Long before Covid-19 sparked the home-based business boom, Kevin Chee was already spending his evenings brewing matcha and houjicha lattes from home for weekend flea market pop-ups.
All because he could not shake the feeling that Singapore deserved better matcha.
At the time, he was working a corporate job at DBS after an earlier stint as a management trainee at Singapore Airlines.
Before that, Mr Chee had graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering.
“I specialised in nanostructure and nanotechnology. Think of it like Iron Man,” the 38-year-old quipped to MS News during our recent chat at Matchaya’s new Tiong Bahru flagship.
But instead of building high-tech suits, Mr Chee found himself tinkering with tea leaves, recipes, and ratios in pursuit of a cup that could show Singaporeans matcha was more than “just green tea”.
Many Singaporeans can probably relate to visiting Japan and returning with a life-changing discovery, be it konbini egg sandwiches or the wonders of smart toilets.
For Mr Chee, it was a cup of matcha latte so good that it eventually spurred a six-month learning journey with a tea company in Shizuoka, where he began understanding Japanese tea from the ground up.
Image courtesy of Matchaya
At the time, many in Singapore still associated matcha with mass-market products.
“When you asked most people where they got their matcha latte, they would tell you Starbucks,” he recalled. “They were also buying matcha ice cream from Häagen-Dazs and matcha chocolate from Royce, so essentially, matcha products were coming from three different commodity companies rather than a brand dedicated to matcha and tea.”
To Mr Chee, that pointed to a clear gap in the market.
One thing Mr Chee still remembers after all these years is being told:
You will never be able to make it big because matcha is just a flavour.
Instead of discouraging him, the comment sharpened his conviction. If anything, it was the push he needed to prove that matcha was way more than that.
Back then, he said, many Singaporeans didn’t quite understand the difference between matcha and green tea.
Because of that, much of Matchaya’s early work involved storytelling: explaining how matcha was grown, how it was prepared, why quality mattered, and what made a good cup different.
To back that up, Mr Chee built direct relationships with tea farmers and producers across Japan, creating an authentic farm-to-cup approach that remains central to the brand today.
Of course, the market has changed a lot since then. More Singaporeans now travel to Japan, taste good matcha there, and return home with a clearer idea of what they like.
But Mr Chee can still proudly share that customers tell Matchaya its drinks are on par with, or even better than, what they’ve tried overseas.
Beyond its retail outlets, the brand has also grown into a major supplier, estimating that it provides around half of the matcha used by cafes and restaurants in Singapore.
So yes, if you’ve sipped on a matcha latte at any other cafe here, chances are it came from Matchaya.
More than 10 years on, Mr Chee no longer hustles through 14-hour days with barely any rest, as he did in Matchaya’s early years.
A typical day now starts with exercise and time with his dogs, before emails, meetings at Matchaya’s HQ, and visits to the outlets or clients.
He’s even got time for hobbies. After our interview wrapped, our chat veered off into a casual World Cup discussion, with Mr Chee passionately weighing in on the latest matches.
But a more balanced routine doesn’t mean he’s resting on his laurels.
“If you ask all entrepreneurs, the answer is the same,” he said with a wry chuckle. “We may not be physically at work all the time, but mentally, we are always working.”
Mr Chee also remains very hands-on with developing new menu items, including Matchaya’s latest Whimsical Cloud Series, which he was involved in “every step of the way”.
The series features Matcha Cloud 9, Brown Butter Houjicha, and Dirty Matcha, each designed to show a more sensory and unexpected side to tea through elements such as sea salt foam, brown butter cream, and, of course, cotton candy, the fluffy detail behind its “cloud” name.
“Clouds just add something different, like textures and flavour,” he explained. “We wanted to dress it up as something more whimsical, something more fun. That’s why we decided to put in cotton candy.”
But the whimsy did not come without work.
Every creation was assessed for taste, texture, and sweetness before going through a blind taste test by Matchaya’s R&D team. Only after clearing that stage did it reach Mr Chee and the HQ team for final approval.
For this menu, the process took five or six rounds, more than double the usual two or three, as the team fine-tuned the layers, textures, and small details that would set each item apart.
Beyond drinks, the new menu also introduces new rice burgers, giving customers more all-day dining options at the Tiong Bahru space.
Highlights include the Signature Matchaya Chicken Katsu, Double Tamago with Cheese, Otak-Otak, Sriracha Ebi Tempura, Miso Vegetable, and Kani Mayo.
These offerings are part of a larger evolution at Matchaya’s Tiong Bahru Tea Studio, which represents the brand’s “Version 3.0”, its latest step after earlier kiosk and retail-led formats.
Version 1.0 was a no-frills takeaway kiosk with just Matcha Latte on the menu, while Version 2.0 came about five years ago with the introduction of its own tea blends.
“Version 3.0 is where we look at raw ingredients and see whether we can improvise on them,” Mr Chee said, pointing to how those same teas have since been reworked into new categories like Sparkling Tea and Tea Mocktails.
“The idea of Version 3.0 was always to change the way people look at matcha and tea, and to just keep going forward.”
With Tiong Bahru, Matchaya now has three outlets in Singapore, four in Indonesia, and around 70 to 80 cafe and restaurant clients.
Image courtesy of Matchaya
The heritage-neighbourhood studio brings speciality tea culture, all-day dining, workshops, and retail under one roof.
A key highlight is the Matcha Appreciation & Wellness Workshop, held every Saturday and Sunday at 10am.
The 90-minute session covers Matchaya’s story, matcha basics, matcha as a superfood, and sensory exercises involving smell, sight, and touch.
Participants will also taste off-the-shelf, drinking grade, and ceremonial grade matcha, jotting down their observations on a provided form, before DIY-ing their own matcha drink and ending with a Q&A.
It’s a thoughtful introduction for anyone who wants to understand matcha beyond simply ordering it and gulping it down.
To celebrate the opening of its new Tiong Bahru space, Matchaya is running a limited-time promotion from 12 to 19 July.
Order any drink from the Whimsical Cloud Series or the Matcha Affogato between 3pm and 6pm on those dates, and you’ll receive a free Iced Matcha Latte or Houjicha Latte.
In other words, this is basically your sign to jio a friend and make it a tea date.
Here’s how to get to Matchaya’s flagship:
Matchaya @ Tiong Bahru
Address: 82 Tiong Poh Road, #01-05, Singapore 160082
Opening hours: 9am to 10pm (Mondays to Fridays), 8am to 10pm (Saturdays and Sundays)
Nearest MRT stations: Tiong Bahru and Outram Park
Looking back, Mr Chee admits that leaving his corporate job to build Matchaya was “a little bit naive” and “a little bit impulsive”.
I was lucky to be at an age where I felt that if I didn’t try, I would never know. So that was really how I started.
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Featured image by MS News.