Seattle-based Vale Matcha is betting that the Pacific Northwest can become a major tea-growing region. The company has announced Vale Farms, a 365-acre property on Whidbey Island where it has planted its first 12,000 tea plants. Their long-term goal is to grow about 200 acres of tea (roughly one million plants) and welcome to visitors to experience the tea farm’s onsite tasting room. Vale will also build a processing facility in nearby Oak Harbor.
Vale launched its first café in Seattle’s Pioneer Square in 2025, initially sourcing matcha from producers in Japan. A global matcha shortage that year pushed the team to Japan, where they worked closely with growers and learned more about how tea is cultivated and processed.
That experience inspired a bigger vision: American-grown matcha. Founder and CEO Luke Larson compares the opportunity to Napa Valley’s rise as a center of American wine. Vale believes the Pacific Northwest could eventually become known for producing exceptional tea. Larson said:
“We went to Japan looking for exceptional matcha and came away with a much deeper appreciation for everything that has to happen before matcha ever reaches the cup. We’re not here to solve the matcha shortage. We’re thinking much longer term. Think about wine in Napa Valley. A generation of growers helped demonstrate what that region was capable of, and eventually Napa became synonymous with American wine. We believe the Pacific Northwest has the potential to become a great tea-growing region and, one day, to be known for its exceptional matcha. Tea takes years to establish and decades to truly understand. Vale Farms is our commitment to that future.”
The first 12,000 plants came from Hawaii’s Big Island, where growers Eva Lee and Chiu Leong have spent 25 years cultivating Japanese tea varieties. They are advising Vale as the new farm takes shape.
Why Whidbey Island? The location near Seattle was carefully chosen for its maritime climate, acidic soils, and agricultural history. Research from Washington State University has found that several tea varieties can thrive in the Pacific Northwest.
Vale plans to build a 30,000-square-foot processing facility in Oak Harbor with Japanese equipment manufacturer Terada Seisakusho. Leaves harvested on Whidbey Island will be processed into tencha, the shade-grown tea used to make matcha, before being milled at Vale’s Seattle facility.
For now, Vale continues to source its matcha from Japanese partners and has committed to maintaining those relationships regardless of what Vale Farms ultimately yields. But if Vale Farms succeeds, it could help establish a new American tea-growing tradition in the Pacific Northwest.
Larson frames the farm as a starting point, not a destination. “We’re not simply trying to build one great tea farm,” he said. “We want to help demonstrate what this region might become and inspire others to grow tea and produce matcha here, in the Pacific Northwest.”
In their Instagram post of the announcement, Vale shared that they’re focused on establishing the tea farm first but after that, they have plans to welcome visitors. Vale plans to build “a great hospitality experience where we can bring Vale customers to see what we’re doing here in the next two years,” along with an on-site tasting room. Ultimately, the video said, Vale’s hope is to “design the farm to be both a place to visit and a place of deep cultural respect.”
