It started with a phone call from Tokyo one late Wednesday night. Hiroya Hashizume (Zume), the founder of the Japanese food tech startup Kinish, was pitching his idea for a rice-based ice cream to the team at Union Kitchen in Washington, D.C.
Through advanced molecular farming, Zume had discovered a way to extract animal-free dairy proteins from inside rice grains. The ingredient created a creamier, more environmentally friendly, and better for you version of non-dairy ice cream. His only question was: Would Americans embrace rice-based ice cream?
While less common in the United States, the Japanese have long celebrated rice-based desserts—from mochi to sweet rice puddings—showing the versatility and comfort of the country’s most iconic crop.
That vision brought Kinish halfway across the world to Union Kitchen, a Food Accelerator and manufacturing ecosystem that helps international brands localize and launch in the U.S. Union Kitchen’s Chief Operating Officer, Elena Gonzalez shared:
“At Union Kitchen, we work with founders from all over the world. At the end of the day, the focus remains the same. We want to take the founder’s passion and translate it into a product people love. We know people love ice cream. That’s a great market to go after.”
Over the past six months, Kinish has worked hand in hand with the Union Kitchen Accelerator team to commercialize The Rice Cream—a line of non-dairy ice cream crafted from rice. Together, they’ve gone from concept to U.S. shelf, testing, learning, and refining every step of the way.
Through in-store demos and consumer tastings across Union Kitchen’s six retail locations, the team validated top flavors and refined messaging around what U.S. consumers want most: indulgence without compromise. Each conversation informed real product improvements—from adding mix-ins recommended by customers to emphasizing the brand’s key differentiators: half the calories, 80% less sugar, and much better texture.
With those insights, Kinish partnered with MAVRK Studio, a Union Kitchen ecosystem partner, to design packaging and visual storytelling that resonate with American shoppers. They then localized manufacturing in Union Kitchen’s D.C. production facility, allowing the team to keep iterating and testing in real time as they learn from American customers in the local DC market.
Today, The Rice Cream is on shelves in Washington, D.C., produced locally inside Union Kitchen’s facility. Each pint reflects six months of collaboration—between a Tokyo-based startup pushing the boundaries of molecular farming and a D.C. ecosystem designed to help founders turn ideas into finished products.