This month's Kurasu Partner Roaster is something like that from Okayama. The owner, Aoi-san, says she has always liked the feel of the phrase- she named the shop “something like that” because she wanted people to feel and enjoy coffee freely, without thinking too much about it. Aoi-san and their roaster, Hirotaka-san are currently running their shop on a rented space, but planning to open their first brick and mortar shop soon.
Before starting her career in the coffee industry, Aoi-san was a hair stylist. The owner of the salon loved specialty coffee, and they’d always grind and brew each cup. As Aoi-san grew familiar with the custom, she started to love coffee. She visited many cafes, and as someone who’s also in the hospitality industry, she noticed herself inspired and attracted to the cafe's staff members’ friendly and calm atmosphere. Aoi-san always wanted to open her own business- and her dream of opening her own salon gradually changed to that of opening her own cafe. To learn more about coffee, Aoi-san joined LIGHT UP COFFEE in Tokyo, in 2017.
Since joining LIGHT UP COFFEE, Aoi-san brushed up her skills as a barista while taking care of their back office tasks, which helped her learn and become even more interested in business management. This is also around when Aoi-san met Hirotaka-san, her partner and a roaster. Hirotaka-san entered the world of coffee after drinking Tim Wendelboe’s Kenyan coffee at Fuglen in Tomigaya, Tokyo. He then moved to Melbourne on his working holiday visa while still in college, working as a barista there for a year before joining the team at LIGHT UP COFFEE.
They joined the company almost at the same time, and for 7 years Aoi-san worked as a manager of Kichijoji branch, and Hirotaka-san as a head roaster. 4 years ago they visited Okayama, and fell in love with the town full of wonderful restaurants and cafes, and the atmosphere there felt ideal- that experience led them to move to Okayama to open their shop, something like that.
Aoi-san and Hirotaka-san are planning to open their brick and mortar shop in Omote-cho, near Okayama Station, an area full of life with a shopping and business district. “Coffee we serve has unique characteristics, but soaks right into you when you drink. We do not just maximize the uniqueness of the beans, but we are trying even more than before to make each cup easy to drink, with our full respect for the producer”, they say. The Loring they use to roast the coffee is just the machine to achieve such a cup, and we are sure that their coffee and the shop will be embraced by the city. If you are in the area, do visit Okayama to enjoy their delicious coffee and the local delicacy.
