After Elijah Castaneto returned from Japan with an abundance of matcha powder and knowledge, he and his best friend turned their daydreams into reality by developing Koicha, a ceremonial matcha pop-up event.
After their first few pop-ups, a community of matcha enthusiasts began following them.
“I was completely overwhelmed by the support we got, and it moved my heart,” said Steven Deng, a former TCC student and co-owner of Koicha. “It was just an insane feeling that this amount of people will show up to something like you bring to the table.”
He and his long-time friend Elijah Castaneto had always bounced around ideas of starting their own business together, but they never knew where to start. That was until they took a trip to New York three years ago.
“We got to experience a matcha ceremony,” Deng said. “Professionals explain where the matcha is sourced from, what time it was sourced from, down to its first harvest, to how it’s shaded throughout its lifespan so it can be kept sweet.”
During the ceremony, matcha is prepared in a ceramic bowl called chawan and whisked with a bamboo chasen. The chasen is a single piece of bamboo split into many thin strands at the top and is essential for creating the frothy green beverage.
“After experiencing really good matcha we wanted to bring it to Dallas-Fort Worth,” Deng said. “I just wanted people to experience actual matcha that didn’t take too much away from the matcha powder itself.”
Deng said the matcha served in popular coffee shops overpowers the natural grassy flavor of powdered green tea by using excessive amounts of sugary syrups, depriving drinkers of its unique flavor.
“It’s like an insane dessert amalgamation, like a butter creamsicle matcha,” Deng said. “We want to have people taste matcha, the grassy notes, maybe the bitter notes, sometimes the savory notes. Each matcha powder is different.”
A year ago, Castaneto traveled to Japan and visited matcha museums. There he learned about ceremonial tea masters who study for years to learn the art of matcha’s preparation and even drank some matcha prepared by one.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is, like, one of the best ones I’ve ever tried,” Castaneto said.
During his trip, he picked up several powders from his stops at different family-owned tea farms along the way, not realizing how much he’d acquired until arriving back in Houston.
“I was like, ‘What am I going to do with all this?’” Castaneto said.
It was then he reached out to the one person he knew he could count on.
“I called Steven. I said, ‘Hey, you trying to do this for real?’” Castaneto said. “I just trust Steven, because he knows the vision, and I knew he could bring it to life.”
Castaneto had all the matcha powder with him in Houston and Deng lived in Dallas. The two would drive to one another for Deng to produce menu flavors while Castaneto managed the business side.
“I had days where I had like 30 cups of 100 mg of caffeine, just taste testing a bunch of matcha. I was bouncing off the walls,” Deng said. “Kind of like when you see a barista be caffeinated out the wazoo. It was like that.”
After just a few months of planning, the two came up with the idea to host an event at Hibachi Vincent, a restaurant in Hurst, to promote the local business while trial-running Koicha, their matcha pop-up.
“It was really impromptu,” Deng said. “It sounds bad, but really, Elijah helped me a lot with pushing myself to just go out and like create something.”
At the pop-up, Castaneto led matcha ceremonies with a chawan and chasen while Deng added syrup and garnish for the final touch. Both said their first event was more successful than they could have ever imagined.
“We wanted it to be freshly whisked so [guests] could see it being freshly whisked with us, because we do everything in front of them,” Deng said.
Since then, Koicha has boomed, and they regularly host pop-ups they post on their Instagram. Deng’s girlfriend Sarah Keomanivong, a DFW matcha influencer on Instagram, has watched them build Koicha since the beginning.
“Their motto is using the highest quality,” Keomanivong said. “Steven and Elijah, when they get together, they do a bunch. They’re organized and it always works out really.”
She said their friendship sparked the business and Koicha woudn’t be what it is today without their bond when working together.
“It’s really good [they] found something they’re passionate about, even if it’s just a small hobby,” Keomanivong said. “Because it turned into something very big, very quickly.”
Castaneto and Deng said one day they hope to open their own matcha café, but for now, Koicha’s pop-up is their focus. The goal is to have more matcha enjoyers experience ceremonies and drink the traditional flavors that inspired them to whisk their ideas into full fruition together.
“I’ve always wanted to be able to be creative like this,” Deng said. “But without Eljah’s support and leadership, I wouldn’t have been able to break out of my shell.”
