From My Encounter with Coffee to Now

I was a junior high school student when I drank coffee for the first time.

I used instant coffee my mother bought for herself and drank it with chocolate to keep myself awake when studying for high school entrance exams. When I was in university, I discovered espresso and got hooked on caffe latte. I couldn’t forget that taste. So I got into the coffee industry. As my previous job took me from one place to another, I encountered specialty coffee. Out of desire to return to Toyama and spread it there, I opened hazeru coffee.

For the past 5 and a half years, I have worked to introduce customers to coffee’s different tastes, deliciousness and its new appeals.

At the back of my mind was always a desire to visit coffee origins. But I kept telling myself that I needed to start selling a certain volume first before I could think of anything meaningful. I was offered this opportunity just when I started to have a little bit of wiggle room. I felt something of a destiny, so I decided to take part.

Whenever I talk with customers at length about coffee, I’ve always ended the conversation with, “I’m ashamed to say that I have never been to a coffee origin.” But that will finally come to an end.

5 and a half years have flown by since I started my own shop. All this time, I’ve been thinking, “One day, someday in the future.” At last, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity. I started preparing for the trip.

Story of Creating New System for Future

Coffee grown in a country far from here, I drink in this city far from there.

In this era of globalization and digitization, when it comes to coffee, there is murkiness about who is involved in growing it in what way before it arrives at my place. Thankfully, importers working locally give me information and send me photos of origins and comments about what is special about certain coffees. But as I, as a coffee shop owner. process a lot of information delivered to me day by day, it begins to seem like flat, warmth-lacking codes. If a coffee shop owner feels that way, then it’s all the more so for those who consume their coffee.

The direct trading system TYPICA started is designed not only to help connect producers and roasters more on time, but to bring together roasters worldwide. I have a feeling that TYPICA Lab will be the beginning of something that connects cultures of the past and present of the community of all those involved in coffee.

Japanese roasters will get together in coffee origins and talk with farmers. They will make conscious efforts to verbalize and express the ideas they come up with and the emotions they feel. This will prompt roasters abroad to create stories of their own based on their cultures. I hope this trip will be a story that originated in Japan, which will then lead to the next Lab project.

Above all else, I personally want to see a future where producers and consumers around the world share their current situation in real time. I can’t think of a concrete shape or form at all. But if that future becomes a reality, I think it will naturally resolve such ongoing issues as poverty and exploitation. I believe that TYPICA can do something that can help realize that vision. With that hope in mind, and thinking about the meaning of me joining this trip, I want to take part in this story.