It is undeniable that green teas and ‘Matcha’, the green tea powder and traditional Japanese mainstay, have become something of a cultural phenomenon worldwide, easily accessed now in many high-street cafes and coffee shops.
GK met with Mr. Takeo Sugita, president of AIYA Co., Ltd. and one of the names responsible for the beverage’s stopping power. During our chat, we were able to learn about the delicate balance of tradition and innovation within his industry, as well as what the company has planned for the future.
In your opinion, which is the best area in Japan for food and drink?
I think Kyoto is the best area, as it has preserved its unique food culture. The way of collecting ingredients, processing them, and displaying food are all maintained. They are ‘stubborn’ in a good way.
When it comes to developing new products, do you collaborate with other companies that specialize in certain areas or develop in-house?
We handle our development in-house. The key to our business success lies in the quality of our ingredients. Without top-notch ingredients, our business can’t flourish. We must source ingredients that are not only of high quality but can also be produced on a large scale by farmers. We directly purchase tea leaves from farmers.
Our focus is not just on creating new products but on gathering ingredients that have the potential to succeed in international markets. This emphasis on securing quality and scalable ingredients is fundamental to our approach. We cannot sell the products without organic production. For markets with strict requirements on chemical amounts, we must provide organic tea leaves. Also, we have to consider the SDGs and gender consciousness in the production lines. We must control the condition of the production lines.
We receive requests from major Japanese beverage companies, and they are all complex ones. With the experience of meeting their needs, we could be ready to face similar requests from foreign companies. Therefore, rather than developing products, it is important to accumulate the know-how of the production process.
How does your company continue to innovate despite working with a traditional product?
Our innovation is a result of listening to customer feedback and striving to meet their needs. Currently, we haven’t reached a point where we can create entirely new products and introduce them to the market. However, we possess the know-how in grinding matcha, making it a field we could explore further.
Because we are dealing with chlorophylls, it is difficult to prevent fading colors, and customers understand that. We will continue to put our efforts into the reduction of fading colors, but I do not think this field will be in demand in the future. The field we want to explore more is caffeine-free drinks. As there are not so many tasty beverages that are caffeine-free, we would like to develop something new. There are techniques to remove caffeine from tea leaves, but the issue is that the taste and fragrance get reduced as well.
