Matcharia Brings the "Battle of Nutty Matcha" to Jakarta with Titik Koma Kopi
Jakarta, Indonesia, August 16, 2026
After two and a half years of exploring Japanese matcha and connecting with matcha lovers around the world, Ria finally had the opportunity to meet many of her Indonesian online friends and students in person through a special Matcha Gathering & Mini Workshop with Titik Koma Kopi in Bintaro, Jakarta. Held on August 16, 2026, the gathering brought together 20 participants for a sensory exploration of Japanese matcha, hands-on matcha preparation, and a playful tasting experience centered around one distinctive theme: “Battle of Nutty Matcha.”
The workshop was an unexpected addition to Ria's already busy homecoming trip to Indonesia. Since June, she had been discussing a collaboration with a business partner about creating her first tea pairing experience in Jakarta, rather than a matcha workshop. Her previous workshops in Bandung and Palembang had happened naturally while she was visiting friends and family in those cities. Once she arrived in Indonesia, however, many of Ria's online followers and matcha friends started asking when they could finally attend one of her sessions in person. Knowing how much she enjoys seeing people discover and fall in love with matcha, Ria decided to make it happen during her short stay in Jakarta.
“Then, many of my online friends and followers started asking if I could hold a workshop in Jakarta. Knowing how much I love seeing people fall in love with matcha, and how eager I was to finally connect with them in person, I decided to make it happen,” said Ria.
A Matcha Gathering Built Around Nutty Flavors
The concept for the workshop was “Battle of Nutty Matcha,” a sensory exploration designed to introduce participants to matchas with some of the most distinctive nutty characteristics Ria had encountered while curating Japanese matcha from different tea-producing regions. Participants tasted matcha from Nishio, Wazuka, Yame, and Kagoshima, allowing them to compare how different origins and tea materials can express similar nutty characteristics in completely different ways.
The session featured four matchas in total. The Nishio matcha was provided by Titik Koma Kopi, while the Kagoshima matcha was an Asatsuyu from Baisa Nakamura. Ria also brought two Matcharia selections from Kyoto and Yame: M°02 Matcharia Signature Blend from Wazuka and M°01 Okumidori Yame. The tasting was designed to move beyond simply identifying whether a matcha was “good” or “bad” and instead encouraged participants to observe aroma, flavor, texture, umami, bitterness, and the different expressions created by each tea's origin.
The participants experienced the matchas both as latte, allowing them to see the sensory character of the tea. After the guided tasting, they were invited to prepare their own latte. The session also included a special sweet, creating an informal tea gathering where participants could taste, discuss, laugh, and enjoy matcha together.
From Teacher-Led to Community-Led Learning
For Ria, teaching matcha is not about standing at the front of a room for an entire workshop while everyone else simply watches and takes notes. Throughout the session, she intentionally made the workshop highly interactive by inviting different participants to come forward, whisk matcha themselves, and serve it to the rest of the group.
Instead of having only one person prepare the tea, participants took turns becoming part of the preparation and serving process. Someone would whisk a bowl of matcha, another person would receive it, and the group would taste and discuss the result together. This created opportunities for participants to observe different whisking techniques, learn from one another, and experience the process of preparing matcha in front of other people.
The approach reminded Ria of one of Indonesia's deeply rooted social philosophies, "Gotong-royong", the spirit of working together and contributing collectively toward a shared experience. Although matcha preparation is often presented as an individual craft, Ria wanted the workshop to demonstrate that learning tea can also be a collective experience. Everyone has something to contribute, whether through preparing the matcha, serving it, sharing an observation, asking a question, or simply tasting together.
“This teaching method really reminds me of Gotong-royong. I don't want my workshops to feel like I am the only person who has knowledge and everyone else is just sitting and listening. When we invite people to whisk, serve, taste, and share together, the room becomes much more alive. We learn from one another, and people become more comfortable sharing what they know and what they experience,” said Ria.
The interactive format also helped break down the distance between teacher and participant. Rather than creating a strict separation between the person teaching and the people learning, the workshop became a shared tea table where everyone could participate. For Ria, this is an important part of building a stronger matcha community, especially as more people in Indonesia begin to explore matcha not only as a beverage, but also as a field of knowledge, business, and education.
Twenty Participants, With More Waiting to Join
The workshop was intentionally limited to 20 participants because Ria and the Titik Koma Kopi team wanted to create an environment where everyone could actively participate and receive enough attention during the sensory and hands-on portions of the class. Even after registration closed, more people continued asking to join, making the decision to limit the capacity especially difficult.
Although participants were asked to bring their own matcha bowl and chasen, the response remained enthusiastic. For those who did not have their own tea utensils, Ria also offered assistance so that they could still participate.
The gathering included opportunities for participants to build new connections, learn about the landscape and character of Japanese matcha, practice sensory tasting, prepare matcha themselves, and receive a Rp50,000 shopping voucher. Fourteen participants were also selected to receive a 20g package of Okumidori matcha to take home.
For Ria, however, the most valuable part of the gathering was not the gifts or the workshop materials. It was finally meeting people she had known primarily through screens and conversations online.
