5 years ago today, I met Nakanishi san, one of the best and appraised organic tea farmers in Japan.
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Whisk wouldn’t be what it is today without Nakanishi san. His competition grade organic matcha is rare and highly sought-after; it instantly won my heart 5 years ago, and still does today. I didn’t have a brick-and-mortar store at the time, so selling these precious matcha was pretty difficult. I was mostly living off by doing matcha tastings on AirBnb Experiences. I’ve been truly grateful that he’s willing to sell his matcha to me when I didn’t have much business for him😅, and that he respected me as a female entrepreneur (ahem - unlike other big corps 🤨). Nakanishi san’s matcha is also the main reason for me to open a cafe, so I can actually serve it to more people in Vancouver.
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I was trying to build a strong branding for Whisk, so I’ve kept Nakanishi san as my best-kept secret! He’s the one that grows, harvests, processes, and packs all of our competition organic matcha: Kuri, Kikyo, Ume, and recently Asahi, from his tea farm directly to us in Vancouver!
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It hasn’t been easy to have this “secret” as sometimes people would like to find out the producer of our matcha, some with good intentions and some don’t. I kept my mouth zipped until today 😅 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Why today? Because Facebook has reminded me that it’s been 5 years since we bond strongly with this independent, micro-lot, award-winning, organic tea farm in Kyoto. It brings me a lot of good memories and emotions, and also how much I truly appreciate his hard work, for the nature, environment and our health. I look forward to many more years to come to serve Nakanishi san’s matcha.
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本当に本当にありがとうございます 中西さん！
