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Espresso yourself! Japan perks up to 'sexy' coffee

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“Japanese people have an extremely sensitive palate so they can appreciate subtle differences in flavour,” said the 32-year-old.

Oh dear! Such cultural arrogance really seems to have no end. Tell it to all the people who failed to notice they were being ripped off by cheap and adulterated products in the numerous labelling scandals.

17 ( +20 / -3 )

This is great and all, but bugger me if I can actually find a goddamn espresso machine at so-called コーヒー専門店 in Japan, let alone at your average restaurant/cafe. Using a basic percolator and making basic pot coffee does not equal proper good coffee, but apparently that's all any shop (apart from Starbucks?) seems to do.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

If you mean the espresso pots, Ikea has small, reasonably-priced, one-cup, steel ones, lationz. The cheap-looking Bialetti, aluminium ones can be found in Tokyu Hands and Loft at ridiculous prices. I too looked all over.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Expresso coffee is not meant to bastardized, and if and I mean if, you can find someone who can make a perfect expresso you'll be lucky. Just making a good expresso is an art, feeling the days weather conditions, so you can grind the coffee beans to the correct fineness to create a good expresso, (thats what the numbers are for on a grinder). Having a warm cup, not your paper rubbish, but most importantly the main ingredient the coffee itself, thats the liquid gold that refreshes the mouth, brings your brain into super active mode. Once again this comes down to personal taste, one of the few things that we can choose in our lives. So please stop playing with our coffee, if I want to drink a cocktail I'll go to a bar.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

I love how the coffee culture is starting to spread here. When i came here in 2010 Starbucks was almost the only place that offered a decent cappuccino. Now there are several places i can think of that do good espressos, and the fresh made coffees at combinis make it easy to get a tasty long black.

However it means the coffee machine i bought in desperation back in 2010 now sits gathering dust...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

minello7 said:

Expresso coffee is not meant to bastardized, and if and I mean if, you can find someone who can make a perfect expresso you'll be lucky. Just making a good expresso is an art, feeling the days weather conditions, so you can grind the coffee beans to the correct fineness to create a good expresso, (thats what the numbers are for on a grinder). Having a warm cup, not your paper rubbish, but most importantly the main ingredient the coffee itself, thats the liquid gold that refreshes the mouth, brings your brain into super active mode. Once again this comes down to personal taste, one of the few things that we can choose in our lives. So please stop playing with our coffee, if I want to drink a cocktail I'll go to a bar.

Well said, "Just making a good expresso is an art..."

It would be nice if people could just figure out how to make a perfect espresso first before they go and screw it up.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Aren't Japanese people fabulous, folks! Yes, all of them.

“The fact that tea culture already existed in Japan has helped cultivate an appreciation for coffee as a luxury item,”

“Japanese people have an extremely sensitive palate so they can appreciate subtle differences in flavour,”

“Japanese people pay meticulous attention to detail.”

I would really like to know what the winners of 2016 and 2015 World Barista Championships said about their nation, in comparison.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Japan and America can't do coffee. It simple enough but both country just can't do coffee. Star buck is a sugar pit. In the last 12 months seven & I holding have installed a machine that is just passable. That is it for coffee in Japan.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

If they want to sex things up, would probably be much better for baristas and servers to be all women under 25 and wearing a bikini, like they do in Vietnamese coffee shops in Southern California.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Hell people who think that drinking coffee here is something new should remember that this IS the land of coffee shops and for decades UCC and Key Coffee (mainly) were giants.

Some Japanese paid 10,000 for one cup of coffee, back in the day, and just because Starbucks has invaded the land does not mean there wasn't a coffee culture here before.

I would suggest that Starbucks and all the knockoffs like it have destroyed coffee here with all their "flavored" crap.

I would also suggest that the "sensitive palate" BS.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Such cultural arrogance really seems to have no end. Tell it to all the people who failed to notice they were being ripped off by cheap and adulterated products in the numerous labelling scandals.

To be fair, most of those couldn't be discerned by taste. Also, it's not unusual for nation to praise their own taste in food. And Japanese certainly are more sensitive than most Americans, whose palates have dulled by a barrage of sugar, salt and fat.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I will make the connection for you then. commanteer: High quality food, made for sensitive palates almost by definition. Low quality food therefore capable of being separated from high quality food by same palate. If you claim this rice is superior to that because of its taste quality but then can't tell the difference when an inferior grade is labelled with the superior rice label then it seems there is a problem of palate after all. As for American palates, well, we need not always compare to America.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

After living in Japan for a while I would have to say i'd rather take a can of coffee from a vending machine before I would drink any of this crap coffee Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks is serving. There have been many days that I went out of my way just to go to the coffee shops to enjoy all the wonderful desserts and food they had there. If these places would open up in the US with the same exact quality they would put a lot of places out of business. I'm still not entirely sure how coffee tasted the same no matter where I went in Japan. If coffee is a lost art anywhere in world, Japan has found it and made it better.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

How herbivorous do you need to be to confuse 'coffee' with 'sexy'?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Expresso coffee is not meant to bastardized

Neither is its spelling.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

How herbivorous do you need to be to confuse 'coffee' with 'sexy'?

Pushing the envelope and wanting people to think that the people making the coffee are sexy, hence then the coffee becoming sexy too.

Starbucky and other places like a certain type of employee, the younger "good" looking attractive types to make their product go down smoother.

I mean if you get a smile from a cute guy or girl as they are ripping off your hard earned cash for a drink of something that may have been coffee at one time, I guess that is sexy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

“Japanese people pay meticulous attention to detail. Yeah right, Ucc and key coffee are some of the worst coffee I've had in the world.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yeah right, Ucc and key coffee are some of the worst coffee I've had in the world.

Blue Mountain, NOT the Blue Mountain Blend, and Toraja from Key are pretty damn good coffees.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Like many things here its more about status and performing the correct ritual. In my opinion quality comes from being able to form opinions based on experience and ones personal preference. Not group consensus coerced by advertising and some paid stooge on some idiotic tv "program". Hmmm think ill have a cup of my personal preference trung nguyen, as i have a long night ahead.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Between all the coffee and all the refined sugar, those people are heading for the precipice...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

*

*commanteer:

Such cultural arrogance really seems to have no end. Tell it to all the people who failed to notice they were being ripped off by cheap and adulterated products in the numerous labelling scandals. To be fair, most of those couldn't be discerned by taste. Also, it's not unusual for nation to praise their own taste in food. And Japanese certainly are more sensitive than most Americans, whose palates have dulled by a barrage of sugar, salt and fat

Wake up and do some research commanteer. Ever check sodium and sugar contents in japan? You might want to start reading ingredients lists. Teriyaki anyone? Tempura? Red bean, whip? Yaki soba? Just about on par with america if you ask me!

The japanese dinner table has changed, Don't believe everything you see and hear!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@ That person- totally agree.

Hence japan has such a high bowl cancer rate. Sodium sodium with sugar on the side. Look at the junk kids eat today anyone who thinks J food in 2016 is all healthy needs to get out more.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Hell people who think that drinking coffee here is something new should remember that this IS the land of coffee shops and for decades UCC and Key Coffee (mainly) were giants.

... Yes there were plenty of coffee shops that served somewhat watery drip coffee with a complimentary stench of stale cigarette smoke. Perhaps they tasted decent, but i wouldnt know because all i could smell, and therefore all i could taste was cigarette smoke.

S'bucks does serve some horrendous liquid desserts, but their basic coffees, espressos, cappuccinos and lattes are quite nice and you can enjoy them with what could be the most amazing smell in the world - the smell of fresh coffee.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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