Mizuba Holiday Gift Guide 2026: Japanese Tea & Gifts for Everyone on Your List

This year's Mizuba Holiday Gift Guide is all about pairing our exquisite matcha, hojicha, and loose leaf Japanese teas with the people on your gift list who appreciate the flavor of life. Almost all of the teas in the guide are from family farms in Uji, Yame, or Shizuoka with whom we share long-term relationships, making them thoughtful holiday gifts to be enjoyed the moment they are unwrapped.

For the Host with a Sweet Tooth: A Hojicha Japanese Tea & Dessert Set

Daily Hojicha & Miso Caramel Duo, $39.99

Instead of another bottle of wine, bring this duo. Our Daily Hojicha is a single-origin Japanese tea roasted to perfection, with notes of caramel and toasted grain, and is naturally very low in caffeine. It's exactly the tea to have at the end of a long meal when you're not in the mood for coffee.

We've paired it with Miso Caramel from our friends at Sugarpine Drive-In. Handcrafted in Oregon, this miso-based caramel sauce brings a lovely savory note that keeps the sweetness in check. Whisk a teaspoon of hojicha into a little hot water, add in half a teaspoon of caramel, and pour over iced milk for our Salted Caramel Hojicha Latte.

Alternatively, warm the caramel to drizzle over vanilla ice cream, then sprinkle a bit of hojicha on top for an unexpected dessert. Together, a tin of tea and a jar of caramel make a thoughtful and flavorful gift for your holiday hosts. 

For Those Just Getting Into Matcha: A Beginner Matcha Gift Set

Matcha Moment® Essential Tea Set, $57.50

A matcha gift that is perfect for a budding matcha enthusiast. This set contains everything they need for a matcha moment: 

• 30g tin of Yama Matcha

• Hand-carved 120-tine bamboo chasen (whisk) 

• Illustrated card for making a delicious cup of matcha

• Gift-ready box designed by Portland-based artist Elizabeth Chai

Yama is a Honyama-cha grown high in Shizuoka, where the fog and the mineral content of the soil give the leaf what the growers refer to as yama no kaori (the mountain aroma). The tea has a fresh, slightly floral smell, a rich umami and deep sweetness on the palate, and froths easily with the bamboo whisk. A rich, foamy first bowl of matcha is sure to invite a second. Add in a little note for your giftee directing them to our step-by-step starter guide, and they'll be well on their way to mastering matcha.

For the Tea Enthusiast: A Precision Kettle and Single-Cultivar Japanese Tea Tasting Set

Stagg EKG Pro Electric Kettle, from $179.95, with the Koshun Tasting Set,  $49

Japanese tea is very particular about water. Pour the sencha at a full boil and it becomes bitter, losing all the umami that makes it such a worthwhile tea to brew. The Fellow's Stagg EKG Pro heats to precisely the temperature you set it to, maintains that temperature for up to an hour and has a built-in timer for your steeping. The gooseneck spout pours slowly enough to wet a bowl of ceremonial matcha without flooding it.

Our Koshun set features three incredible teas, all made from one cultivar: Koshun. The oolong is full-bodied with notes of honey and stone fruit. The sencha, herbaceous, deliciously umami, and bright. The Koshun matcha ties everything together with playful sesame and walnut notes. Brewed side by side at their ideal temperatures, these three teas highlight how significantly leaf processing shapes flavor, creating a nuanced experience any tea lover will savor and appreciate, especially as a gift.

Stocking Stuffer: A Perfect Everyday Matcha from Uji

Daily Matcha, $25

A 40g tin fits perfectly in a stocking and contains about 20 servings of matcha. Our Daily Matcha is shade-grown and traditionally stone-milled to order at a 100-year-old family matcha farm in Uji. When you open the tin, you get a very light aroma of toasted vanilla. In the bowl, it's creamy and full, with a lovely milky note of freshly churned butter.

This matcha yields a remarkably smooth latte and tastes equally bright and clean when whisked simply with hot water. It's an ideal holiday gift for anyone who enjoys matcha on the daily. 

For the Explorer: A Single-Origin Ceremonial Matcha Tasting Flight

Mizuba Matcha Tasting Trio, $129

This signature holiday gift set is for the friend who wants to level up their matcha expertise. It includes

• Three 30g tins of our most exceptional teas: Tsuyuhikari, Shirakawa, and Yorokobi

• Illustrated card featuring tasting notes and origin stories of all three included matchas
  

• Gift-ready box designed by Portland-based artist Elizabeth Chai

Each flavor profile is deliciously different and engaging to compare: 

Tsuyuhikari (meaning dew light) comes from the misty farms of Haruno in Shizuoka and is grown and stone-milled by a husband and wife. The matcha is a vibrant deep green with a very refreshing aroma. 

Shirakawa is from the Shirakawa district of Uji and is stone-milled by Kiyoharu Tsuji, who is one of Japan's most decorated matcha producers. It's a very silky matcha with a clean, bright finish.

Yorokobi (meaning joy) is a blend of two rare cultivars, Okumidori and Kanayamidori, which gives it a gentle sweetness and a very balanced complexity.

All three matchas are suitable for both usucha and koicha. Whisking them side by side in a single sitting offers an extraordinary way to explore the nuanced terroir of Japanese tea and a standout gift for all your adventurous giftees. 

For the Chef at Heart: Culinary Japanese Tea for Baking

Mizuba Organic Latte & Baking Bundle, $72

Perfect for anyone looking to bring rich tea flavors into their kitchens, this set includes two 100g resealable pouches, one matcha and one hojicha, providing plenty of lattes and baking opportunities. Our organic Signature Matcha is shade-grown and stone-milled, offering a vibrant green hue, a creamy mouthfeel, and a rich, grassy sweetness that holds up beautifully in doughs and batters. Our organic Hojicha is a gently roasted tea delivering warm, nutty notes of cocoa, caramel, and toasted malt that adds depth.

It's an inspiring gift for any baking enthusiast eager to test new flavor combinations. They can start their culinary adventure with cozy hojicha waffles or a showstopping matcha layer cake. 

For Those Always On-the-Go: Organic Japanese Tea Sachets

Organic Sencha with Yuzu Tea Sachet, $16.95

This holiday gift idea is for the friend whose tea is invariably made at a desk or wherever their travels take them because they are always on the move. Each box contains 15 sachets of organic spring harvest sencha from the Haruno highlands of Shizuoka, blended with a little dried yuzu peel from the nearby Kawane, making for a bright, energizing cup

The sencha is smooth and rounded, with the yuzu providing a lovely citrus note (leans towards grapefruit) which has a certain creaminess to it, very much like an orange creamsicle. Steep one sachet in 8oz of 175°F water for 3-4 minutes. The sachets are made from plant-based PLA and sealed using ultrasonic welding, so no glue ever touches the tea. 

Give the Gift of a Daily Ritual

This holiday season, if you're unsure what to choose, think about when they'd drink it. Matcha belongs to a slow morning. Hojicha, low in caffeine and toasty from the roast, is made for the afternoon or evening. A box of sachets fits into the days that never slow down.

Whichever you choose, your matcha gift becomes a small daily ritual for someone you care about: a bowl whisked before work, or a latte shared after dinner. Happy gifting! 

U.S. orders over $85 ship free, so two or more gifts can travel together