I want to see children full of smiles

On April 1, 2022, I was told that I had been nominated for TYPICA Lab. It was a truth too good to be true. Apparently, I would be able to choose my destination from four coffee origins.

I wanted to visit Ethiopia at any cost.

I wanted to meet Heleanna at any cost.

It all started with one photo, taken in 2015.

It shows a Japanese man and many Ethiopian children.

A photo of bright white teeth and beaming smiles.

The Japanese man is Shingo Matsumoto, the president of Matsumoto Coffee, a green coffee wholesaler I worked at before starting my own business. He showed me various photos he took when he visited Ethiopia for the first time. And that one photo particularly captured my eyes. What a bright smile, I thought.

Heleanna, the head of Moplaco, is quite famous in Japan as the president of an Ethiopian coffee exporter. It’s not an overstatement to say that she was the one who spread the amazing quality of Ethiopian specialty coffee to the Japanese market.

I’m particularly impressed with Heleanna for her efforts outside specialty coffee. She has built schools for children of coffee farmers in some regions, including Yirgacheffe.

Children in that photo are students at one of those schools.

I was strongly fascinated by specialty coffee not just because of its taste, but also because the coffee business can resolve various problems in society.

I myself had bitter experiences, including financial ones, at home when I was a small child. That’s why I have always been interested in issues facing coffee origins, such as poverty, education and child labor.

I’ve been hoping to help as much as possible through my involvement in the coffee industry.

In that photo Mr. Matsumoto showed me, I saw hope. Ever since, I’ve always wanted to visit that place some day. That yearning grew bigger year after year.

When I left Matsumoto Coffee and started my own roastery in 2016, the first single-origin I used was, of course, Ethiopia.

I named it “Ethiopia Heleanna.”

To this day, I’ve continued to buy Ethiopian coffee only from Moplaco.

*I received permission from Heleanna herself for using her name for the product.

I’ve kept hoping to visit Ethiopia, and Moplaco. And now, an opportunity presented itself in the form of such an amazing project.

I want to do something that puts smiles on Ethiopian children, just like those kids in that photo.

My heart beats louder and louder with each passing day, and there is something comfortable about this feeling.

With hope and determination, I’m anxiously waiting for the day of the visit.