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The Healf Source
JENKI Is Transforming London's Matcha Scene, One Perfectly-Crafted Drink At A Time
Claudia and Otto Boyer, founders of JENKI matcha, are on a mission to bring the ancient beverage, with all its functional benefits and history, to the UK and beyond.
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Written by: Currie Engel Weber
Written on: July 21, 2026
"I honestly loved the coffee scene," says Claudia Boyer, one half of the husband-and-wife duo that founded JENKI Matcha, as she navigates the busy streets of London between a doctor's appointment and that day's meetings. "But I came to the point with coffee where it just really wasn't serving me anymore."
Like many founders, Claudia and Otto Boyer stumbled upon the idea for their company while actively seeking to improve their wellbeing. After years of religiously drinking coffee, Claudia noticed she started feeling anxious after downing her usual cups of coffee, and it left her wondering if there was another, better way to fuel herself through the day. Her husband, Otto, was the one who first encouraged her to give matcha a try. Claudia had tasted it before, and hadn't loved the experience, quickly deciding matcha wasn't for her ("obviously, really poor quality matcha," she notes). But having grown up in Asia, Otto knew a bit more about the ancient green tea drink, made from the leaves of tea plants, called tencha, which are steamed, dried, and slowly ground down into a fine powder. He told Claudia to think of matcha like wine: the quality and preparation vary, meaning that some taste much better than others. She decided to give it another go. And this time, things felt — and tasted — very different.
Once Claudia experienced a truly high-quality, well-prepared matcha, "I instantly felt the benefits of it," she says. "Unlike an adaptogen, which you have to take for a period of time in order to see the benefits, I instantly felt the benefits of matcha — that steadier, more focused energy." Specifically, she noticed the impact it had on her cognitive functioning, and she was completely sold. Before she knew it, her daily coffee habit had transformed into a love affair with matcha.
In London, however, good, quality matcha was nearly impossible to find. And if a café or coffee shop had it on the menu, it was often poorly prepared, because, as Claudia explains, "no one really understood it or how to do it justice." The couple talked it through and decided this was a niche they wanted to explore. It was a need they wanted to fill.
In the Western world, people's first encounter with matcha isn't always positive, because of a lack of understanding around quality and how it should be prepared. But the Boyers thought that if they could ensure people had a fantastic first experience with matcha done right, and properly translate and honour the traditions surrounding the drink, people would quickly fall in love with this fascinating functional beverage, just as they had. To the Boyers, the recipe to achieve this was simple: fresh, in person, properly prepared.
They named their fledgling company JENKI, derived from the Japanese word "genki", a commonly used term that means energetic, lively, healthy, and full of spirit. And that's exactly the way the Boyers want you to feel when you drink their matcha. "We want it to be uplifting, for people to feel good," Claudia says as she walks briskly across the road towards one of their bars in London.
As it turns out, it's also an apt name for two founders who have put their heart and soul into turning the small company they founded in 2020 into the iconic matcha brand it is today.
Carving a space
The more Claudia learned about matcha — where it came from, the leaves, the colour, the process — the more obsessed with it she became. She devoured books on the subject, visited farms, spent time with growers, and traveled all over Japan with Otto, tasting different types of matcha. When the couple discovered that the Uji region near Kyoto was matcha's ancestral home, and where the umami tea leaves had been grown and processed for generations, that became their first port of call. The Boyers quickly found and partnered with a farm there, which they still work closely with today.
With a producer secured, the Boyers began the painstaking process of getting their business off the ground. Otto became the operational point-person while Claudia took on more of the brand marketing and product side of things. They worked in tandem, forming a cohesive husband-and-wife team. At first, they started with JENKI matcha pop-ups around London in 2020. In those days, before COVID shut everything down, the couple sold their matcha at markets and taught people about matcha. They were lucky, Claudia says, that they hadn't signed a lease at that point, as it made it easier for them to be flexible when the world shut down.
As things started to open back up again in 2021, they signed their first short lease for a matcha bar in Spitalfields. Today, their flagship bar remains in Spitalfields Market, but they now have another five locations where you can get your high-quality matcha whisked-to-order, iced or hot, and even matcha soft serve. You can also order their matcha powder, tools, and merch online.
The Boyers want the JENKI experience to be community-oriented and welcoming, hoping to foster that "coffee shop" sense of warmth and routine around their matcha. "We really needed to hit the ground running," says Claudia. "Otto and I were behind the bar for the first six months." It was during these long days working hands-on with customers that the Boyers started forging connections with customers, understanding their needs and education gaps around matcha.
Honing the process
Anyone can call their matcha "ceremonial grade", Claudia says, because it's not a regulated ingredient like coffee or chocolate or wine. But talk to anyone who knows anything about matcha, and they'll tell you that every little detail matters when it comes to true quality: the ratios, temperature of water, exactly how the powder is whisked, the quality and colour of the tea leaves, the soil they're grown in, and even the time of year they're harvested. "Every step of the process is really, really important," says Claudia. "If you don't take care in each part of those processes, then that's when you will see a deterioration in quality."
The farm where JENKI's matcha is grown and made is deeply attuned to the nuances that actually make a difference. While matcha can have up to four harvests a year, JENKI only uses first-harvest matcha, which are the youngest leaves. "The later the harvest, the more bitter, astringent, hardier the leaves get, which does reflect quality," Claudia says.
Founder's stack
Matcha, unsurprisingly, is a ritual that the Boyers honour and looks forward to each day. Typically, if Claudia is heading into one of the JENKI cafés, she'll start her day with an iced coconut flat green, which she says balances out the matcha flavour. And if there are any specials on, like their recent ginger, turmeric, cacao, and mushroom matcha, she's always game to try those. Recently, Claudia has been on a JENKI's smoothie kick. "We have a delicious berries and collagen smoothie that I seem to be addicted to," she says.
If she's at home, she'll whisk one up herself — the Boyers constantly have new matchas arriving to try — and tends to drink it straight up, since adding milks or sweeteners distract from the flavour.
Advice to other founders
For Claudia, her best advice to other founders trying to find their way through those first few years is quite simple: surround yourself with good people, really listen to your customers, and just start. "Nothing's going to be perfect for that first launch or first serve that you ever do," says Claudia. "You can only learn very quickly by doing, and without that sort of momentum, it's really hard to get going."
The team they've built at JENKI is also a source of great pride — they're people she learns from, who inspire her to do better every day, and who help drive the company forward. "We very much had the idea, the vision, but we needed people who really had the experience in so many other areas," she says.
As more and more people start incorporating matcha into their daily routines, opting for a softer, slower-release caffeine to that found in coffee and espresso, the Boyers are excited to see where the future takes JENKI, and are prepared to keep educating people about this ancient tradition.
"We just launched a book, which is more of a guide to using matcha, but gives lots of insights into where it comes from and how its made. I think people are becoming more and more intrigued by that," Claudia says. "For us, [this is all about] wanting to be able to introduce people to matcha in a way that can be way more transformative."
This article is for informational purposes only, even if and regardless of whether it features the advice of physicians and medical practitioners. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice. The views expressed in this article are the views of the expert and do not necessarily represent the views of Healf
Currie Engel Weber is the Editorial Lead at Healf. She is an award-winning journalist and editor, and former News & Features editor at Women's Health Magazine in New York. She has written for outlets like The New York Times, Wired, Business Insider, Women's Health. Currie loves writing about the intersection of women's health and culture.
