theronmuller.com

One of my objectives in life is to make a living doing things which are important to me. One such item of importance is the issue of access, and one way I promote access is through teaching English and professional proficiency, internationally through the MASH Academic Publishing course I teach and locally through my private English school, Noah Learning Center, which I co-own with Megumi Netsu. This is where the issues I feel are important juxtapose with the responsibilities I have to care for my family and help to meet their needs. To me, a life properly lived requires finding a way to make what I do to care for my family and what I enjoy doing the same. It was with that spirit that I committed to Noah Learning Center almost five years ago, and have worked since to make sure that the school not only survives but thrives, offering access to quality English education to students in the Miwa community.

As much as I enjoy teaching, I’m also interested in exploring other ideas and possibilities. One such idea emerged as a revelation when I (rare for me) found myself visiting a local supermarket to buy a refrigerated beverage. While there was an entire refrigeration case to choose from, none of the drinks were promoting natural ingredients, with the potential exception of the fruit juices. They all appeared to be competing on different angles than what it was, exactly, that you were going to be putting in your body. There were no all-natural carbonated beverages, and all the drinks were priced at about 100 yen a bottle—perfect for thoughtless impulse buying.

Through MullerCO2 I’m interested in offering all-natural, yeast carbonated alternative beverages made with simple ingredients that emphasizes excellent flavor rather than low cost, and have (I hope) recently perfected my ginger ale recipe and am still working on a recipe for rhubarb ale. Right now I’m trialling the ginger ale with a few friends and clients and at one restaurant/bar in Nagano City.

So what’s stopping me?

Unfortunately my Japanese skills aren’t up to the task of navigating the red tape that producing a commercial food product entails in Japan, and so my more ambitious plans are on hold until I find a business partner proficient enough in Japanese to meet and negotiate with the regulators who is as passionate about the concept as I am. Until then I’ll stick to working with people and places I know.

That means that unfortunately it isn’t possible to order our ginger ale through and internet merchant site, but if you’re interested in receiving a free sample, please send me an email and I’ll send you two bottles from the next batch I make.