To roast coffee you have to love it, and to really enjoy coffee you must live and breathe it. Completely true of those who work at and run The Roastworks, this month’s featured Roaster.
Located near the Komaba campus of Tokyo University, The Roastworks opened in 2013, after its owner was dissatisfied with the poor coffee available from other establishments. The Roastworks is operated by The Coffee Shop, a very popular specialty store in Daikanyama that curates and sells only the finest coffee by selecting the best beans from around the world. The Coffee Shop also aims to help other coffee stores to thrive, so works with them to improve their branding and marketing. Further to this, after 3 years of success in the coffee world, The Roastworks has started holding coffee workshops and seminars around Japan to educate and inform baristas across the country.
To The Roastworks, roasting coffee is much more than just a profession. All its employees, driven by the owner, are passionate about good coffee and that shines through every cup they serve. The Roastworks roasts their own beans using their own unique roasting methods and the German made Probat 12kg roasting machine. As a result, The Roastworks are able to blend, and refine their coffee blends to tease the very best flavour from the beans as possible.
The Roastworks offers a variety of coffee extraction options to their customers because they believe in having fun and experimentation. The extraction options include: pour over, French press- the owners preferred option, and Aeropress. In addition, after a recent purchase of an awesome Steampunk machine from Alpadomiche, The Roastworks can now offer exquisite, precision controlled filtered coffee- thoroughly worth a try.
Watching The Roastworks grow and thrive is going to be an exciting thing. It will be great to work with them as they continue to help others, whilst also ensuring that each and every cup of coffee gives their customers much fun and enjoyment, whilst always using only the best beans available.
Honduras / El Porvenir
Farm: El PorvenirFarmer: Juan Miguel Suazo
Region: La Laguna, San Sebastián
Variety: Catuai
Process: Fully Washed
Altitude:1780m
Flavors and characteristics: White Grape, Apricot, Caramel, Syrup
Costa Rica / El Leoncio
Farm: El LeoncioFarmer: Jose Antonio Barrantes
Region: Lourdes de Cirri, West Valley
Variety: Catuai
Process: Black Honey
Altitude:1650m
Flavors and characteristics: Chocolate, Orange, Plum, Dark Cherry, Smooth
【kurasu × Good Coffee】Q&A
Q1. When did you start roasting and what was the motive?
2 years ago. I was unsatisfied with the quality and couldn’t serve a good coffee working at a café using roasted beans that were not fresh. I got sick of making excuses for what I was doing and decided to take the responsibility to what I serve and started to roast coffee beans myself.
Q2.What do you consider as you serve coffee as to purchasing, roasting, and extracting?
I enjoy and have fun with coffee so much. So I want to spread how coffee is enjoyable and fun. Together with the characteristics of the production region, I want people to have fun with coffee that can differ from different extraction methods.
Q3. What are your roasting features?
Mid-roasted. I use Probat 12kg. I start at low heat in the beginning then try to aim to obtain flavor and sweetness from adding strong heat before the first crack.
Q4. What is the recommended extracting method/menu?
French Press. I recommend it because it’s easy and you can taste the coffee oil the most. My recipe is 18g of course ground coffee, 300g of hot water and 4 minutes of extracting time.
Q5. What is the reason for partnering with kurasu x Good Coffee on their overseas subscription service?
We have a lot of foreign customers but I wanted more people to try our coffee around the world. I order coffee from other countries from time to time so I am very excited that my coffee is distributed abroad. I thank Kurasu and Good Coffee for giving me this opportunity and for all the members of the subscription for being part of it!
Q6. Any words for the awaiting overseas customers?
At our shop, we use French press, Kone and aeropress, so I hope you will enjoy the different flavors by extracting with different equipment.
Q7. Who is your favorite roaster?
Crear (Shizuoka)
Nakamura Coffee Roasters (Niigata)
Sarutahiko Coffee (Tokyo)
MOSS CORE COFFEE (Tokyo)
Q8. Who do you respect as a roaster/barista?
Kentaro Maruyama (Maruyama Coffee)
Tomoyuki Murasawa (Sarutahiko Coffee)
Takayuki Ishitani