That success is sweet is not a trite expression. Richie Cuna, fearless and fierce, faced the pandemic head-on and ventured into some sweet concoctions of milk tea. As the international patent owner of Kurimi, dubbed as the first 2D milk tea bar in the Philippines, he sailed sweetly into the beverage business and discovered firmly that fate, indeed, favors the fearless.
He’s bold and brave. Decisive, too. He has done his assignment well, calculated the risks of doing business in the time of the unseen and paralyzing enemy, and has never wavered that his Japanese milk tea venture would succeed. While other people were telling him to defer opening his new business, Richie was unflinching. While other people were telling him to wait until the pandemic was manageable, he was uncontrollable.
He said: “Hindi ako natakot (I was never afraid). When there’s a crisis, you start planting your seeds.”
The zeal in his spirit was emboldened all the more when his friends, siblings John, Jelyn and Jeff Chung, joined him in his Kurimi venture.
The “pearls” in his milk tea have grown. There will be 33 branches of Kurimi all over the Philippines by year-end. The farthest up north is in Tuguegarao; Laoag will open in January. In the south, Zamboanga City and the war-torn Marawi City have milk tea lovers lining up for their drink. It’s all over Metro Manila.
Though most of the branches are franchises, Richie makes sure he is present in every store construction and opening. Kurimi is his newest baby. “It needs all the care.”
“The Japanese millennials pronounce creamy as ‘kurimi.’ That explains the name,” Richie explained.
Gooey and chewy are the tapioca pearls that go well with the creamy milk tea. The delightful balance between milk and sugar is addicting. (“We brew our tea every day. No recycling. Our pearls are freshly cooked.”) But what also sets the milk tea bar apart from the rest is its premium but not intimidating ambiance of monochromatic black and white interiors. Ahh, very Instagrammable!
For example, in its Westborough branch in Silang, Cavite (just five few minutes away from Nuvali in Santa Rosa City), an arresting mural of the Imperial Palace in black and white makes the experience of milk tea drinking topnotch. The ninjas on the wall are alive, not doing espionage or surprise attack but ready to engage the diners who can also order pizza, chicken pops, pork gyoza, ice cream, special-flavored drinks, and cappuccino, among others.
A walk inside a Kurimi branch is a 2D experience of Japan with all the elements of the country. It’s whimsical. It’s energizing. It’s fun. Sakura, Hokkaido snow, Mt. Fuji, manga, anime, and more are sure eye-pleasers in any of the 33 branches. (No two branches are the same in design.) There’s a happy haiku in your heart when you enter the store. The whole store, from floor to ceiling, is a storybook, a story is about to unfold. The creaminess of the drink can also send you to “Zen-landia.” Merriment and peace marry in your heart. Kurimi!
Twelve years ago, Richie already saw the potential of milk tea as a flourishing business in the Philippines. He kept it in mind as he grew his Milkin Corp., the 30-year-old company under which the mouthwatering ice cream brand Fiorgelato belongs. The pandemic happened and Richie saw the potential of growing Kurimi. The milk tea brand is under Milkin Corp., which Richie helms with company directors Angel Francisco and Mel Montejo.
“The ice cream business went on a slow pace during lockdowns. Even my Donburi Japanese restaurants all closed. But I never doubted that milk tea would take off,” he said. He added that as an entrepreneur for three decades, he has faced other difficult challenges like the Asian financial crisis and the energy crisis. (“I’m in the business of ice cream and there was no electricity. I survived that.”)
Milk tea is pandemic food. In fact, if there were two topmost offshoots of the pandemic, they would arguably be milk tea and K-dramas. Milk tea is a proven business. Even if Richie came later to the milk tea game, he was never tentative about the success of his plans. And included in his vision board were the jobs the business would create.
Kurimi, Richie added, is now a global brand. That makes it the cream of the crop, so to speak. It was supposed to open first in Fukuoka last year but the pandemic took place. Even its branch in Anaheim, California, was already set up but COVID-19 happened. His son, Patrick Cuna, who is based in Paris, also plans to bring it to Europe.
All the concepts for the murals in the stores germinated from his brain, executed by his adept artists. He credits his late mother, Patsy Cuna, for his artistic inclinations, saying, “Mommy was the first artist in the family. She painted murals. She also made metal tooling art that was displayed in the lobby of hotels. She also made decorative cakes.”
“But the business acumen, I got it from my grandfather Lolo Pepe. Of course, from my father, too, Bert Cuna,” he said.
“My Lolo Pepe would always bring me every summer to Japan for his business trips. In fact, I lived in Japan for a while. So that explains why I love everything about Japan,” he added.
And that explains why, even in Richie’s choice of milk tea, it has to be Japanese-inspired, too. It’s a syrupy success that he stumbled upon Kurimi. The brand excites him every day.
Richie Cuna is amazing. In the time of the pandemic, while other businesses were closing, he opened a new venture that is delicious and promising, creamy and sweet.