Freshly roasted coffee, Japanese style

29Jun09

If Japanese people do something, they do it to the extreme.. or not at all.

A brass coffee-roaster behind the counter at Coffee Tonya

Yesterday I went with my girlfriend to find freshly roasted coffee. In Canada or Australia, this would mean finding a micro-roaster where we could ask what date the beans were roasted, and just hope that we could buy some roasted within the last week.

When I walked inside Coffee Tonya, the strong smell of fresh-roasted coffee envelped me. A tall brass roaster was whirring behind the counter—they were actually roasting as I stepped through the doors. Awesome!

A Coffee Tonya employee putting coffee beans into the roaster. Sorry for the photo's terrible quality..

Near to the counter is what looks like a huge display of green beans, enough to be a storage area. I was fairly impressed, but quickly realized that it wasn’t just a display. It’s where you decide what beans you want, then they roast them for you, while you wait.

Green coffee beans at Coffee Tonya

A huge variety of green beans from nearly every coffee-producing country I'm familiar with

There were so many different kinds to choose from, I felt like a kid at a candy shop. My girlfriend picked Ethiopian Harar, her absolute favorite (she’s got great taste.) I picked Cuban coffee from the Crystal Mountain region. It’s very impressive. The flavors are diverse, yet balanced. Like eating chocolate-covered strawberries.

Japan is amazing; I was hoping for coffee beans less than a week old, and got beans less than a minute old.

Filed under: coffee, Japan, what i've always wanted   |  1 Comment