I hope your week is ending well.
It was a short week for those of us in the USA. It's cool to have a short week, but I always end up being busier on a short week and sometimes wonder which is better. :0 Like I wanted to send this email out 3 days ago when the Autumn blend was actually ready; now it is Friday and rushing it... I feel like I say this each time and I never learn haha...
Anyway, I have a few exciting things I want to share with you this week!!
First -
Aki (あき) — Our Autumn Blend Coffee Is Here
Aki means autumn in Japanese. It is the autumn edition of Sapporo Coffee Kan's four-seasons series, roasted in Ebetsu, Hokkaido.
The base is Mocha Sidamo from Ethiopia, natural-processed and taken to a French roast. Guatemala and Brazil join it at a lighter roast, so the cup carries two roast depths at once: deep, low in acidity and full-bodied, with a sweetness that opens up in the aftertaste. The roastery calls it hokkori (ほっこり), the warm, settled feeling of an autumn afternoon.
It is best hot, and it makes a wonderful café au lait. Like all of our seasonal blends, it is here for a limited time only.
Second -
What Is Mocha? (モカ)
Aki is built on Mocha, and it reminded me of when I first came to the USA about 20 years ago and found out that "mocha" here is not the same as mocha in Japan. In the US, a mocha is usually coffee with chocolate. In Japan, Mocha is a coffee bean, named after the old port of Mocha in Yemen, and today most of it comes from Ethiopia.
So I wrote a whole article about it.
Do you know what mocha really is? Find out here.
I had a really good time writing this one, and there is a café au lait recipe at the end that goes perfectly with this Aki Blend.
Third -
The History of Japanese Wine (日本ワインの歴史)
This one was fun to write, but it is a long one. It goes all the way from the year 718 to today.
While writing it, I was reminded of Massan (マッサン), the NHK morning drama (asadora) from 2014. The story is about the founder of Nikka Whisky, but the founder of Suntory, Shinjiro Torii, is one of its main characters. What surprised me was realizing that before Suntory was known for whisky, it was one of the pioneers of grape wine in Japan. Its sweet Akadama Port Wine (1907) was what people wanted back then, and it helped pay for the whisky.
It is a long read, and if you press play on the audio, it runs about 40 minutes.
But it might make a very fun weekend read.
Read the History of Japanese Wine
Fourth -
Speaking of Asadora... Hanbun, Aoi (半分、青い。)
Did you know? In Hanbun, Aoi, the NHK morning drama from 2018, Suzume and Ritsu invent a fan that makes a gentle breeze like real wind. That fan was modeled on BALMUDA's GreenFan, and BALMUDA's founder, Gen Terao, helped shape that part of the story.
We are an official BALMUDA retailer, and our 15% off BALMUDA promotion is still running. You can download the coupon code from our article about the fan.
Fifth -
Thank You for Voting — #7 in USA TODAY 10Best
On a separate note, we placed #7 in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards for Best Tea Subscription 2026! Using their logo comes with quite an expensive license fee, so we decided not to make a big fuss about it, but I did not want to let it pass without saying thank you so much to everyone who voted for us. It really means a lot to a small family company like ours.
I am drinking Aki as I write this, and it does make me feel like fall, even though it is still too hot here in LA to feel like aki yet. I hope you enjoy this limited-time blend.
Thank you so much again for all your continuing support.
I hope you have a lovely and happy weekend ahead!
With love and gratitude,
Kei Nishida
& the team from Dream of Japan
