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2026-09-08
The back to school toolkit, but make it a drink. Here’s what we’d reach for depending on what the day is doing to you. 📚🍵
For a boost: Yuzu Matcha Lemonade. Katō Yuzu Matcha over ice with fresh lemon juice and cold water, the caffeine and L-theanine together give you sustained, clean energy without the crash. The citrus from the freeze-dried yuzu and the lemon layer on top of each other and the whole thing is bright and sharp in exactly the right way for a morning that needs to actually start.
For focus: Lion’s Mane Cocoa. Lion’s mane mushroom contains hericenones and erinacines: compounds studied for their effect on nerve growth factor, which plays a role in cognitive function and neural health. Paired with cocoa, which contains flavanols that support blood flow to the brain, this is a genuinely functional focus drink, not just one that sounds like it should be.
For digestion: Organic Gut Feelings. Formulated with ingredients that have been used for digestive support for centuries, think ginger, fennel, and peppermint. If the school cafeteria or a rushed lunch has done what it does, this is the one.
For sleep: Organic Valerian Dream. Valerian root contains valerenic acid, which has been studied for its effect on GABA receptors in the brain, the same receptors that regulate anxiety and promote relaxation. Chamomile adds apigenin, a naturally occurring compound with similar calming properties. This is the wind-down drink the evening routine needs.
Up to 30% off the Back to School Collection — link in bio.
2026-09-07
Matcha Spring Harvest as valedictorian makes sense: it’s the most refined, the most considered, the one you’d trust with the important things. Blue Delta as class clown also makes sense — it’s a butterfly pea flower tea that changes colour from deep blue to violet to pink the moment something acidic hits it. pH chemistry as personality trait. Accurate.
Coffee before tea: forgiven. We are not a brand that is going to argue with a parent of two before 8am.
This school year, don’t forget to drink tea. We stand by this.
Shop the Back to School Collection — up to 30% off, link in bio.
2026-09-04
Nobody is naming a winner of the lunch race but the scoreboard is pretty clear.
The squished sandwich, the unchopped strawberry tops, and the cheese situation aside — the Elderberry Hibiscus going into Jakey’s lunchbox wasn’t even part of the competition. It just happened instinctively, which says something about what happens when you’ve been drinking good tea long enough.
Here’s why it matters going into September: when kids go back to school they go back into enclosed rooms with other kids, which means cold season starts approximately two weeks later like clockwork. Elderberry is one of the most studied ingredients for immune support — the anthocyanins responsible for that deep ruby colour have been linked to supporting the body’s immune response and reducing the duration of illness. Hibiscus adds a natural hit of vitamin C on top of that. It’s the kind of thing you want in the lunchbox before cold season rather than after it’s already arrived.
Shop Organic Elderberry Hibiscus — link in bio.
2026-09-02
Corn milk is not a new idea, it’s just one that most people outside of East and Southeast Asia haven’t thought to apply to matcha yet. And it should have happened sooner. 🍵
In Korean and Southeast Asian food culture, corn-based drinks and desserts have a long history, the sweetness of corn is treated as a flavour rather than just a background note, which is exactly the right way to think about it here.
That natural sweetness is what makes corn milk work so well with matcha.
To make it: blend 1 cup of cooked corn kernels with 1 cup of milk or water, then strain through a fine mesh or cheesecloth until smooth. Whisk 1 tsp of Katō Matcha with 40g of water separately until fully dissolved. Pour the corn milk over ice and add the matcha slowly on top. The sweetness of the corn meets the earthiness of the matcha before you stir and the colour contrast before it blends is worth a photo.
Shop Katō Matcha — link in bio.
2026-08-31
Summer Sarah drinks matcha slowly, in good light, with the energy of someone who has nowhere to be. September Sarah drinks it in a water bottle, running.
These are both real. They just happen on different days.
The good news is that Katō Yuzu Matcha was accidentally designed for both situations. On the slow morning — which does still exist, occasionally, on a weekend — it’s worth making properly. Yuzu is a Japanese citrus that sits somewhere between lemon, grapefruit, and mandarin with a floral edge that has no real Western equivalent. Whisked with water, poured over ice, consumed at a pace that allows you to actually taste it. Lovely.
On a Tuesday morning in September with two kids and a school bell: 1 tsp into a water bottle, cold water, ice, close the lid — this part is load-bearing — shake and leave. The freeze-dried yuzu means the flavour is all still there. So is the L-theanine, which gives you calm, steady energy without the coffee spike, which is genuinely what you need when the morning has already been a lot before 7:45am.
Same tea. Wildly different mornings. Works for both.
Shop Katō Yuzu Matcha — link in bio.
2026-08-28
Sarah is making Organic Elderberry Hibiscus Lemonade Popsicles — and the choice of tea here is specific, not just aesthetic.
