The Tokyo neighborhood of Kuramae blends traditional craftsmanship with contemporary life. When cherry blossoms bloom, visitors flock to a shrine dating back to the 1600s. Across from a park and near a fourth-generation green tea shop sits Dandelion Chocolate Japan — Seiji was instrumental in bringing it there. We sat down to discuss Kuramae’s craft culture, what’s new at Dandelion (besides a cookie named CHUNKiE), and how the bean-to-bar movement is unfolding in Japan.

For readers who may not know, how did you come to open Dandelion Chocolate Japan? 

I’m an immigrant from Japan, and I’ve been in the U.S. for 50 years, since 1975. I have been in Japan maybe 50 percent of the time because of Dandelion, and before that I brought Blue Bottle Coffee to Japan.

When I found Dandelion in San Francisco in 2013, I thought, this should be in Japan! How craft chocolate is made, and how intricate it tastes — all that was impressive. But I didn’t know who the owner of Dandelion was. I found Todd and met him at the Valencia shop. I talked about my plan, but he said there was no way he could do it because he had just opened a store. I didn’t give up. I went three times, and the third time he finally said, “Okay, let’s talk about it.” It took some time to persuade him that this should be the way to go.

And you knew that the Japanese market would appreciate it. 

Small-batch is everywhere in Japan, since 1,000, maybe 2,000 years ago. Hand-crafted products — that’s the culture of Japan.

Since opening in 2016, how has the bean-to-bar movement changed in Japan?

Four or five years ago, there were almost 150 bean-to-bar makers. Mostly mom-and-pop shops. I haven’t counted recently, but quite a few smaller shops disappeared, especially around the COVID years. Bean-to-bar may be a little bit smaller than it was, because it’s not easy to maintain the business, as you know. It’s all hand-made, hand-crafted.

Your factory and flagship café are located in Kuramae. That neighborhood’s changed quite a bit, right?

Yes, there are so many craft shops now — clothing, tea shops, jewelry, so many small shops around us, in part because we opened the factory and café here. Kuramae is a vibrant mix of traditional craftsmanship and modern creativity. The district features quaint artisan workshops, trendy cafés, and eye-catching street art that together create a lively, innovative atmosphere.

People are interested in this area because there’s so much new stuff going on. There are fewer people, a better environment, and it’s fun to walk around. People like to be here — not just from Tokyo, but all over Japan, and beyond. It’s a perfect spot for experiencing Tokyo’s unique blend of history and contemporary culture.

How are things going at the Kuramae location?

On Valentine’s Day last month, we had our best day of sales in the history of our business. When we first opened nine years ago, there was a line all along the park and a two-hour wait. This year’s Valentine’s Day crowd was very close to that, so things are going well. 

There’s a new store at Kichijoji. What can you tell us about that? 

We call it “the market.” It’s a small shop, probably 300 square meters, and we sell only chocolate products — no hot chocolate, drinks, or pastries. It’s on the west side of Tokyo, very far from Kuramae. It’s one of the most popular towns in Tokyo.

How long has it been around?

It’s been open for two years. The first year we struggled a bit because we couldn’t serve hot chocolate or pastries. But it’s getting much better. It is doing better than our Ise location, even though it’s only retail. As long as our brand continues to be strong, if we have a good space, we’d like to open this kind of store more. 

Editor’s note: The Ise location that Seiji mentions is Dandelion’s Ise Geku store and café. It’s in the city of Ise, in the Mie prefecture (several hours southwest of Tokyo). 

And the Haneda Airport pop-up has a chocolate chip cookie called CHUNKiE. What’s that about?

It’s a “for kids” kind of thing. We are just doing the pop-up for two or three months. Because Haneda is such a busy place, we thought, we need something for people to pick up and go, to grab and eat. We’re going to do another pop-up after this. This one ends after White Day. 

Editor’s note: Japan celebrates White Day on March 14^th (the same day we celebrate Pi(e) Day in the States). It’s almost like a sequel to Valentine’s Day, where people give sweet gifts to their partners in reciprocation. 

Is White Day a busy day for Dandelion Chocolate Japan? 

It’s a very busy day for us. Sales may be the same as Valentine’s Day. 

Your team has been hand-tempering and hand-wrapping all of your bars. How are you managing to do that at scale?

