Maya Uegaki

Founder / Certified Japanese Tea Instructor

Hi, I'm Maya, and welcome to L'Essentiel Tea!

I have always loved tea (all kinds of tea) in my entire life, and I believe that tea should be enjoyed without artificial additives or tons of sugar, but when I lived in Montreal, QC, Canada, it was a very frustrating struggle for me as a tea connoisseur from Japan to find good tea that satisfied both my taste buds & heart. Often times in restaurants and shops, it was either prepared in a wrong way, low quality & overpriced, or artificially flavoured/scented.

It got me wonder "what if THIS was someone's first cup of Japanese tea in their life...would they want to try it again?", so I started having friends over for an authentic Japanese tea experience which quickly led me to host a pop-up tea shop at events in order to share that with more locals...and that's how L'Essentiel Tea started!

While tea is the 2nd most consumed and popular drink in the world (after water) and it's rising rapidly in popularity in Western countries, it was truly shocking for me to see how the younger generation in Japan no longer had tea in their lifestyle (except tea in plastic bottles) when I came back home. Some of them have never even used a tea pot before!

Also, it's a sad fact that tea is often perceived not only as outdated but in these 2 extreme ways in Japan; something traditional and too complicated to enjoy at home, or a drink served for free like a glass of water in a restaurant that's been taken for granted and unintentionally branded itself as not worth paying for. That's why I decided to become a certified tea expert to update those images of tea here in Japan!

I hope I will be a liaison between you and Japanese tea producers, you and the deep & rich world of tea, or you and your new tea friends.

So before you go, check out our online shop to see what we have for you, join our exclusive L'Essentiel Tea Club for special offers and surprises, our blog posts to learn something new about tea, and feel free to contact me and let me know what you think!

I am so beyond grateful that you're here today, and hope that we can create a fun & loving tea community together.

To get to know me and L'Essentiel Tea a little better, please take a look at our posts on social media and stay tuned for more updates!

Much love,

Maya xoxo