How a Single Genmaicha Tea Bag Got Us Onto Seattle Supermarket Shelves

When I came to the U.S. to launch Sugimoto Tea Company's American operation there was one store I wanted to be in. It is a beloved, local upscale grocer with a handful of stores in the Seattle area. What I noticed was the careful product selection and the staff's evident pride in what they sold. The shelves were curated, the customers were the kind of people who read labels carefully, and the tea aisle had real range. Every time I shopped there I thought, one day, our tea will be on this shelf. It took three years and a single tea bag for that to happen. Here is the story.

Three years of showing up, mostly to no one

When we first launched our brand in the U.S., I went after that grocer the way an importer is supposed to. I called the buyer almost every week. I wrote follow-up notes. I dropped by the corporate office to introduce myself.

For a long stretch I could not even get a meeting. Sometimes I made the trip and left without saying hello to anyone who could make my dream come true.. Some days I asked myself, is any of this worth it? The honest answer most days was I don't know.

But I kept going every week, sometimes for nothing, for three years.

If you have ever tried to put a small specialty product onto a grocery shelf , this will sound familiar . Buyers are protective of shelf space because they need to be. Their job is to filter, not to introduce every product that comes across their desk. The work, as a small brand, is to keep showing up without becoming a pain or a bother, and to trust that the door will open sometime in the future.

What kept me going, honestly, was not stubbornness but belief in my product. I knew what was in our tins. I knew where the leaves came from, who had picked them, who had finished them, and what the cup was going to taste like in the customer's home. If we could just get the chance to put one of those cups in front of the buyer, I trusted the tea would open their eyes. The challenge was logistical, not qualitative. So I kept at it.

The tea bag that changed everything

The door opened when I least expected it. I was in the area and decided to stop into one of the stores — not the corporate office, just a single store. I had no appointment and no reason to think it would change everything.

I asked a store employee who I should leave a sample with. They were not a manager, just someone working the floor and said they would take a look. I gave them a single tea bag of our genmaicha and left. Genmaicha is the classic Japanese blend of green tea (sencha) and roasted rice — toasty, mellow, easy to love on the first sip. It is the tea I most often give to people who say they are not sure about Japanese green tea.

That same afternoon my phone rang. That employee had brewed the tea, drunk it, and called to say they wanted to recommend it to the chain's headquarters. I still remember exactly where I was standing when that call came in. After three years of weekly outreach that mostly went into the void, the door cracked open because one person on the floor of one store made one cup of tea.

A few weeks later, the buyer at headquarters reached out. The conversation I had been trying to have for three years finally happened. And shortly after that, the order we had been working toward came in.

The shelf is the start, not the finish

The temptation, when something like that finally lands, is to celebrate it as the win. But this was not the end. It was the chance to start working towards the real goal.

A product on a shelf does not sell itself. Customers in that store have to find our tea, take a chance, take it home, brew it, like it enough to come back, and then tell a friend. That is the actual job, and it is one we are still doing via in-store demos, conversations with buyers, and the slow work of learning what moves on the shelf. Some weeks one tea outpaces the others; some weeks it is the inverse. We pay attention.

The breakthrough at the buyer level only starts the harder work. A small brand on a grocery shelf is in a fight for its life. The store is letting you stand next to brands ten times your size; if you do not move, you do not stay.

I think about that employee a lot. They had no reason to call us back; they just liked the tea. The way I see it, every cup we put in front of every customer in every store from here on is a chance to repeat what they did — to taste something honest and tell someone about it. The least we can do is make sure the cup is worth it.

— Kyohei Sugimoto
Owner, Sugimoto Tea Company (USA)
Three generations from Shizuoka, Japan

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is genmaicha?
A1: Genmaicha (玄米茶) is a traditional Japanese blend of green tea — usually sencha or bancha — and roasted brown rice. The toasted rice gives the cup a warm, popcorn-like aroma and softens the tea's astringency. It is one of the most approachable Japanese teas for new drinkers and is widely served as a daily, all-day cup in Japanese homes.

Q2: Why does genmaicha work so well as an introduction to Japanese tea?
A2: The roasted brown rice in genmaicha mellows the grassy edge that some new drinkers find sharp in plain sencha. The flavor is toasty, comforting, and pairs naturally with food. People who are skeptical of green tea often respond to genmaicha on the first sip because the roastiness reads as familiar. It is a reliable starting point.

Q3: How long did it take Sugimoto Tea to get into a major U.S. grocer?
A3: About three years of weekly outreach to the buyer of one Seattle-area upscale grocery chain — most of which did not result in a meeting. The breakthrough came when a single store employee, given a sample tea bag of our genmaicha during a cold drop-in, brewed it and called the same day to recommend it to corporate. The chain placed an order shortly after.

Q4: What is the lesson for small specialty food brands trying to get into retail?
A4: Two things. First, persistence at the buyer level matters even when it feels pointless — the door opens on a timeline you cannot see. Second, the product itself has to win on a single tasting. If a busy store employee can take one cup and decide to advocate for you, you have a chance. If not, no amount of cold-calling will move a buyer.

Q5: Is Sugimoto genmaicha available without going to a Seattle store?
A5: Yes. Our genmaicha is available in our online shop in both tea-bag and loose-leaf form, alongside our sencha, kukicha, hojicha, and matcha. We ship throughout the U.S. The supermarket shelf is one channel; the kitchen counter, anywhere in the country, is the one that matters most to us.