History

The history of the ENSO TEA begins with the personal story of company founder, David Huang, whose loving father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes despite living a relatively healthy lifestyle. Throughout high school and college, David devoted his studies towards the sciences in hopes that someday he could have even a small impact in finding a diabetes cure for his father. While the idea of a diabetes cure seemed a noble cause, a more logical approach came to his mind and that was prevention. It was during this period that David committed himself to live and advocate a healthy lifestyle of exercise, stress management and nutrition.

In 2003, David, a young biochemist conducting research in diabetes and cancer drug discovery through conventional scientific methods sought out safe, natural and novel preventative alternatives in homeopathic medicine. After an exhaustive search through various medical journals and research databases, David discovered the many benefits of, a then little known, compound referred to as EGCG or epigallocatechin-3-gallate, an ester of epigallocatechin and gallic acid, and a type of catechin. As it turned out EGCG occurs naturally in tea leaves of the Camellia sinensis variety and in particular in minimally processed green teas such as matcha and some loose leaf green teas.

For the next couple of years David continued to drink green tea as a daily ritual and research its many benefits. He in fact really enjoyed drinking Japanese matcha for its high concentration of EGCG and theanine but quickly came to realize that his matcha tea drinking passion was getting very expensive, even on a modest scientist’s salary. Over the next year, David would travel throughout Asia for leisure and would often return with various green teas from his travels to sample and share with friends and family. Soon after a business idea was born and in 2005, David started a small mail order side business out of his parent’s house selling imported matcha directly to businesses at much more reasonable wholesale prices.

David, an introverted and benevolent scientist by trade, sought out the help of his finance and numbers-happy sister in 2006 to get the company books and operations in order. Together they acquired the domain name greenteapowder.com and with the help of a high school and college friend they built an online store to make ordering their product easier for their existing customers. In 2007, David reached out and partnered with his business savvy brother-in-law to further expand and grow the business. With a growing customer base and loyal social media following, the trio decided it was time to build a brand and develop a product portfolio. What emerged was ENSO TEA: the harmonious symbol of Zen with the liquid tranquility of tea.