'Too bitter?' College student turns Boseong matcha into a 100-million-won business

Cho Seung-ha reimagined organic matcha from South Jeolla Province as a cereal snack, shifting tea from something to drink to something to eat. Sales of 92 million won in her first year have already been surpassed this year, with a five-year target of 1 billion won in annual revenue.

Cho Seung-ha, CEO of Dagyeok, inspects tea leaves at a green tea field in Boseong, South Jeolla Province. [Dagyeok]

Matcha lattes, matcha cakes, matcha Dubai Chewy Cookies — the ingredient has never been more popular. Yet few young entrepreneurs have pushed the transformation further than simply adding matcha to trendy desserts.

Cho Seung-ha, a university student born in 2004 and CEO of Dagyeok, comes from a family that has grown tea in Boseong, South Jeolla Province, for three generations. She kept hearing the same response whenever she offered tea to peers: "too bitter," or "too complicated." That reaction led her not to ask how to teach young consumers to appreciate tea, but how to turn tea into food they would already want to eat.

Cho, who studies specialty crops at Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries, founded Dagyeok in 2024. She handles every aspect of the business herself — product planning, sourcing, manufacturing, branding and retail — with just one employee. Sales have grown steadily: 92 million won ($68,200) last year, and as of Friday the figure has already surpassed that total, approaching 100 million won.

The flagship product is Malcha Kkudeok, a cereal containing 9.3 percent organic matcha from Boseong. Designed to be eaten with milk or yogurt as a breakfast or snack rather than brewed in a teapot, it is made without sugar, flour or oil, with stevia added for sweetness. The raw ingredient stays the same; only the way consumers encounter it has changed.

"Dagyeok is a brand that transforms Boseong tea from something you brew and drink into food you eat every day," Cho said.

Three generations of tea farming, one college course in specialty crops

Tea was never unfamiliar to Cho. She grew up watching her family cultivate and process it, and absorbed early on that producing a quality crop and getting the market to recognize its value are two very different things.

Studying specialty crops at university — including food analysis and quality-control practicals — shifted her focus from production to sales. She concluded that processing agricultural products into forms consumers actually want, and building a brand that fits the market, matters just as much as improving raw quality.

Her peers' reactions helped sharpen the business concept. People who would not reach for a cup of tea showed immediate interest when matcha appeared in a dessert or snack. Rather than explaining the health benefits or flavor profile of tea to non-drinkers, she decided it was better to create a product they could eat without a second thought.

She saw the matcha boom not as a passing trend to ride but as an opportunity to broaden the customer base for traditional tea. The goal was not to serve existing tea drinkers but to bring in people who had never been interested in tea at all.

After launching the product in September 2024, Cho worked trade fairs and pop-up events in person. Instead of spending first on online advertising, she put samples in front of consumers and watched their reactions — noting which flavors drew attention, what questions came up after hearing the price, and what made people hesitate to buy. Everything she observed fed back into product development and sales strategy.

The results surprised her. She had expected matcha enthusiasts to be her core customers, but in practice consumers who rarely drank tea also bought the product after tasting it. Some returned to her booth to buy again.

"When the everyday consumer I had set as my target persona came back to choose the product a second time, I became confident it could work in the broader market," Cho said.

Early numbers backed that confidence. In roughly the first three months after launch, Dagyeok posted sales of 66 million won, showing Cho that combining processing, branding and retail with agricultural production could meaningfully raise the value of a farm crop.

Malcha Kkudeok, a green tea cereal by Dagyeok. The product contains 9.3 percent organic matcha from Boseong, South Jeolla Province, is made without oil, and is sweetened with stevia. [Dagyeok]

Lessons from a young founder: track customer reactions, manage inventory

Sales, of course, did not equal profit. Raw material costs, manufacturing fees, logistics and event expenses all came due before a single unit sold. Minimum order quantities at the manufacturer had to be met, and a delay in ingredients or packaging pushed back the entire launch schedule. Keeping up with university coursework while managing product development, production, delivery and settlement was no small feat.

The biggest lesson Cho took from the experience was that product competitiveness and business sustainability are separate things.

"In the early days I was so focused on making the product that I did not design a proper distribution structure or cash flow for repeat sales," she said. "I learned that a good product and a good business are not the same thing."

She has since changed her approach: rather than scaling up production first, she now confirms consumer demand through sample testing and on-site sales before deciding how much to make — reducing the risk of building up inventory before demand is proven.

Asked what she would do first if she were starting over, her answer was clear. "I would sell directly to 100 customers, record why they bought and why they did not, and then invest in production volume and packaging based on those findings," she said.

Building on what Malcha Kkudeok has demonstrated, Dagyeok plans to expand its product range and sales channels at the same time. The matcha cereal line will branch into original, mild and protein varieties, and the company will also introduce a matcha spread and a matcha protein snack called Malcha Fish. The current focus on online sales and trade fairs will expand into business-to-business markets — school meal programs, franchise chains, hotels and corporate snack suppliers. Overseas, Dagyeok is targeting Vietnam first, followed by the United States, Austria and Japan, with buyer consultations and product verification already under way.

Cho Seung-ha, CEO of Dagyeok, introduces her products to visitors at the NS Food Festa held in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, in 2024. [Dagyeok]

'Young farmers must think about who the next generation of customers will be'

Government support programs also helped Cho get her product to market in the early days. Grants from a startup-focused university program and a youth food entrepreneurship initiative under the National Food Cluster provided the foundation for product development, testing and packaging. Cho said, however, that securing funding matters less than building a business that can survive once the support ends. "Support programs can be a chance to validate your initial market, but the funding itself must not become the goal," she said. "Never lose sight of building a structure where customers keep buying after the support runs out."

The achievement Cho is most proud of is not the revenue figure alone. Rather than simply inheriting a three-generation tea business, she has turned Boseong tea into a new food product that peers are willing to pay for. Since the first launch she has participated in more than nine trade fairs and sales events and collected more than 80 customer reviews. The skepticism she initially faced — people seeing it as a small student project — has faded as repeat buyers have grown in number.

Cho also had advice for young peers who dream of going into agriculture. "Entering farming is not enough on its own to guarantee success," she said. "You have to give customers a reason to pay for your product and come back for it again."

Cho Seung-ha, CEO of Dagyeok, holds up a chasen — a bamboo whisk used to prepare matcha. [Dagyeok]

Dagyeok has set a sales target of 150 million won for next year. The company plans to diversify its food products using Boseong tea and to open an offline space where consumers can experience tea culture firsthand. Within five years, Cho aims to grow Dagyeok into a stable food company with annual revenue exceeding 1 billion won.

What Cho has inherited from three generations of tea farming in Boseong is more than the crop itself. Where earlier generations mastered the art of making good tea, she is focused on making that tea relevant to a generation that does not brew it — if they will not drink it, give them a cereal bowl instead.

"My goal is to make Korean matcha not a specialty item for special occasions but a food anyone can enjoy in their daily life without a second thought," Cho said. "I want to share the value of Boseong tea through a new way of consuming it."

adastra@heraldcorp.com