I didn’t know that at first, and I couldn’t believe it. I said, “What is going on here?!” They said, “The machine is broken.” We have two tempering machines from Italy. Both broke, but we had to keep making chocolate. And of course, the way to do that was by hand-tempering. We’d been doing it that way for two, maybe three, months, and we found out that the labor and cost of using the tempering machine versus hand-tempering was the same. So we thought, what is the purpose of the machine? 

Are you getting the tempering machines fixed?

Nobody can fix it in Japan, and we can’t invite Italian technicians to come to Japan. There’re a lot of costs involved. I hope Snooky can get the parts and come out here from San Francisco. Eventually they’ll be fixed, but for now we’re hand-tempering all the bars. The staff is enjoying the process. If we had a hand-tempering marble board and more staff, we could do all the tempering, and maybe for the same cost as paying for a tempering machine. But, you know, we still need a tempering machine.

Editor’s note: Snooky, our Engineering Director, has been with Dandelion for more than a dozen years. He built one of our very first winnowers (before we even opened on Valencia) and was instrumental in navigating the energy-delivery needs of our 16^th Street factory. If anyone can fix a tempering machine, it’s him. 

Other than the products from Japan that we’re offering here (like your Single-Origin Chocolate Bonbons and the Tokyo & SF Collection), are there any other items you hope to bring to the States?

We love the 5 grams product. You get five different origins of chocolate in one small box. Of course, that is all hand-wrapped. The molding is easy, but wrapping is very labor intensive. We can produce only a limited amount as of now. If we had more orders, then we would need a wrapping system. We’d have to invest half a million dollars to get a machine to wrap those! It’s a good product. They’re good for having with wine and whisky. But the production is not simple. The hand-wrapping is the issue. 

How would you say the Japanese palate differs from the American palate when it comes to sweets, or craft chocolate specifically? 

I don’t know. It’s a very difficult question. Even if we use the exact same ingredients, method, and recipe, it’s hand-made. So in terms of chocolate bars, the chocolate maker — we call it the “profiler” — makes their own taste. It’s so interesting. I enjoy the comparison — the exact same method and ingredients, but the outcome is different. That’s a beautiful part of craft chocolate. It’s a fun part of craft chocolate. 

The hot chocolates you serve differ from our offerings in the U.S. Tell us about that.

In Japan, we have a House Hot Chocolate and a Mission Hot Chocolate, but the spiciness is different from the U.S. one. And at our Ise Geku location, we make an Ise Hot Chocolate that has hojicha (Japanese green tea) that’s grown and procured in the Ise area. Our Kuramae Hot Chocolate uses another tea leaf. It’s also hojicha, but grown in a different area, so it tastes different. 

Are there any interesting food trends you’re noticing in Tokyo right now? 

I’m not a foodie anymore. I used to go to all kinds of trendy restaurants in Tokyo and San Francisco, but I’m getting bored. The best food is to get the best ingredients and then cook at home. There are all kinds of trendy gastronomy-type restaurants everywhere. I went there once in a while. It’s okay food, but you have to spend $300, $400. Is it worth it? 

I still think the craft food movement is a worldwide trend — craft beer, craft wine, craft coffee, craft chocolate. There’s now craft cola. Kombucha is all of a sudden popular in Japan. Healthy food consciousness is a trend, but it couldn’t be a huge movement, because they can’t do mass production. The trend is toward small-batch production. 

Once in a while, a food trend pops up but dies in two or three years. French-toast cafés, pancake shops — some interesting sweets come up, and people rush to get them, and after three years people forget and move onto the next. 

Dandelion Chocolate is not like that. We are sustainable. We are going to be a 150-year-old chocolate maker for sure. There’s no trend. We don’t care about trends. We are focused on a very basic thing in life. 

How would you describe the relationship between Dandelion Chocolate in Japan and in the States?

We are very connected. I think we are spiritually bonded. Connection and communication between us is important. Doing some kind of interesting event, a global conference type of thing where you have a chance to come to Japan — I think about that constantly. People are interested. People ask. And, of course, even consumer level, I think I’d like to do an Advent calendar, similar to the one you do. Two years ago, we produced a small number of Advent calendars in Japan, using the same packaging as Dandelion Chocolate in America. Since you continue producing a beautiful Advent calendar that’s getting enormously popular, we’d like to join that and do something similar.

That would be something. Thank you, Seiji.