Interview of Supporter Stores SHO CHA

SHO CHA as an online tea shop founded in 2020 deals with Japanese green tea, some Japanese tea ceramics mostly from Tokoname and some Japanese sweets.

One important thing of the shop is that each tea is imported directly from the producer. It means that each green tea comes from a single tea farmer. SHO CHA prefers not to sell blended tea. They are selling around 2 tons of green tea per year.

Mr. Kobitz has been to Japan several times and noticed that there are many green teas that are of high quality and easy to buy, compared to the Japanese green teas available on the German market. For example, in the time of 2010 – 2019, Japanese green teas were quite expensive and most of them were not of good quality on the German market. So actually, he started importing green tea for himself.

For Mr. Kobitz, it is important to know what kind of people are producing the food and drinks. The reason is that he finds it very exciting to know what kind of taste the producers are looking for and what kind of products they want to produce.

Mr. Kobitz loves the taste of Japanese tea for example compared to Chinese tea. This is because he thinks Japanese green tea has a special flavour, such as umami and a fruity taste. He likes Japanese green tea because it is imported directly from tea farmers, and when tea farmers say they do not use pesticides, for example, that is 100% true. He can fully trust them based on his 5-6 years of experience, which might not be the case in other countries.

The first connection with the tea farmers was actually made by JETRO. When Mr. Kobitz asked a question, one Japanese business partner at the time gave him the answer through JETRO. Mr. Kobitz knows most of the tea farmers that he personally imports from, and he believes that he buys 80-90% of his tea leaves directly from each farmer. One of his business partners living in Japan also knows many of the tea farmers and he made the connection for SHO CHA.

Mr. Kobitz personally chooses the tea leaves. Usually, when he contacts a tea farmer or is introduced to a tea farmer, he tests the tea sample, discusses with the tea farmer how they produce the tea, and learns what is important to them. Then, if the tea seems to fit with the other products in SHO CHAs selection, he starts buying. Price is not really an issue, because he believes that price is mostly a reflection of the quality of the tea leaves. Mr. Kobitz especially prefers single origin teas. Depending on the type of tea, he changes his importers. For example, he imports Matcha from Shizuoka and Kyoto. But for Sencha, he prefers Kyushu-grown. This is because he thinks Sencha from Kyushu has a special fruity flavour. When you open the tea, it has a fruity aroma like mango or passion fruit. He thinks this special aroma is only found in Kyushu teas and he likes this aroma very much and so does everyone else.

SHO CHAs tea packages are very unique and original with a Shiba dog character. Mr. Kobitz thinks that the people in Germany associate Japan with kawaii characters. So, he wanted to include kawaii characters in the packaging as well. Also, the tea leaves are produced by a single origin, and each tea has its own characteristics. For example, the Wakocha package has a ninja character on it, because it is a little bit dark, and the Genmaicha package has a sleeping dog on it, because it can be enjoyed also in the evening. Mr. Kobitz says that "Original Japanese tea packages are fine, but I like to make my own, and the people like them very much. The packaging and the entire website were designed by a friend of mine."

SHO CHA uses the door to door service by UPS: They pick up the package from the tea farmer and perform the entire export process in Japan, and ship them by plane. They deal with the import process in Germany and they bring to our door, SHO CHA pay UPS all invoices. They use only transport by airplane, because the delivery by ship takes a long time and 2 or 3 months in a shipping container could damage the products.

SHO CHA makes different kinds of promotion, using Instagram and Facebook. They post daily pretty much the contents, mostly regarding the Japanese tea, sometimes regarding Japanese culture, for example Japanese tea culture or something interesting as well. They also use Google Ads where they are shown on the front page of Google Search, and they send newsletters to the customers as well. They organize the tea tasting event in Rostock. But most of the customers are from Berlin, or from southern Germany and Switzerland. A few times they sell the tea also in Spain or in Sweden but outside of Germany they sell mainly in Austria or in Switzerland. They don´t have the shop there but the customers order from Austria or Swiss in an online shop. The SHO CHAs tea for Swiss people is very good price, because the Japanese green tea is really expensive in the Swiss market.

Mr. Kobitz told us “A logo of the Japanese Food and Ingredient Supporter on a website is a very nice signature for the customers, it means that our products really come from Japan. And also, it is very nice when I talk with the tea farmers, they pay more attention that I am the part of the Japanese Food and Ingredient Supporter Stores Overseas. The process is easy and nice and I don´t have to pay. I think it is really cool to be the Food Supporter, because this is like a unique selling point. Some of online teashops are also selling the Japanese green tea but maybe they are not the Food supporter, or maybe they are selling not Japanese matcha but Chinese matcha. I believe that people think more positive of the store, playing the part of Japanese Food and Ingredient Supporter Stores.”

Mr. Kobitz said the following “We don't want to be a very big company, but I would like to have more business customers and a few more consumers. We already have a few business partners like teashops in Germany, Austria, Spain and Switzerland. They are buying our tea in bulk as well. We would like to focus more on that. And we are planning a few more internal staff, we want to switch some internet providers etc. We are very happy right now. Our teas are sold also for example in the shop of Samurai Museum Berlin. The sales are very good and I´m very happy to deal with them”.