Elderberry is one of the most antioxidant-dense berries studied for immune function. The compounds responsible, primarily anthocyanins, have been associated with reducing the duration and severity of colds and supporting immune response, which is exactly what you want to be building before everyone goes back to school and starts sharing germs in enclosed spaces. Hibiscus is naturally high in vitamin C and contains compounds that have been studied for their effect on blood pressure — the ruby colour isn’t decoration, it’s anthocyanins doing the same work they do in blueberries and pomegranates.
The preparation matters too: steep for 3 minutes — Elderberry Hibiscus infuses quickly and you don’t need more time than that. Let it come back to room temperature before it goes in the fridge — the thermal shock from a hot glass hitting cold can crack it. Mix with freshly squeezed lemonade and leave a little space at the top of the mould because liquid expands as it freezes. Six hours minimum in the freezer before you check them.
Low in sugar, naturally vibrant, and genuinely good for you. The kids will ask for more. You’ll say yes.
Shop Organic Elderberry Hibiscus — link in bio.
2026-08-26
Did you know that Katō Yuzu Matcha and our Sparkling Iced Tea are not a combination we engineered on paper — it’s one that makes sense the moment you understand why yuzu and carbonation belong together.
Yuzu Matcha is made with freeze-dried yuzu, a Japanese citrus with a floral, tart flavour profile that works specifically with water and carbonation rather than milk — the citric acid in yuzu splits dairy, which is why tonic or sparkling water is always the right pairing. Our Sparkling Iced Teas are brewed from organic whole leaf tea with real fruit juice, no added sugar, and natural carbonation. When you combine the Yuzu Matcha with the Lemon Ginger sparkling tea in particular, the citrus from the yuzu and the ginger from the sparkling tea build on each other in a way that makes the whole drink taste more complex than the sum of its parts.
It tastes like something you’d pay too much for at a specialty café. It’s two things from your shelf.
Shop both via the link in bio.
2026-08-24
This is what it looks like to pack matcha fresh in-house
Matcha is one of the most volatile powders to work with in a production environment — and that’s directly related to what makes it high quality. The fineness of the grind, which for ceremonial-grade Uji matcha is measured in microns, means the particles are light enough to become airborne at any disturbance. That’s not a quality control problem. It’s a sign that the matcha was ground properly, slowly, on stone mills that run cool to preserve the volatile aromatic compounds in the leaf.
Our matcha arrives in 20-kilo bags straight from Japan — packed immediately after milling to preserve freshness, because oxidation starts the moment matcha is exposed to air. The clock is running from the moment the bag is sealed, which is why the filling process matters: packing into 250g bags in-house, freshly, means the matcha you receive has had as little air exposure as possible between Japan and your kitchen.
The fridge note from earlier in the month applies here too — cool, dark, airtight storage is what keeps the colour vibrant and the flavour fresh. You can see why from the inside of this room. The matcha doesn’t wait for anything.
Shop Katō Matcha — link in bio.
2026-08-21
There is no wrong number of matchas in a day. There is, however, a right way to think about how many you’re having. 🍵🍵🍵
Matcha contains caffeine — roughly 60mg per serving, compared to around 95mg in a shot of espresso. But because of the L-theanine, the caffeine doesn’t hit the same way. L-theanine moderates the central nervous system response to caffeine, smoothing the energy curve and extending how long it lasts. Practically, this means the second matcha of the day doesn’t stack the same way a second coffee does. The L-theanine is doing a lot of work.
There’s also something to be said for what matcha is doing beyond the caffeine. It’s a whole-leaf drink — when you consume matcha, you’re consuming the entire ground tea leaf, which means you’re getting the full range of antioxidants, amino acids, and plant compounds. Shade-growing before harvest increases chlorophyll and L-theanine specifically, which is why quality Uji matcha looks and tastes so different from commodity matcha. More chlorophyll means more of that vibrant green. More L-theanine means more of that calm focus.
The general guidance is to keep total caffeine under 400mg per day. At 70mg a serving, that’s a lot of matchas. We’re not saying anything.
Shop Katō Matcha — link in bio.
2026-08-20
This tastes like the hot chocolate you drank as a kid. It just happens to have lion’s mane in it 🍄
Lion’s mane is an adaptogen, meaning it supports your body’s own stress response rather than overriding it. People have used it this way for centuries. The latte is the new part.
Ours blends lion’s mane and reishi into organic cacao, cinnamon and coconut sugar. Microground, so it dissolves in seconds. Caffeine-free, so it won’t touch your sleep. Stock up on your new back to school hero - link in bio
2026-08-19
The return to routine, earlier mornings, longer days, more demands on focus and energy, has a direct impact on sleep quality. Sleep teas typically work through ingredients like chamomile, which contains apigenin, a compound that binds to GABA receptors in the brain and promotes relaxation, or valerian root, which has been used as a natural sleep aid for centuries. These aren’t sedatives, they’re calming, and the ritual of making a hot cup of something before bed is itself a wind-down cue your nervous system responds to.
