Tea Light: Nicco Deerfield

What is your role? What is your favorite experience in it?

My role is Customer Success. I'm all over the place from communications to quality control, but at its core I have a hand in helping out all the people we partner with taste and further appreciate tea. Sharing that sensory experience with one person or a whole group is easily the best part, watching someones eyes light up after tasting something that genuinely surprises them is such a treat I'm lucky to experience and provide as career.

What’s your current favorite tea, and how do you like to enjoy it?

A cruel question to pick between my children, but right now I'm drinking a lot of the Moriuichi Saemidori. I love Japanese green tea, and this is such a beautiful representation with its melon sweetness and buttery texture. I go crazy with it, 7 grams of tea in a kyusu with 200ml water at 170F for about a minute. Or cold brew it at 30g tea to 1 liter of cold water, let it steep in the fridge for 12 hours and pour it in a wine glass if you're feeling froggy. 

Describe how tea makes you feel in one word and why.

Crazy. I talk about a plant that makes water taste good and goes straight to your brain as my source of income and hobby. Imagine explaining to your parents why you left working in tech for hot leaf juice. I'm a crazy person and tea is crazy, the more you learn the more you understand how profound the history and cultural impact is. It's a craze that's lasted thousands of years. 

How has working with tea changed the way you think about it—or even about yourself?

Generally I think about tea the same as I always have since I started down the journey. It's fun and a lot more accessible than you might think. Personally I feel a lot less uptight and precious about things compared to recent years. Maybe it's the tea, I don't know. Am I coming across as a chill guy here? Regardless go drink the tea I was talking about earlier, its really good.