The Brand Behind Costco's Kirkland Green Tea Is Really Big On Matcha

Costco sells almost every product imaginable under its Kirkland Signature brand. How can a company produce such a diverse array of items, ranging from dog food to diapers to vodka, with equal ability? The simple answer is...they don't. Most Kirkland products aren't made by Costco itself, but rather by third-party manufacturers, something that's also true of other store brands like Walmart's Great Value or Amazon's Amazon Basics. Oftentimes, these third-party brands are well-known in their own right, but they cut a deal with Costco where their name is replaced by the Kirkland label. Typically, Costco keeps these partnerships under wraps, hiding the true origin of its Kirkland products, but there's an exception to be found in the form of its green tea.

The green tea bags sold at Costco are notable in that their packaging displays two brand names. There's the familiar Kirkland Signature label, but underneath that is another name — Ito En — the company that actually produces the tea. If you've ever walked down the beverage aisle at an Asian supermarket, Ito En should ring a bell. It is Japan's number one distributor of tea, and it has a huge international presence with subsidiary brands Matcha Love and Teas' Tea Organic. Ito En even operated a restaurant, Kai, in New York City for a period in the early 2000s. They know a thing or two about green tea, as they well should, with decades of experience behind them.

Japan Family Service, the company that would later become Ito En, was founded in 1964. Prior to that time, tea had traditionally been sold in bulk by specialty suppliers and was not the common grocery store commodity it is today. Ito En played a key role in changing Japanese tea culture by offering packaged tea at supermarkets, vacuum-sealed for preservation purposes. This innovation greatly expanded the market for tea in general, marking the first step in a formidable legacy.

In 1979, Ito En became the first company to import Chinese oolong tea to Japan, but their biggest innovation as a business would arrive in the following decade. In 1985, Ito En launched the first line of canned green tea in the world. This came in response to the rising popularity of American soft drinks in Japan over the second half of the twentieth century. When they later began bottling tea Japanese tea consumption soared to record heights over the next decade. 

Ito En's line of bottled teas, sold under the name "Oi Ocha," made it a household name in Japan, but their international profile relies heavily on another style of tea: Matcha. As previously mentioned, Ito En even has its own line of teas for the American market under the name Matcha Love, and in 2021 announced that it would begin to supply matcha to the North American supplement market.

The Ito En tea sold under the Kirkland label is a specific variety that combines matcha and sencha. Matcha seems to be everywhere these days, but what exactly is it? Matcha is a particular type of green tea, which, like all forms of tea, is made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. What makes matcha unique is the way the tea is grown and processed. It is grown under bamboo mats to keep away sunlight, which in turn causes the plant to produce more chlorophyll and amino acids, giving the tea an exceptionally bright green color and a deep umami flavor. Matcha is made using only the youngest two leaves from each branch, which are then steamed, dried, and ground into a fine powder.

Sencha is also made from the Camellia sinensis plant, but it's processed differently. It is typically grown uncovered, giving it a dark green color and a light, grassy flavor. As with matcha, the youngest leaves are harvested, but sencha may include the first two to three leaves instead of just the first two. For sencha, the leaves are steamed and rolled into tight cylinders before drying. Since sencha is less expensive than matcha, purchasing a blend, like the kind Ito En makes for Costco, allows you to get some of the bright color and rich flavor associated with matcha while paying less overall.