For focus and energy during the day: matcha brings caffeine and L-theanine together in a ratio that delivers calm, sustained alertness — the exact opposite of the spike-and-crash from coffee. For immune support heading into cold season: elderberry and hibiscus are both high in antioxidants and vitamin C. For gut health: ginger, peppermint, and fennel-based blends have long track records of supporting digestion.
It’s a full toolkit for the school year. Up to 30% off until the sale ends.
Shop the Back to School Collection — link in bio.
2026-08-17
Over the past year, the global matcha market went through a genuine supply crisis. Demand, driven largely by the explosion of matcha content online, outpaced what Japan’s growing regions could produce. Matcha cannot simply be scaled up on short notice: it’s shade-grown for specific weeks before harvest to boost chlorophyll and L-theanine, then stone-ground — a slow, deliberate process that’s inherently limited in how fast it can move. When demand spikes, prices follow, and a lot of brands either ran out of stock or quietly switched to lower-quality sources to manage costs.
Our direct relationship with the Katō family in Uji is what kept us stable. No middlemen, no brokers — a sourcing relationship built over years that gave us supply security when the broader market was struggling. Now that supply has stabilised, we’re bringing prices back down.
Shop Katō Matcha — link in bio.
2026-08-14
Earl Grey and matcha sounds like a combination someone invented to be interesting. It’s actually a combination that makes perfect sense once you understand how the two flavours are structured.
Earl Grey is bergamot-forward — bright, citrusy, and floral, the kind of flavour that sits at the top of a drink and is the first thing to reach your palate. Katō Matcha is the opposite: earthy, slightly bitter, umami-forward, a flavour that sits deep and stays with you after the sip. Neither one overwhelms the other because they operate at completely different ends of the flavour spectrum. The bergamot lifts the drink upward, the matcha grounds it, and frothed milk running through the middle softens both without erasing them.
One drink. Two teas. Completely different in every way that matters, and completely complementary.
Shop Earl Grey and Katō Matcha — link in bio.
2026-08-12
An affogato works on contrast — hot poured over cold, bitter meeting sweet, liquid dissolving into cream.
This version uses Katō Coconut Matcha brewed hot and strong as the pour — summer-harvest Uji matcha with coconut milk powder, which means the liquid itself is already slightly creamy before it hits the ice cream. That warmth is what starts the melt and what carries the matcha flavour down into the dessert rather than sitting on top of it.
The ice cream is made with Genuine Tea’s Imperial Jasmine — a green tea scented the traditional way, where fresh jasmine blossoms are layered with the leaves overnight and then removed, with premium grades repeating that process multiple times. The result is a jasmine flavour that is genuinely floral rather than soapy or synthetic, which is exactly what you want when it’s going into something cold and creamy. When the hot coconut matcha hits the jasmine ice cream, the floral notes lift and the whole thing tastes like a dessert that was designed this way from the beginning.
Shop Imperial Jasmine and Katō Coconut Matcha — link in bio.
Address
UNIT 21, 921 PROGRESS Avenue
Toronto, ON
M1G3V4
Directions to Sunrise Avenue in Toronto:
Public Transport:
1. Take the subway to Finch Station.
2. Transfer to bus route 53B.
3. Exit at Yonge Street/Mulock Drive.
4. Walk east on Mulock Drive until you reach Sunrise Avenue.
Driving/Parking:
1. Take Highway 404 and exit at Mulock Drive.
2. Turn left onto Bayview Avenue.
3. Turn right onto Mulock Drive.
4. Continue straight until you reach Sunrise Avenue.
5. Limited street parking is available in the area, but there are also paid parking lots nearby on Yonge Street and Bayview Avenue.
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Genuine Tea, located on Sunrise Avenue in Toronto, is a farm-to-cup tea company that specializes in premium quality loose leaf teas. Founded by David O'Connor and Sarah Wilcox in 2015, the company's mission is to lead the Third Wave Tea movement in Toronto by promoting transparency, freshness, and fair compensation for farmers.
What sets Genuine Tea apart from other tea companies is their direct-trade model. They import fresh tea leaves without the use of artificial colors or flavors, ensuring that every cup of tea you enjoy is of the highest quality. Sarah and Dave spent nearly five years in Taiwan and traveled across Asia forming relationships with tea farmers. They came back to Canada with a simple dream - to share their love of tea and adventure with others.
Their goal is to close the gap between the tea in your cup and the people who have dedicated their lives to producing it. With every cup of Genuine Tea, you are not only enjoying high-quality fresh ingredients but also supporting tea makers around the world for their craftsmanship.
If you're looking for a delicious cup of tea that supports fair trade practices and promotes transparency in sourcing, look no further than Genuine Tea on Sunrise Avenue.
