Mountain Stream Teas
Portland-based direct-trade Japanese tea importer founded by Aaron Hardin in 2012. Small-farm Japanese tea sourcing across Shizuoka, Kyoto, and other regions.
Mountain Stream Teas operates as a small, focused direct-trade importer of Japanese teas — a relatively rare niche in American specialty tea. Aaron Hardin founded the company in 2012 after years working with Japanese tea producers; the catalog focuses on small-farm sencha, gyokuro, matcha, and the various Japanese green tea variants (hojicha, genmaicha, kukicha).
The Japanese tea direct-trade model is structurally different from the Chinese tea direct-trade model: most Japanese tea farms are small, family-operated, and sell primarily into Japanese domestic channels. International direct trade requires substantial relationship-building and is more logistically constrained than Chinese or Taiwanese tea sourcing. Mountain Stream's relationships across Shizuoka and Kyoto-area producers represent years of accumulated work. For American drinkers wanting access to single-farm Japanese tea without ordering from Japan directly, Mountain Stream is among the most editorially serious options.
Focus areas
Tea types carried
- Sencha
- Gyokuro
- Matcha
- Hojicha
- Genmaicha
- Kukicha