YARD Coffee & Craft Chocolate from Tennoji, Osaka is this month’s #KurasuPartnerRoaster. Since they opened their doors in 2019, they have been loved by a wide range of customers by catering them not only a high quality coffee but superb craft chocolates. The owner, Shota Natakani-san, has shared his secret and the journey of creating the rising star in the Kansai area’s coffee scene.

“I really love what I’m doing and I started the whole thing out of love, so I will keep doing what I’m doing”, Nakatani-san said when we asked what kind of path he’d like to take in the future. In his previous job as a system consultant, he had an opportunity to help his father with his patisserie. “That made me realise how great his job is,” he reflects on his big decision to change his career at the age of 30, to jump into the culinary industry. After only two years Nakatani-san has opened his own shop, YARD Coffee & Craft Chocolate- clearly it was his true calling.

The first thing that blew his mind in the industry was how quickly things changed, innovated and invented. In every step from coffee farming to brewing, Nakatani-san first found the speed intimidating, but that ever-changing world also made clear what always needed to be left unchanged. “It’s important to remember that it’s all about that one person in front of you. You need to stick to your core value, and convey it well through your business”- Nakatani-san explains, with confidence for his past footsteps and determination for his bright future.

For this partnership, Nakatani-san picked Ethiopian natural and Kenyan coffee.The vibrant African coffee reflects a lot of roasters’ styles and tastes. Nakatani-san describes his coffee as “balanced, layered, and presented by subtle and complex sweetness”- can’t wait to share them with you!

At the end of the interview, Nakatani-san said- “coffee enriches our lives, gives us strength for the day. We hope you will all enjoy the coffee we selected and roasted with love to share their unique and natural flavor, aroma and aftertaste with you.” “I don’t care for riding a big car or anything, I’m not doing coffee to be rich”, he says- it may be a bit cheeky of me to say this being younger than him, but I see some shared spirits between us and I had a feeling that we can be pretty good friends. Thank you so much Nakatani-san for the great time.