THE FOUNDER

Alexandre Nicolau grew up in France and studied chemistry and engineering. He worked in the scientific and technical fields for many years, first in environmental pollution and later on in the food and beverage industry.

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He worked in Japan on several missions in the early 2000 and after discovering his strong affinity with the country and its culture, he decided in 2005 to spend time in Okazaki, in the prefecture of Aichi to study Japanese.​

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After working a few years in Singapore, he graduated in 2010 from Nanyang and Waseda business schools. He moved to Tokyo in 2011 to work for Suntory Holdings where was responsible for open innovation, scouting new technologies and developing new partnerships with academic or industrial overseas partners.

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Alexandre fell in love with tea in 2004, while working in China. He since then studied the tea history, the different types, the processes and the way of tea, developing his knowledge and passion, which he loves to live and to share. At the same time, he also realized that Japanese were drinking less and less tea and that the culture of tea was not treasured or promoted, especially with so many small farms and so many products that are mostly unknown by the general public.

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He created MANDARACHA™ in 2019 and opened the tea house in Kyoto in October 2020 to promote tea to all Kyoto visitors. He embraced the opportunity to share Japanese culture, promoting Tea, Zen and Tao, all leading to have a good life and discovering our true nature.More than 800 years of tea culture in Japan can be impressive but the true beauty of tea resides in simplicity and appreciating how precious a shared tea moment can be.

 

Alexandre is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Temple University and a practitioner of the Mushakojisenke school of tea ceremony in Kyoto.

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