SEVEN STEPS COFFEE CLUB from Chiba is November 2022’s #KurasuPartnerRoaster. The couple who run the shop, Makoto-san and Mizue-san, have known each other since they were in elementary school. Growing up, Mizue-san chose a career in finance before jumping into the world of coffee, and Makoto-san became a hair stylist which still is his passion and career aside from the coffee business.
In 2010 or so, they visited then newly opened Fuglen Tokyo, and their coffee and a film A FILM ABOUT COFFEE blew their minds and led them to be immersed in the specialty coffee culture. They even went to a school of coffee for a year, and meeting with Sasaki-san from PASSAGE COFFEE and Miyazaki-san from ESPRESSO GANG also helped them to open their first ever shop.
“While it is simply one of many genres, the world inside it is huge- like techno, in a music term”, Makoto-san describes light roast in an interesting way. At SEVEN STEPS COFFEE CLUB they actively select coffees with unique processes, hoping to intrigue and encourage their customers to jump over the hurdle to try specialty coffee for the first time. “It’s like kicking a long ball, in a football term, rather than trying to win a little fight near the line. Going all the way makes it easier to convey the most basic of messages we want to send out- the flavor of coffee we want our customers to taste and enjoy”, he explains.
For this month’s package they selected coffee from Ethiopia and Honduras. They picked this Ethiopian because “it represents what people love and look for in specialty coffee”, according to Makoto-san, who also feels that all the uniquely processed coffee from Mid/South America, are trying to achieve what Ethiopian coffee has, after all. The fully washed Honduras, purchased from Tsujimoto-san (SHU・HA・RI), was selected “to contrast Ethiopia- everything about this coffee is the complete opposite, and would be a great example of different charms of different origins”, says Mizue-san.
“These coffees are grown with love, and travelled all the way to Chiba. It’s our mission to deliver that story into people’s lives, to add something fun and vibrant to them”, Mizue-san smiles, and Makoto-san nods to that. With their different styles and views, they may take their steps in different ways, but they share one vision, heading to the same place. There’s a saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” But with them, they are definitely going far, and also fast.
