Scaling up business is a western concept. In my travels, I’ve noticed many other cultures don’t share this compulsion to get bigger and bigger. One experiences this in Japan too where artists shops and cafes may only be open 4 days a week. So in addition to can they scale, should we be asking, do they want to? Should we be pressuring them to at all? One’s demand should not necessarily lead to another’s obligation to produce.
In other writings, you’ve shared the pressures on the supply side for loose teas. You end this post with the question, “Should producers scale to meet this demand?” but given the labor shortages on tea farms and the retirement of older farmers, I wonder if they can scale? Is the labor capacity there?
Scaling up business is a western concept. In my travels, I’ve noticed many other cultures don’t share this compulsion to get bigger and bigger. One experiences this in Japan too where artists shops and cafes may only be open 4 days a week. So in addition to can they scale, should we be asking, do they want to? Should we be pressuring them to at all? One’s demand should not necessarily lead to another’s obligation to produce.
In other writings, you’ve shared the pressures on the supply side for loose teas. You end this post with the question, “Should producers scale to meet this demand?” but given the labor shortages on tea farms and the retirement of older farmers, I wonder if they can scale? Is the labor capacity there?
This is one of the largest road blocks to increasing production - I will talk more about this in the next installment!
Thank you! Looking forward
Love the matcha history lesson! Reminds me of the Misugaru Korean multigrain latte recipe I adapted from tranquil NYC café DAE for easy home brewing!
check it out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com/p/get-dae-cafes-recipe-misugaru-latte
this is super helpful thanks Zach
Thank you!
So curious as to what happens next!
We’ll all find out soon enough!