Irvine-based Green Tea Terrace Inc. opened the first of a planned national chain of teahouses in Westwood this month.
The joint venture of Irvine-based Maeda-En USA and Imagene Corp. of Tokyo hopes to do for green tea what Starbucks did for premium coffee. Americans spend over $18 billion a year on gourmet coffee, according to Hiroshi Maeda, chief executive of the firm. And Maeda believes there is still room for green tea.
Green Tea Terrace plans to open 30 company-owned teahouses in the U.S. within the next three years, and is looking for OC locations, according to the company. Its teahouses will debut in Japan in the near future, the company said.
Signature drinks at the 1,660-square-foot teahouse include green-tea (o-cha) lattes, mochas and smoothies. The drinks sell for $2 to $3. Traditional Japanese teas, mochi (rice cake) ice cream and sushi also are served.
Maeda-En USA is a distributor of green tea products imported from its parent company, Maeda-en, a generations-old, family-run tea company in Southern Japan. It owns the first green-tea ice cream factory in America, in Irvine.
