QUILT COFFEE in Kagoshima is this month’s #KurasuPartnerRoaster. With a motto, “a cup of happiness,” they connect and “bind” people through coffee and provide a warm, happy moments like a fluffy quilted blanket filled with cotton batting.

The roaster and the co-owner, Sakashita-san, told us that his first positive memory of coffee dates back 15 years, when he was working at a general store in Kagoshima. Back then, Sakashita-san was convinced that coffee was too bitter to drink black. He was then pleasantly surprised how he enjoyed a nourishingly delicious cup of coffee when someone brewed it for him at another local general store he visited. As coffee was caught in his radar, Sakashita-san started to visit Starbucks, where he learned what origins are, and he found the fact that those little beans have travelled across the sea quite romantic- and rest is history.

Sakashita-san then quit the general store and joined Starbucks. After 4 years, in 2016, he took another step forward to go even deeper into the world of coffee and rented a space at his friend’s Italian bar to start his own cafe. He started out with serving dark roasts from coffee shop in Tokyo he was introduced to, until he had a lightning-struck experience of trying a light roast Colombia from And Coffee Roasters given as a souvenir. The fruitiness of that coffee shocked Sakashita-san and inspired him to mainly serve light roast himself ever since.

Another milestone was winning 3rd place at Japan AeroPress Championship in 2017, which dramatically opened his world and the opportunities. Sakashita-san closed his cafe in 2019 and joined a team to help opening BLUE BEANS ROASTERY in Kagoshima. There, he gained a several years of experience in coffee roasting, and meeting Kitayama-san, now the co-owner of QUILT COFFEE led the pair to open the business together in February 2023.

Sakashita-san roasts their coffee with Giesen 6kg to cater to their customers’ tastes with a variety of roast levels and coffee including top quality lots. “Whenever I roast and serve coffee and our customers’ faces pop up in mind, I feel so happy,” Sakashita-san smiles. He is particularly passionate to continuously serve coffees from Peru and Bolivia, where he’s visited, hoping more and more people would fall in love with coffees from the producers there.

QUILT COFFEE’s mission is to connect producers with consumers, and they are devoted to it- the winter is coming, so enjoy a cup of their coffee and have some warm and happy time.