Okinawa is a country within a country.
This makes sense considering its unique cultural milieu. The Chinese inspired Okinawa’s ubiquitous ishigantō stone pillars and shīsā lions, Japan brought to the island what would become the eisā dance, and America, for its part, introduced Spam and military culture. The Ryukyuans, Okinawa’s indigenous peoples, invented karate, the shamisen, and chanpurū, a cuisine (the term means “to blend”) with many influences that’s like a microcosm of the island itself.
And yet another global good has found its way into Okinawa: coffee. The former Ryūkyū Kingdom lies just within the coffee belt, at 24° to 27° latitude, making it a fine location for growing Coffea trees. Coffee farming in Okinawa began over a hundred years ago when Japanese migrants returned home from Brazil with trees to plant. Later, postwar pioneers like Chōden Wauke and Butoku Yamashiro kickstarted plantations in Uruma and Onna villages. Now coffee farms such as Hiro, Ada, and Matayoshi typify homegrown Japanese coffee in all its glory.
Okinawa draws more than just local origin-trippers: international travelers seeking a cafe scene will not leave the island disappointed. And if you find yourself in that group, we here at Sprudge would like to share seven imaginative cafes that we think whip up true uchinā (Okinawan) coffee: artful, unaffected drinks that are affably delivered.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll have something to add to Okinawa’s story on your road trip there.
Better rent a car.
Rikka, rikka!
COFFEE Potohoto
You know the pattern: entrepreneur finds coffee shop. Coffee shop finds fame. Entrepreneur leaves, and quality suffers. But the best shops buck this trend.
Tetsuji Yamada founded COFFEE Potohoto all the way back in 2006 as a 90-square-foot stand in Sakaemachi Market, an old arcade-style market near the Asato Monorail Station. Instead of moving in 2023 when he outgrew the space, Yamada renovated a nearby bonito flakes store and furnished it with his Giesen, Ikawa, and Fuji Royal roasters, along with a La Cimbali M39 and a La Pavoni lever machine.
“We want the love of Sakaemachi’s community,” Yamada told me. “We also want our coffee to enrich farmers’ lives, so thirty percent of our coffee is direct trade.”
I ordered a Brazil/Ethiopia/Indonesia blend latte, and it was heart-topped and frothy with notes of molasses. I would expect no less expertise from Yamada: he is a certified Q Grader, and in 2024, he was a Taiwan Cup of Excellence International Judge.
“At Potohoto,” Yamada tells me, “we begin by sample roasting with our Ikawa. Then we cup to see whether our grounds have a floral, bright impression, or if they lean more towards caramel. From there, we adjust the last roast based on Maillard development and first crack.”
At nineteen going on twenty years of business, it’s safe to say that COFFEE Potohoto respects both its product and its people. Let this coffee bar be your excuse for wandering Sakaemachi, which is beloved by locals, and features many small bars and restaurants, homewares stores, a butcher shop, and much more.
Coffee Senti Motobu
Cafes with a soul don’t just serve coffee—they are of service to others. Cue Coffee Senti Motobu: Takeshi Maeda’s passion-project-meets-community-renewal-scheme.
Motobu is a small town known for its kumquats, acerola fruits, and lanes of fukugi trees. It is also located along Okinawa’s Route 84, on the way to the Churaumi Aquarium and Nakayama Coffee Farm. Like many Japanese towns, however, Motobu faces the dual challenges of an aging and declining population.
Ready to remedy this, Maeda retooled an old soba restaurant in 2021 to host a coffee hall and pop-up restaurants in hopes of luring businesses to Motobu. Four years on, and Maeda is still at it. His Senti helped sponsor the inaugural 2025 Yanbaru Coffee Festival partly to raise awareness of Motobu’s rebirth.
When asked what he looks for in his coffee, Maeda responded, “For taste, I focus on cleanliness, sweetness, and flavor intensity. I roast through repeated trial and error to elicit a bean’s ‘sugar’.”
“My mission is to establish specialty coffee in Yanbaru and draw attention to Okinawan farms,” he adds.
After my long-awaited taste of Okinawa Nago coffee (a washed Typica pour-over from the Yamaichi farm), I could not help but think: mission accomplished.
coffee Hygge
My hot take? Coffee should never be an end in and of itself, but a means for something else—a conversation with a friend, or a way to learn about the world and those within it.
On the one hand, coffee Hygge is hard to find. It sits along a nondescript road in seldom-toured Okinawa City, and Hygge’s parking is tucked away in the back. Its ever-shifting hours are announced on Instagram (so check before you go). Moreover, Hygge’s digital footprint is faint—there’s little press, and the website’s “About” page presents one line: Hygge: a coffee stand.
But don’t let Hygge’s elusiveness deter you. Its menu features a lineup varied enough for any coffee devotee: there are Colombia Decaf Washed coffees, Americanos, lattes, flavored lattes (mocha or caramel, hot or iced), apple juice, and yakigashi (Japanese-style baked sweets).
I spoke with Takemoto san, Hygge’s proprietor, as he brewed me a Sommarlek-Coffee-roasted hand-drip.
“When I find good coffee,” Takemoto told me, “it is always a good encounter. Coffee isn’t just liquid. It is personal. A roaster has intentions. The brewer, a mindset. Every drink culminates in a farmer’s service. Through all this, I find truth in coffee.”
Takemoto and I waxed poetic for a little bit after that, but I will leave it to you to continue the conversation where we left off when you visit Hygge.
Mamepolepole
Mamepolepole is Okinawa’s most decorated roastery—there can only be one. Its creator, Yoshiyuki Nakamura, is a two-time winner of the Japan Coffee Roasting Championship (JCRC), taking the title in 2017 and 2022. In 2018, Nakamura outdid himself, earning second place in the World Coffee Roasting Championship (WCRC).
