E: Can you tell everyone what made you interested in Cuzen?
N: When I started up with Cuzen, I thought it would be interesting to work with powders and powdered materials. My grandfather was a tea farmer, and there was a tea field in front of his house, so I was familiar with the agricultural aspect.
When you told me about the tea farm, I thought, “I understand,” because when I was little, I used to pick tea on my grandfather’s farm during Golden Week. (Golden Week is a series of national holidays that sometimes overlaps with the year’s first week of tea harvest.) I was interested in learning more about matcha in particular, and about the catechins and other benefits of tea.
E: What were your first thoughts when you heard my ideas?
N: I like to take on challenges that others haven’t. I thought the idea was an interesting challenge, because there are a lot of people who grind their own coffee, yet only hand-grinders are available for tea-lovers. With all the tea drinkers in the world, I thought the idea could work.
