Five Watt Coffee, Sencha Tea Bar merge to create joint Twin Cities beverage brand

Two local beverage brands and cafes are joining forces in a new Twin Cities company.

Five Watt Coffee and Sencha Tea Bar will become Amplified Experiences after the deal closed Monday. But thoughts of blending the hot drinks businesses have percolated for some time.

“We’ve been talking about it for maybe three years,” said Lee Carter, one of Five Watt’s founders who is now CEO of Amplified Experiences.

Brian Friese, who had been the majority owner of Sencha, is CFO for the new operation. Carter and Friese are the majority owners of the combined business while Holly Gale, chief operating officer based in Madison, Wis., owns a minority interest.

The leaders did not disclose financial terms of the merger.

Five Watt and Sencha will continue to operate under their own names, but Carter said plans call for adding some tea to the Five Watt menu while bringing more coffee to Sencha.

Five Watt has four cafe locations in the metro: three in Minneapolis and one at the Keg & Case Market in St. Paul. Sencha has four locations in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Woodbury and Madison, Wis. But the new company wants to grow beyond those eight stores, especially outside of the Twin Cities, Carter said.

The company is also working on plans for a new concept combining coffee, tea and boba or bubble tea as a third brand under the new company’s umbrella. Carter said that might open yet this year in a space adjacent to Five Watt’s location on Lyndale Avenue S. in Minneapolis. Five Watt already leases that space to use for overflow seating and storage.

Amplified Experiences will also look to potentially acquire other companies, mainly “other beverage brands that make sense,” Carter said.

Nate Broadbridge, co-owner of St. Paul-based SK Coffee, said the Five Watt-Sencha deal “makes total sense.” Launched in 2017, SK operates a roastery and has three coffee shop locations, one in St. Paul and two in Minneapolis. Five Watt launched in 2014 while Sencha originated in 2015 after a rebrand of a business called the Tea Garden, established in 2003.

Carter said emerging concepts like this new company are driving a revival of the Twin Cities coffee industry. He mentioned FRGMNT Coffee and Backstory Coffee Roasters, both of which have locations in the North Loop, as examples of new life.

“I’ve been really excited to see a lot of new brands pop up,” Carter said.