the adventure

Welcome! I filmed this video in Japan to tell you the story of the Kumiko Matcha adventure:

"Live as if each day were the last and as if life were everlasting"

When I was 17, I had a heart attack.

As I was leaving hospital, a doctor said to me,

"Valentin, we don't know what you have. We don't know how to treat you. We only know that you could have a heart attack at any time. Enjoy your life."

I was in shock for a week. Then I understood: it is the most beautiful gift life has given me.

Like a light switch, my life changed completely. I decided to live in the moment and to get rid of all my fears and limiting beliefs. To pursue my dreams, live a life full of adventures, and enjoy each day as if it were the last.

I took medicine every day to reduce the risk because the doctors did not know how to treat me. I lived day by day. Intensely. And as I took my tablets each morning, I asked myself, "if today is my last day, what am I going to do with it?"

I wanted to live everything. Every experience that life could offer me, I had to live it as soon as possible because with each day that passed my life could stop. Every day I asked myself how to do more with the time I have been given. The world was my testing ground and I was its sponge. My new motto was "if something frightens you, do it now".

I created the blog Super Vagabond to share my story and my adventures. At 18 I went to Bangkok to train in Thai boxing, then I lived through a long list of trips, meetings, and adventures. You can follow my Super Vagabond adventures on my YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/supervagabond

At 19 I had another heart attack.

Lying in the ambulance with people around me who were worried and checking the electrodes on my chest in case they needed to give me an electric shock, I watched the wild electrocardiogram. I noted my record: 247 beats per minute (or 4 beats per second).

Every second my heart beat less and less strongly. At that moment I said to myself that I was okay with dying now. That I was so grateful for all the experiences life had offered me. And above all since my first attack, which was like a wake-up call.

I said to myself: "And, but if I survive, wow! I am going to live an even more wonderful life, I am going to live even more to the full, go after my dreams, inspire the people I meet, and share the gifts life has given me with the world."

I survived, and the doctor said, Valentin, we don't know what you have, we don't know how to treat you, and it can happen again at any time. Enjoy your life, and take a double dose of medicine.

Throughout all those years I was obsessed with this question: how can you make the best of the time you have?

I became a "mad student" by reading dozens of books on efficiency, personal growth, time management, emotions, success, spirituality, and lots of other subjects... By meeting dozens of mentors, gurus, and sensei on the subject.

I realised that I was living as if each day were the last, and that I was still alive! That I also needed to live with a view of the future.

In 2013, five years after my first heart attack, the doctors called me back because they had found how to treat me! I had an operation and overnight I was cured: no more medicine and no more heart problems. I am so grateful 🙏 

I learned a lot from this whole experience and from this search for how to make the best of the time I have.

My main lesson from all of this is my message to the world, and to you: "Live as if you were going to die tomorrow and as if you were going to live for ever."

It is, moreover, a mirror of the Kumiko Matcha slogan, eternal beauty, from now on.

Kumiko, eternal beauty from now on

In 2012 I was working in Shanghai, China, for my first mentor Vince, with whom we created a French wine brand for the Chinese market. It was during that period that I tasted "green tea powder" in a "Starbucks green tea latte".

Then I discovered real matcha tea and I was inspired by the traditional ritual for making matcha tea, its health benefits, and its link with meditation.

I began to drink matcha tea every morning and I found that this practice led me to live a healthier and more mindful life. That it is a morning ritual that does you good, that is both stimulating for the body and like a spiritual refreshment.

When I came back to France at that time, matcha tea was not very well known and I found it hard to find quality matcha. The range in France did not suit me. And I had always dreamed of "bringing back a find from my travels to share with my community."

So I decided to introduce matcha tea in France and to help develop the matcha tea community, and specifically organic premium matcha tea and a healthy and mindful way of life.

I called it Kumiko Matcha because "Kumiko" means "eternal beauty" in Japanese.

When I created Kumiko Matcha I felt a strong affinity with what matcha can bring as "beauty", both outer and inner. The opening to a healthier way of life, the health benefits, the antioxidants, meditation, good habits, and lots of other wonderful things...

So now I invite you too to discover matcha tea by going to this page... click here to continue discovering >>