a lot of companies come to meet them in person,” Dong said. “So they actually choose not to work with certain companies because you don’t meet them in person.”

Moocha Matcha focuses exclusively on first harvest, stone-ground matcha that Dong said he personally evaluates for color, smell, texture and taste before making anything available for purchase. Instead of putting ceremonial grade on the label, which Dong said isn’t a regulated term, Moocha Matcha is a high-quality tea company specifically catered toward people who prefer harvest matcha, he added.

His sister, Cindy Dong, who helps with design choices, product development and moral support, said her brother’s perfectionism is what makes Moocha Matcha so good.

“He will need everything to be perfect, especially with his products and what he gives out,” she said. “The design of the product and the packaging always needs to fit the theme.”

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Cindy mentioned that growing up in a Chinese household where tea was always around influenced Andrew’s love for it. Their mom’s side of the family even used to be tea farmers, though both said neither of them know the full story.

The brand’s aesthetic comes partly from product photographer Tammy Ng, who has been working with Moocha Matcha and Andrew since 2024. When Moocha Matcha started on Amazon, Ng said the content started off fairly standard, using a plain white background. She added that the brand has since moved away from that, evolving into the brand into something more intentional, focusing on Japanese tea ceremony traditions.

“We really wanted to capture the storytelling,” she said. “Highlighting the tea ceremony, the process of that, and then capturing content that gave off more of a sensory feeling.”

Ng said Andrew is very involved with every creative project and that he truly understands the matcha culture and tea ceremony process. She added that he gives advice on what makes sense by sending mood boards and detailed notes, while making sure everything authentically represents matcha culture.

When one of Moocha Matcha’s TikTok videos hit 1 million views in early 2025, Andrew said the moment convinced him to go all in on Moocha Matcha after graduation, rather than getting a corporate job.

But as a young founder and college graduate, not knowing how to build a product has been the biggest challenge, Andrew said. Some supply chain issues in 2025 meant there would be long waits between product drops. He added that the demand for tencha – the raw matcha leaves – got so high that the prices doubled or tripled for some farmers, which made his already tight margins even worse.

When the United States federal government announced the implementation of a new 15% tariff on most products from Japan, Andrew said he questioned whether he should continue with his business.

“Matcha is already so expensive,” he said. “For a lot of companies, they have to make that choice whether to raise prices. But if you raise prices, you’re also not able to compete in the market.”

But Andrew said he kept going anyway because at the end of the day, matcha was still his passion. He said his thought process was that if the business worked out, it worked out and if not, at least he tried to do something he loves. Andrew said he thinks people actually know what good matcha looks like now, and they are pickier about where they spend their money, so he is happy he pushed through.

“Through social media, a lot of people have become more and more educated,” he said. “A lot of people have begun to know the difference and what to look for between low and high quality matcha.”

Cindy said she was proud to watch her brother venture out and build this business. She added that every time he calls her about Moocha Matcha, it’s always asking about what he can do to improve. Andrew said what really stands out is how he never stops trying to make things better.

Looking ahead, Andrew said he wants people to know that Moocha Matcha was built out of his own pockets and off his own passion for tea. He is planning to go back to Japan every year to visit the farmers and help with harvesting. He added that although Moocha Matcha is strictly online now, he is hoping to open a physical location in one to two years. In the meantime, he does pop-ups all over the Westwood area.

“I want them to think of where Moocha Matcha started,” he said. “It started just as a broke college student who really had a passion for tea. … It’s my blood, sweat and tears.”