With offices in Fukuoka and Brooklyn, owners Zach and Minami Mangan continue to create connections between Japan's most distinguished tea producers and our discerning customers. With cafes in New York City and Los Angeles (opening Spring 2024), our locations offer a curated selection of Japanese tea, ceramics, and homewares. Kettl also continues to support restaurants and cafes—with our clients holding a combined 50 Michelin stars.
Kettl began from a sincere desire to make the finest teas of Japan available to customers worldwide. In 2010, after working for Japan's largest green tea company, owner Zach Mangan took a solo month-long trip throughout Japan and realized that the freshest and most delicious products stay within the domestic market. The supply chain in Japan is short and customers more often than not drink fresh, local tea. Driven by a simple desire to shrink the international supply chain and connect these incredible teas with a wider audience, Zach and his wife Minami began a two-year process to develop relationships with several of Japan's most notable tea producers. Generally, the best teas come from rural, isolated areas of Japan where small yield and high demand make procuring them difficult. Zach saw this as an opportunity and challenge worth undertaking. Now in its 15th year, Kettl curates and offers the most diverse catalog of Japanese tea available in the United States with an unwavering commitment to quality from producers who have become our dear friends.
All of our teas are sourced directly from growers and producers whom we know and visit several times a year. They are more than suppliers, they are our teachers, our partners, and our friends, and we work tirelessly to promote their unique contribution to the world of Japanese tea. Kettl is the only US-based Japanese tea company fully incorporated in Japan, with an office in Fukuoka. Our presence at origin is a testament to our deep commitment to the future of Japanese tea.
Kettl is a tiny jewel box of Japanese tea and teaware in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. Located above the locally-renowned Japanese breakfast and ramen joint Okonomi/Yuji Ramen, a journey up a flight of stairs reveals a sparsely-furnished space filled with a wide variety of high-quality loose leaf teas from all corners of Japan. Inspired by travels throughout the Japanese archipelago, owner Zach Mangan imports teas that aren’t often available outside of the regions in which they are produced. This approach to showcasing “local varieties” means that in addition to stocking some of the best sencha, gyokuro, and matcha available in the United States, Kettl also contains exquisite examples of teas even highly versed tea drinkers might never have enjoyed, including single-varietal tamaryokucha (pan-fried, coiled tea produced in Kyūshū), kyo iribancha (late-harvest, deeply-roasted full-leaf tea with notes of pine resin and tobacco), and rare Japanese black teas from Ureshino and Yame (which often exhibit flavors of apricot, grape skin, and osmanthus).
He moved to New York City to pursue music, working part-time at Ito En, a Japanese tea shop on the Upper East Side. There, he befriended two businessmen from Fukuoka, Japan, after pouring them tea from their region from his private stash. The tourists were impressed with Mangan's knowledge of tea and invited him to Fukuoka. Mangan took the trip, toured tea farms, and, realizing that the best Japanese teas don't leave the country, asked his new friends to work with him. The trio started Kettl to share high-quality Japanese tea with consumers in the United States.
He wants to break common stereotypes about tea and make high-quality blends accessible to everyday drinkers in America. He respects the beautiful and meticulous details of traditional tea ceremonies, but doesn’t want people to feel like they’re having an inauthentic experience just because they’re drinking store-bought tea at home. Instead, he pushes other aspects of Japanese tea tradition, like attention to quality and clean, uncomplicated design.