{"id":586057,"date":"2026-04-06T15:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:14:09","slug":"how-this-young-matcha-lover-turned-her-passion-into-vancouver-startup-emeri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586057\/","title":{"rendered":"How this young matcha lover turned her passion into Vancouver startup Emeri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josephine Au first tried matcha when she was in high school, well before the trendy green drink exploded in popularity. Her appreciation for matcha stayed consistent after graduating<\/a> from Western University\u2019s Ivey Business School<\/a> and during her marketing career at companies like Open Farm and Fable. Ahead of the matcha boom a few years back, Au co-founded e-commerce matcha company Emeri <\/a>with her business partner, Justin Ng. \u201cWe travelled to Japan to understand what a high-quality matcha should look like,\u201d says Au. The duo worked on the business for approximately a year before leaving their corporate jobs and officially launching in summer 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That education-first approach became central to Emeri\u2019s mission: helping customers discover their ideal matcha by sourcing from generational family farms in Japan<\/a>. \u201cWe believe there is no one-size-fits-all approach to tea,\u201d Au explains. \u201cWe don\u2019t define the best matcha; we help you find your matcha.\u201d Since launch, they\u2019ve served over 12,000 customers through their online store and at Emeri Matcha Bar, a temporary weekend pop-up that became a Vancouver hot spot. In 2025<\/a>, when U.S. shipping tariffs essentially halted half of all online sales, the matcha bar\u2019s local following helped sustain the business, prompting them to prioritize using Canadian ingredients (tea from Japan excluded). \u201cThat was a really big consumer shift for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next few years, Emeri aims to open a permanent Vancouver<\/a> location and expand both its product offerings and educational resources to meet diverse taste preferences. \u201cOur goal is to create a welcoming environment where people can come together and build community through the shared experience of tea,\u201d says Au.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaunching Emeri wasn\u2019t a career move; it was a passion project.\u201d<\/p>\n

See the full list of our 2026 30 Under 30 winners here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Hanna<\/p>\n

Hanna McLean is a Vancouver-based journalist and editor with over a decade of experience in food and lifestyle journalism, digital publishing and editorial strategy. Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Dished, she’s as comfortable behind a byline as she is at a bar, and probably already has a reservation somewhere worth writing about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josephine Au first tried matcha when she was in high school, well before the trendy green drink exploded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-586057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}