Zach Mangan

In 2010, Zach Mangan took a month-long solo trip to Japan and realized that the freshest and most delicious Japanese tea products were not exported. Driven by a simple desire to connect incredible Japanese teas with an international audience, Mangan spent two years developing relationships with several of Japan’s most notable tea producers. Thus, his company, Kettl, was born. Mangan is known throughout Japan as an authority on Japanese tea. He has consulted for the Shizuoka Tea Association and studied tea production extensively at origin with producers in both Fukuoka and Uji. Mangan was a finalist and the first non-Japanese person to take top honors in the Zenkoku Gyokuro No Umai Irikata Contest, a nationwide Gyokuro brewing competition in Japan. Mangan has contributed to radio, books, and magazines and has developed the tea menus for chefs holding a combined thirty-nine Michelin stars. Based in both Fukuoka and Brooklyn, Mangan continues to create connections between Japan’s most distinguished tea producers and tea drinkers throughout the world