From “Let's Go” to Making It Happen
The collaboration with Titik Koma Kopi began with a simple conversation. When Ria first told Andrew, the owner of Titik Koma Kopi, about her plans to return to Indonesia, his response was immediate: “Let's gooo! Let's do something together and make it happen!”
That enthusiasm eventually turned into concrete action. Andrew sent members of the Titik Koma team to discuss the collaboration in greater detail, allowing both sides to develop the workshop together and adapt the concept to the venue and participants.
The morning of the workshop itself brought an unexpected challenge. When Ria and her sister, Dr. Oqti, arrived at the venue, the setup was not quite what they had expected. Instead of keeping the original layout, they decided to completely reorganize the space so that the participants could have a more comfortable and engaging experience.
A large table arrangement was replaced with approximately ten separate tables, each designed for two people. Chairs and tables were moved around, the workshop area was reorganized, and a small Matcharia product booth was created on the side of the venue. Dr. Oqti also helped introduce and explain the Matcharia products to participants throughout the gathering.
Rather than allowing the unexpected setup to become a problem, Ria, her sister, and the Titik Koma team focused on the same goal: creating the best possible experience for everyone attending.
“I was a little uncomfortable at first because the setup was different from what we expected, but everyone was focused on the same goal, which was creating the best experience for the participants. So we just moved things around and worked together. I am really grateful to my sister for helping me prepare everything, and I am also thankful to the Titik Koma team for being so agile and willing to adjust with us,” said Ria.
The result was a more intimate arrangement that allowed participants to interact with one another, prepare their own matcha, and stay engaged throughout the session.
From Online Student to Matcha Room Owner
One of the most emotional moments of the workshop came when Ria met Alifa, one of her former online matcha students. Alifa had since opened her own matcha room in Cilegon, Banten, and traveled to Jakarta to attend the session.
Before the workshop, participants were asked what they hoped to learn. Alifa's answer was different from everyone else's.
“In the Google form, there was a question about what I wanted to learn from the session. My only goal today is to meet Ria in person and show her how I have improved my skills,” Alifa said excitedly.
She brought her own distilled milk blend and prepared a matcha latte for Ria using the skills she had developed since their online learning sessions.
For Ria, the moment represented something much bigger than simply seeing a former student again. It showed how knowledge shared through online education can eventually become a real skill, a business, and a source of livelihood for another person.
“I was so touched to see Alifa's progress. Knowing that the knowledge I shared could eventually help someone develop their own skills and even create financial opportunities through a matcha business means so much to me. Seeing her serve me the latte from her own matcha room made me feel incredibly proud,” said Ria.
Learning From One Another
Another memorable moment came when Catherine and her team from Matcha Masen joined the workshop and prepared their own matcha latte for Ria. Ria had heard about their popularity in Jakarta, but meeting them in person gave her an opportunity to experience their work from a different perspective.
Despite their own growing presence in the Jakarta matcha community, Catherine and her team came to the workshop with an open attitude and genuine curiosity. They participated alongside everyone else, tasted the matchas, and shared their own preparation with Ria.
For Ria, moments like this are an important reminder that education does not have to be one-directional. While she may be invited as the teacher, she also continues to learn from the people she meets.
“I really appreciate the togetherness and the positive attitude people bring to my classes. Sometimes people think that when I teach, I am the one giving all the knowledge, but I always learn something from the people who come. Meeting people who are building their own matcha businesses and seeing how they interpret and serve matcha makes me want to keep learning too,” Ria shared.
A Community That Started Online
The atmosphere throughout the workshop was filled with conversation, laughter, and hands-on participation. People who had previously interacted with Ria only through Instagram, online classes, or virtual conversations were finally able to sit around the same tables, whisk matcha together, compare tasting notes, and share their own experiences.
For Ria, that was ultimately the heart of the gathering.
After two and a half years of living and learning in Japan, her return to Indonesia has become an opportunity to bring not only Japanese matcha itself, but also the knowledge, stories, and experiences she collected along the way back to the communities that have supported her from afar.
The Matcha Gathering & Mini Workshop with Titik Koma Kopi was her final workshop in Jakarta during this homecoming trip, making the day even more memorable. What began as a planned tea pairing discussion eventually became a room full of people who simply wanted to meet, learn, and enjoy matcha together.
Ria's short return to Indonesia may have started as a personal homecoming, but along the way, it became a chance to reconnect with a growing community of matcha lovers, educators, and business owners.
She is grateful to everyone who traveled to the workshop, to the Titik Koma Kopi team for making the collaboration possible, to Andrew for responding to her homecoming with an enthusiastic “Let's do something together!”, and to her sister Dr. Oqti for helping behind the scenes.
With 20 participants filling the room and more people still asking to join after registration had closed, the gathering showed the growing curiosity and enthusiasm around Japanese matcha in Indonesia. For Ria, the hope is simple: that everyone who came left not only with a better understanding of matcha, but also with a happy memory of sharing it with others.
Until the next gathering, the conversation continues, one bowl of matcha at a time.