It’s a Sunday afternoon at Sincerely Yours Café in Downtown L.A. The air smells sweet, like syrups and cocoa butter. The room is filled with Black women, all chatting, singing along to Mary J. Blige, and drinking matcha. Everyone is dressed down and the vibes are immaculate.
This is a dream come true for Arianna “Ari” Davis, founder of BUJI Matcha (pronounced boo-zhee) the hit Black woman-owned company that’s been popping up and serving matcha across the nation.
The D.C.-based lawyer-turned-entrepreneur didn’t actually start out as a matcha fan. But on a 2024 trip to Uji, Japan she met farmers and learned more about the strong green tea. She fell in love. Soon after, BUJI (a double entendre referencing the city—where she sources the matcha—and “bougie”) was born.
Bringing matcha to the Black community
From its name to its aesthetic, which features bold lettering and a brown-skinned Betty Boop, BUJI is unapologetically Black. Though Davis clarifies that everyone is welcome at BUJI events, she says, “Blackness is the center of the brand. We do it for the Black girls. Because I feel like we deserve that. And it’s just not really been done.”
The Sincerely Yours pop-up was Alexis Reliford’s first BUJI event. She appreciates the brand’s honoring of Japanese traditions while bringing it to this audience. “As a matcha fan, I think it’s really nice to have a Black-owned brand, given we don’t really see ourselves reflected in the space,” she says.
The pop-up business model allows Davis and her team to take this unique experience to folks around the country—way more than if they had a single flagship location. BUJI has hosted pop-ups in L.A. and New York, as well as in Cleveland, Detroit, and other cities sometimes overlooked because they’re considered “secondary markets”.
Scroll through @bujimatcha’s Instagram and you’ll find endless comments from women excited to finally see events in their cities, or asking when BUJI will visit their city next. On a recent post, the comments read: “DALLLLASSS!!!”, “Yayyyy we finally get CLE🥹”, “Virginia Beach? Where and what time?😍”, and “Come back to charlotte!!!”
BUJI gives Black women the opportunity to meet up, drink matcha, and be catered to by a business created just for them. This is a big part of why Davis started BUJI in the first place.
“I wanted to create real-life experiences,” she says. “It’s about more than selling. It’s about really creating community.”
BUJI employee Asia Custis has experienced this firsthand at each of the four pop-ups she’s worked at. She loves looking at attendee fashion (she uses their looks as style inspo) and socializing with customers. As an L.A. native, the events have also opened her eyes to new parts of her city.
“Each time it’s a different setting, and I get to experience a different part of L.A. and a different side of the Black community here,” says Custis.
A successful businesswoman
BUJI isn’t Davis’s first successful business. She previously founded viral clothing brand STRIPT, which is often sold at the pop-ups, and the Ari Davis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports and empowers women, families, and HBCU students.
Davis and her close-knit 4-person core team have a matcha every day (her favorite BUJI drinks are the OG vanilla bean latte and a secret menu blueberry white chocolate), and work on everything from brand partnerships to social media from about 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.. Davis, who balances her multiple businesses with being a mother, is often in “super grind mode”.
On top of this workload, it can be difficult to be the public face of a company, especially as a Black woman.
“I think Black women in entrepreneurship, we’re under a microscope, even by our own community often” she says. “Everything has to be executed on the highest level. There’s not that much grace for us.”
On hard days, she turns to her village — which supports her through everything — to unwind, spending quality time with them, watching TV, or travelling, which is when she feels her best.
“Luckily I love what I do, so it’s not the worst thing ever,” she says. “But I’m working on balance every day.”
What’s next?
It looks like all of Davis’ work has paid off, with BUJI’s Instagram following growing to over 17k in just over a year and a steady stream of events across the country.
The Sincerely Yours event was just about a mile away from their STRIPT Boardwalk pop-up, where they brought matcha and merch to ComplexCon. Davis and the BUJI team are bringing the brand to bigger audiences with each pop-up — and she’s looking forward to more.
She’s excited for their upcoming HBCU tour, which will take the pop-up to 10 schools for homecoming season. She’s also working to take the events to new markets across the states and around the world.
“I want some flagships. I would love to open in D.C., L.A., Tokyo, Atlanta,” she says. She hopes to host pop-ups in Ghana, South Africa, and Tokyo. “I want to just keep growing,” she says.
At the end of the day, she’s doing this for the Black girls — as many as possible. And if the past year has been any indication, the girls will keep showing up.
You can find BUJI on their HBCU tour Oct. 11 - 31, on Instagram @drinkbuji or online at drinkbuji.com.
Heading to an upcoming pop-up? Our interviewees suggest the CinnaBUJI, the BUJIberry, or the She’s My Cherry Pie.
Edited by Robert Hill