BC Business
With Kyoto's Tsuen Tea dating back more than 860 years, 24th generation seller Yuka Tsuen is making her mark in Vancouver
When Yuka Tsuen first studied in Kamloops in 1992, she found that good green tea was hard to come by. “In Japan, especially in Uji where I am from, tea is as common to drink as water,” Tsuen says.
Her family’s green tea business, Tsuen Tea founded in 1160 in Uji, Kyoto, is believed to be Japan’s oldest tea shop. Tsuen and her brother are the 24th generation of her family to offer green tea.
“[While] I worked at my family tea shop from the mid 90’s to 2000, a lot of foreigners realized they enjoyed the taste of green tea and its health benefits,” Tsuen says. She saw an opportunity. So, Tsuen packed her bags and returned to B.C. to introduce her family’s green tea to the West Coast.
Her first wholesale customer was Murata, a Japanese home goods store located on Broadway that has carried her tea since the beginning. Another long-time partner is Tama Organic Life, an East Vancouver grocer that has carried Tsuen’s tea for two decades.
The tea is shipped from Uji by her family, and Tsuen has adapted her products over time to align with Canadian tastes and brewing habits. “Packaging has changed,” she says. “In Japan, we have very minimal words on the package, just listing the type of tea and the name, as they already know what the tea is and what it tastes like.”
To make the tea more approachable for Vancouverites, Tsuen added flavour profiles, brewing instructions and a history of the store so customers can learn about the Tsuen family. Tsuen has found that organic tea sells better in Vancouver, and it has become the store’s biggest import. Because many Vancouverites don’t have tea pots that brew loose leaf tea, she also developed Tsuen Tea’s first tea bags to ensure the tea was “user friendly.”
Today, Tsuen Tea is not only available in retail shops but also in several of Vancouver’s high-end Japanese restaurants. Despite this growth, Tsuen is committed to keeping the business local, with no plans to expand beyond Vancouver; “When I am here, my tea is here,” she says.
Tsuen Tea also has no intention to expand to larger wholesalers like Costco, choosing to support local retailers and prioritise loyal customers. The supply of tea is shared with her family’s shop, so Tsuen wants to ensure the supply chain stays balanced without compromising the original store in Uji, Japan.
After 860 years, and having survived the drastically changing world, Tsuen Tea now also faces the effects of global trade policies. Yet, Tsuen remains optimistic. “We are not certain how [trade policies] will impact our business,” she says, “but our family has overcome many changes throughout the last few centuries, we are confident that we can adapt to whatever comes along.”