こんにちは、HPマネージャーの仲井です！

前回に引き続きMikaelさんに、スペシャルティコーヒーの楽しみ方について執筆いただきました！スペシャルティコーヒー気になりますね…!

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To start with exploring specialty coffee, the easiest way would be to visit a non-chain specialty coffee-focused café. You can tell if a place is specialty coffee-focused if you see that the place offers multiple kinds of coffee beans to choose from, and clearly lists the origin (country, area, producer) and the processing method of the coffee beans they use. Near Ookayama station, there is a café called Koss Coffee which I recommend. A 20-minute walk (or two train stops) from the campus to the Jiyugaoka area, there are many specialty cafés, making the area around the Ookayama campus a haven for café lovers. However, cafés like these could be expensive, as a cup of coffee here usually costs at least 500 yen.

Cafés around Jiyugaoka. Clockwise from top right: Chanoko Coffee Roastery, Alpha Beta Coffee Club, Okusawa Factory Coffee and Bakes, Onibus Coffee Jiyugaoka

Therefore, for a student like me, a good alternative to going to cafés, is to brew the coffee myself at home. It might require a little bit of space and some initial investment into the gear, but as someone who enjoys coffee and the art of coffee-making, it was worth it. I bought a gooseneck kettle, a digital scale, a hand grinder, as well as a V60 model coffee dripper at first. Over time, I started exploring different coffee brewing methods and added more gear such as the Aeropress and the French Press into my repertoire. I also spent a bit of time learning how to use these tools, and understanding the science behind manual coffee-brewing, to improve the quality of my brews. Like research, there is lots of trial and error that goes into coffee-making.

by　MIKAEL　