A new matcha experience arrives in Bozeman

Sasha Oratz is a full-time artist who starts every day with a hand-whisked matcha. She's now working to turn her morning ritual into a business. Bozeman Matcha is her new passion project, and it’s having its first pop-up event next week.

The event will be held at Light House on Main St. from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Sunday, Nov. 8. 

“I just felt like there wasn’t any truly dedicated spots to get a good matcha. There are a lot of good specialty coffee places, but nowhere is really serving a well-considered matcha beverage,” she said.

Matcha is part of Oratz’s everyday routine. “When I wake up and make my matcha it both relaxes and energizes me and gives me energy to get into my day of painting,” she said. 

Oratz is a full-time painter who has just recently found the time to create her business. “Out of coincidence, I made a relationship with this really great matcha company,” she said.

She said that the company, Ashu’s Matcha, is very specific about the tea farms and matcha they work with and sell. According to their website, the matcha they sell is “shade-grown, stone-milled, and selected within precise harvest windows.”

“[Ashu’s Matcha] is a mother-daughter business, they're based out of Malibu, California and they travel regularly to Japan,” she said. “She has really similar tastes as I do. I was really excited to work with her.”

Oratz was having trouble sourcing a matcha wholesaler for her business idea, but with her new connection, her plan has begun to take shape.

“The benefit [of my business] is for one, being able to focus on really high-quality product,” she said. “If people have traveled to other places and tasted [a] really high-quality matcha latte and they were like, ‘I wish I had this in Bozeman,’ and they don't have the tools or knowledge to make it themselves in the way that's proper or traditional. I want to be able to give that to people.”

Oratz said she sees the demand from the community. “I think a lot of people moved away from coffee or other caffeinated beverages and really love matcha,” she said. “I see people order it all the time, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, you deserve the highest quality version of that.’”

Oratz is originally from New York, and lived in Tokyo for two years. “It’s the most recent place that I've lived before Bozeman. I moved [here] about a year ago.”

“After living in Japan, I really didn't want to move back to New York because I got used to a more peaceful, slower pace of life,” she said. 

For now, Bozeman Matcha is operating on a pop-up basis. “I don't have a real location for it — where it would become a permanent space. Hopefully one day I would,” she said.

Bozeman Matcha’s first pop-up event is a workshop partnering with Glo Luxury Oils.

“It's a ticketed event,” Oratz said. “Hopefully in the future we will do more things that are for the public, but for our very first thing this is what we wanted to do, like a one-time really kind of special and memorable experience.” 

“I will be purveying matchas, and whisking them freshly for everyone who comes,” said Oratz.

According to Oratz, the event will be an intimate, zen program, with only 20 tickets being sold. Her goal with Bozeman Matcha is to break even, not to make a profit at this time.

To learn more visit Bozemanmatcha.com.