Ever since I tried Joon’s Cottea coffee, I’ve been drinking coffee regularly at my house in Tachikawa Garden Town. I used to drink tea a lot and I still drink Chinese tea sometimes but coffee is becoming a big part of my life. When it comes to coffee, it’s about the journey of looking for the right kind of coffee that you like the most. Cottea does help you find by showing you their “coffee map” sorted by people’s preferences. That’s a good way to find a good coffee but trying all kinds of beans from all over the place is another way to explore the different taste as well, in my opinion.
Roasting on the spot
Yanaka coffee is a coffee roaster I found in Tachikawa. They have 28 shops in Tokyo and this one in Tachikawa is located on the basement floor of LUMINE. The access is easy because it’s basically in the same building as the JR Tachikawa station but it’s not the accessibility that it’s remarkable about this coffee shop.
What you see in front of the shop is the display of the un-roasted coffee beans they sell at the store. It is not just the display it is for selling too. There’s a coffee roaster right behind this beans and what you’re supposed to do is to choose the beans and they roast the beans on the spot. What’s amazing is that you can request the roasting level as well. Their minimum order is 100g but hey, that’s a really small batch for such service and I was very surprised. It only takes 15 to 30 mins, depending on how busy the shop is. When I visited there it too 30 mins. It was totally fine because there are so many shops around and I could easily kill some time.
7 different roasting levels to choose from
The roasting level is usually something that people don’t get to choose at the coffee shop. It’s more like something that comes with the specific type bean or the brands. Roasting level, however, is one of the biggest factors that change the very taste of coffee. It makes sense that you can choose the level for the beans you choose.
In Yanaka coffee, you can choose to have your beans roasted from 7 different roasting levels. The image below is what I got from their website but exactly the same info was at the coffee shop as well.
At this coffee shop, they also let you try some of the coffee they have. You can also buy a cup of coffee to take out too. The take out coffee was like 200 yen so I thought I should try this when in the morning on weekdays. This way I get to try many different coffees every day.
After contemplating at the store, I chose Yirgacheffe, Ethiopian beans with lighter roasting to test, just 100g. They give you 10% if you buy more than 200g but I just wanted to try that day. It was 650 yen for 100g. Good pricing. I brewed the coffee at home after and it was quite good as well. I’m pretty sure I’ll come back to this store, most likely regularly. So glad that I found this place!