We have guests!
Caleb: NativShark CEO and coffee wannabe semi-expert
Ty: NativShark Content Creator, Editor and coffee enthusiast
Niko was in South Korea for a while visiting with family, so we got some guests who like to drink and talk coffee^^
We visited him for a brief day in Korea. We hadn’t met up in person for a few years now, so it was nice to catch up in person.
(Niko, Caleb and Chie)
Bergamot is not a Root
You randomly see “bergamot” as a flavor or scents in Japan. But none of us ever really took the time to look up what it actually is 🙈 It turns out it’s a type of orange! There are so many different types of oranges to be had. I wonder where it lands on the sweet-sour scale. Have you ever had a bergamot orange?
Roasted Beans have a Universal Scale
It’s not just light, medium and dark. Who knew! I, for one, wasn’t really in to coffee until stumbling into a roaster booth at Pike’s Place in Seattle one summer. After that, a whole new world opened up in front of me like roasting levels, subtle notes you can enjoy, and the acidity of the beans changing depending on the region they grow in 😮
Such depth in coffee knowledge 🙌🏽
First Exposure to Coffee
How and when did you first encounter coffee?
Caleb and I got Ty into drinking coffee when we used to all work out of the NativShark office in Hakata, Fukuoka. We used to walk over to the 自販機 or the コンビニ and buy “boss coffee” (a bit more talk on this later^^)
I remember coffee being present in my life from my mother drinking coffee in the morning, or going over to people’s houses / having people over and having snacks accompanied with either the option to have tea or coffee.
Cale’s first memories of coffee was at the church his family went to. The white Styrofoam cups and massive metal dispensers that were always boiling hot. Gritty and bitter 😛
And always accompanied by the hazelnut creamer and sugar right next to them.
Phrases at a Coffee Roaster Shop
- まめのまま — just as they are, as beans (not ground)
- まめのままで大丈夫ですか。— Are you okay with it being whole beans (instead of ground)
- まめのままでお願いします。— I’ll take them as whole beans.
- 豆引きますか？— Do you want these beans ground?
- 引いてもらえる事ってできますか？— Is it possible to have these ground here?
Boss Coffee
Canned coffee ranking in Japan:
一位：Boss Coffee
二位：UCC Coffee
三位：Georgia Coffee
The smaller the can or bottle the better. The bigger it gets, the more diluted it tastes.
If you’re looking to buy pre-made coffee, here are some guides in navigating the labels.
- 無糖 or ブラック — no sugar
- 微糖 — some sugar
- エスプレッソ・ダブルエスプレッソ — espresso, double shot
- ミルク入り・ミルクコーヒー —has milk in it, milk coffee
- カフェラテ — Café au lait
- カフェオレ — Café ole
Oh, and you might also run into コーヒー written in kanji like so: 珈琲
American Coffee
Americano is not American Coffee??
American is diluted espresso.
American Coffee is normal coffee diluted.
Chain Coffee places
These are some common chain coffee places you’ll be able to find in Japan. All of these places also have sweets and sometimes sandwiches, too.
- スタバ — Starbucks
- タリーズ — Tully’s
- ドトール — Doutor
- Dunkin Donuts
- コメダ珈琲 — Komeda Coffee
- 星乃珈琲店 — Hoshino Coffee
- カフェ・ベローチェ — Caffé Veloce
- Mister Donut
- Seattle’s Best Coffee
What are your thoughts on consuming coffee? 😆
There are so many ways and even forms that coffee appears in: drinks, kit kats, coffee candy, tiramisu, secret ingredients in curry…