I'm Sonia Hamoud, the founder of Megumi Sabō
I moved to the UK in 2021 to study law, and later completed my Master's in international business at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2025. Somewhere along the way, matcha became more than a drink for me. It became a genuine passion, and eventually, over two years of research into the plant, the industry, and the culture behind it.
Here's a fact I love sharing first: matcha comes from Camellia sinensis, the same plant as most other teas. What makes it different is that matcha is the only tea in the world where the whole leaf is consumed, not steeped and discarded.
From Student to Sommelier: A Passion for True Tea
I'm currently a tea student on the path to becoming a qualified Tea Sommelier through the UK Tea Academy, with my final assessment just weeks away.
My research throughout the qualification has focused specifically on the tea industry and matcha, building on the two years of independent research I'd already put in before I even started the course. I know exactly what I'm selling, because I've spent years studying it.
I started Megumi Sabō because I saw a gap.
Matcha has been so heavily marketed over the past few years that most people drinking "matcha" today have never actually tasted the real thing. It's a delicate, premium tea that's been misunderstood and diluted along the way. At Megumi Sabō, we're not claiming to bring an untouched, traditional style of matcha straight from Japan with zero adaptation.
What we've done is thoughtfully localise it, so it aligns with UK taste buds while staying true to real matcha quality and sourcing. Liverpool, like the rest of the UK, is wonderfully diverse, and our menu reflects that: a Modern Menu and a Japanese Menu, both rooted in the same commitment to quality.
Megumi Sabō (恵み茶房) is a modern Japanese tea room & matcha cafe,
offering premium matcha, hojicha, and other traditional teas alongside handcrafted matcha pastries.
Right now, you'll find us through pop ups across Liverpool rather than a permanent space. Each one is a small taste of where we're headed: a proper Japanese tea room and matcha cafe you can walk into any day of the week. Until then, every pop up is a step toward that door opening.
The name carries real meaning for us.
'Megumi' (恵み) means blessing or grace, and 'Sabō' (茶房) is the traditional term for a Japanese tea room. Together, they form a tea room of blessings, a space rooted in warmth, quality, and Japanese tea culture.
The name also reflects our own faith. 'Megumi' expresses gratitude and the idea of receiving and sharing goodness, while pairing it with 'Sabō honours the origins and heritage of matcha itself. It's where faith, hospitality, and tradition come together under one roof.
Rooted in tradition. Designed for today. All about community.
You'll notice we never use the word 'ceremonial' to describe our matcha.
It's a term that sounds official but isn't actually standardised anywhere in Japan, so it doesn't tell you much about what's really in your cup.
Instead, we explain our matcha the way it actually matters: by harvest, by region, and by cultivar.