Mamepolepole is also one of Okinawa’s most popular roasteries, and for good reason. My cafe latte (pulled on a hammered-copper Victoria Arduino Athena Leva) had a PX-sherry, cherry flavor of incomparably deft balance.
Okinawans agree with my praise. I went to Mamepolepole’s new place (opened last December), and there was a train of customers there, some with bags of Colombia Las Marias Gesha and others with Colombia Campo Hermoso Pink Bourbons.
But from whence does Mamepolepole’s mastery spring? Nakamura first fell under coffee’s spell after tasting Vietnam’s “bitter yet sweet” brews (you might have heard of phin or egg yolk coffee, for example). Inspired, Nakamura opened up Mamepolepole in 2010 to inspire others, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Nakamura remarked that his main goal isn’t necessarily to win prizes, but “to expand a circle of light—to spread smiles and inspiration.”
To-go coffee in my cupholder and a ribbon of road stretched out before me, I left the shop feeling like I’d won something.
Coffee And Bake Hashimoto
“In Okinawa, many cultures mix together, and it’s chaotic, for better or worse.”
So says Takaya Hashimoto, Coffee And Bake Hashimoto’s titular leader.
On my visit, his coffeehouse was not chaotic, but bustling, and pleasantly so. Eight customers were conversing in easy camaraderie, the baker in the back was restocking a cloche with banana bread, and Hashimoto himself was expounding on Okinawan culture and his role in it.
“Okinawa has its stronger personalities… but I would like to mentor young enthusiasts. I want to ease them into the industry.”
Certainly, Hashimoto has the flair to do just that. Rare for many new ventures (his eponymous shop only opened in October of 2024), Hashimoto precision-roasts his coffee seeds on the Aillio Bullet R1 V2.
My light-roasted, single-origin espresso had a snappy acidity and a tomato-like savoriness. It was served in a Rörstrand teacup. “I choose raw beans that let me feel terroir as much as possible. I’m aware of ‘gentleness’ (yasashisa) in a coffee’s taste,” Hashimoto explained.
Well-rounded, yes, but where was my ‘spro from? Kenya? In a rare lapse of attention, I failed to note the origin. I was having too much fun talking with the other patrons. Now I know where the Okinawan phrase “ichariba-chōdē” comes from (“once a friend, always a friend”).
Zhyvago Coffee Roastery
If you weren’t looking for Zhyvago Coffee Roastery, it would probably find you. And this is not just because it is situated front and center in Chatan’s “American Village,” the tourist spot in Okinawa, but also because Zhyvago’s roastery is one of four of the company’s buildings sprawled out near Chatan’s shore. And then, Zhyvago is a self-styled West Coast cafe, with all its go-out-show-out branding and celebrated coffee.
As in America, bigger is better here: the bar boasts not one La Marzocco Strada EP, but two (and one is embossed with a custom logo). And when customer volume gets really high, there’s even a third machine: a La Marzocco KB90.
The owner, Kentarō san, started the roastery in September 2020 after a lengthy study trip to San Francisco’s icons: Blue Bottle Coffee, Sightglass Coffee, Four Barrel, Ritual, Stumptown, Water Avenue, Coava, and Ristretto Roasters.
“At Zhyvago,” roaster Mikami san related, “we aim for drinks that are smooth and naturally sweet; our roasting is tuned to a coffee’s character.”
My “size-up” (at less than a dollar!) “tiger-skin” latte was big on taste–a Brazil blend with a heavy emphasis on chocolate. I had a battery of other options to choose from: affogatos, batch brews, cold brews, “Kandy” teas, and a Cafe Caramel “Mad” Shake (step aside, Blue Seal Ice Cream).
And so, it turns out Roland Barthes was wrong: Japan does not always tend towards the diminutive!
〒904−0115 沖縄県中頭郡北谷町美浜34-1
Merisis Coffee Brewers
Like wearing black while cupping, some things just make sense. And if you’re getting ready to go back to wherever home is after your long Okinawa trip, it would make sense for you to get some food to go with that one last cappuccino.
Park your car in Nōren Plaza back in Naha (if you can’t find street parking) and walk to our final destination, Merisis Coffee Brewers. For sale there are vegetable and lunch plates, sweets of every kind, and a “soup deli” that will make you reconsider your flight home.
Of course, we can talk coffee, too. Merisis is a multi-roastery hosting seeds from Mel (Ōsaka), Teruya (Okinawa), and Single O (Australia). Merisis grinds blends on the Mahlkönig E65S GbW, and single-origins on the EK43. Their ultimate tool of expression? The Sanremo Café Racer.
“My goal is to invite customers into Australian coffee culture, with all its laid-back and confident connotations,” Meguro Ryūji, Merisis’s founder, mentioned to me. “We are also committed to continual growth and education. We invite guests from outside the prefecture to host workshops on everything from sensory calibration to cupping.”
Perhaps the most brilliant thing about Merisis? It is dog friendly. Don’t forget to pat Lassie on the head before you leave. She’s as mellow as the “milk brews” Merisis offers. They say that dogs are like their owners, but are coffee seeds like those who roast them?
Epilogue
Okinawa prides itself on its regional drinks (think Orion beer and viper wine), so it’s no surprise that domestic coffee is coming into its own here. For another taste of Okinawan-grown coffee, be sure to check out rokkan COFFEE CREATORS, as well as any of the island’s thirty or so farms. If you’re interested in cafes that don’t necessarily serve Okinawa-grown coffee, stop by Uki, Tamagusuku Coffee Roasters, Tasokare Coffee, and Flap Coffee and Bake Shop.
Mata ya! (Bye for now!)
Michael Joseph is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Hiroshima. Read more Michael Joseph for Sprudge.
