Youโll find Tokyo Skytree in Oshiage. The tallest tower in the world, it standsย like a giant spear looking to pierce the skyโa monument to contemporary design built into the heart of an old, quiet neighborhood. Tourists and locals gather here to look out from the observation deck and admire the cityscape, which stretches out as far as the eye can see.
Thereโs coffee out there, hidden in the pockets between the buildings, lights, and ceaseless traffic. The question for most travelers is, where toย find it?
If you happen to be visiting Skytree, itโs much closer than youโd think.
In among the local shops and old apartment buildings in the shadow of the tower sits Unlimited Coffee Bar, a cafe and barista training centerย from Unlimited Coffee Roasters.
The first-floor cafe is a bustling space made up of four distinct stations:ย front counter, espresso bar, brew bar, and bar counter, with a barista for each. The cafe is a living, breathing example of owners Daichi Matsubara and Rena Hirai’s focus on barista training.
โBarista work is about passion, study, and customer service,โ says Matsubara. โThink of it like this: the importers, the roasters, and the farmers donโt often interact with customers, but the barista does all the time. Sharing the links in the chain [of seed to cup] is the baristaโs job; theyโre an ambassador. So the job is not just making coffee, itโs customer service and sharing information.โ
Matsubara and Hirai see their shop and their staff as ambassadors not just for quality coffee, but for the developing coffee culture here in Japan, too.
โEven though we could have chosen a spot closer to where we roast [in Arakawa], Oshiage is really nice,โ says Hirai. โThere are lots of tourists, and we think that makes for a great chance to share Japanese coffee culture. When people come to see Skytree, they can see the state of Japanโs coffee, too.โ
Improving the quality of coffee in Japan is a driving motivation for the couple, who roasted coffee and ran barista training out of their cramped Tokyo living space before expanding to their current location. They want to use their experienceโMatsubara as a World Barista Championship judge since 2011, Hirai as a Japan Barista Championship judge for more than 10 yearsโto train baristas to be dedicated to service and lifelong learning.
You can see this idea in the cafe space on the first floor, where each cup brewed is like a mini-presentation. Wherever possible, coffee at Unlimited is brewed where customers can watch it happen and easily interact with the baristas. The baristas also regularly compete in domestic competitions, with Kota Sato most recently taking first place in the 2016 Japan Hand Drip Championship.
โWe encourage all baristas to compete,โ says Matsubara. โStudying, experimenting, presentingโthese skills are invaluable when serving customers, too. When you feel the nerves of competition, it enhances your ability to brew for customers.โ
โOf course thereโs the fame and popularity involved,โ says Hirai, โbut more important than that is developing an understanding for taste to share with customers.โ
Unlimited has also gained some renown for itsย coffee cocktails. Though still a rarity in Tokyo, Hirai sees cocktails as a window for some into coffee discovery, and a chance for smaller coffee shops to expand their service, turning a daytime coffee shop into a nighttime cocktail bar. Also a certified Japan Coffee in Good Spirits judge, Hirai says the key to a coffee cocktail starts with the coffee.ย โFirst, make coffee the main element,โ she says. โAfter you understand the flavor and the extraction method, you play with spirits, alcohol, and syrups that deepen that flavor.โ
The coffee cocktails are perhaps the most fun to watch the crew prepare; the menu ranges from cold-brew gin & tonics and Irish coffee to espresso martinis and a selection of dessert cocktails.
When you talk to Matsubara and Hirai, you realize that Unlimited Coffee Bar reaches into all areas of coffee developmentโroasting, training, brewingโto better understand and improve them at the customerโs first point of contact: the barista. The two see this point of contact as the chance to express something new and build bridges.
โI think of coffee as a tool for creating communities and connecting people,โ says Matsubara. โIf Iโd never started [working in] coffee, there are so many people I never would have met. Coffee itself is really deep, but itโs the people around it, and the community, that I like most.โ
โWhen I share good coffee, it makes me happy,โ adds Hirai. โAnd sharing those flavors is a beautiful thing. That moment when a trainee-barista gets it, and they discover the flavor they were looking for, that particular smile makes our job feel especially meaningful.โ
Hengtee Limย (@Hent03) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in Tokyo. Read moreย Hengtee Lim on Sprudge.
Photos courtesy of Sonia Cao.