Coffee Life in Japan by White Merry

Author:White, Merry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press

BRANDING COFFEE TASTES

Is there a specifically “Japanese” type of coffee? Many consumers think so. “When I am outside Japan, I miss Japanese coffee. It is strange because coffee is everywhere but not to my taste: it has to be Japanese,” said a forty-five-year-old businessman in Tokyo.

As a “normal” beverage coffee entered the Japanese diet as it had been drunk by the Dutch, very strong (in terms of density), though brewed from lightly roasted beans. The preference now is for medium roasts, but of course among seriously committed drinkers, the roast is calibrated according to the type, age, and moisture of the bean. There is no one “Japanese roast,” but there is overall a tendency toward denser brews. Indeed, the high rate of coffee consumption in Japan in part relates to the way Japanese prefer their coffee. Among the three largest coffee-consuming countries (the United States, Germany, and Japan) coffee in Japan is brewed strongest (grams of ground beans per cup), and this fact, in addition to the overall rate of consumption, raises imports. Japanese burendo coffee (the “house blend”) is a “thick” taste, strong to most Americans, approximately 13 grams of coffee per four-ounce cup. A weaker cup in Japan, called “American” (like the Italian “Americano,” meaning an espresso thinned out with hot water), originated with the American soldiers of the Occupation and is seen as thin and sour. (“Sour,” as opposed to bitter, which is desired by tasters as an aspect of a good blend, is the product of badly dried or badly kept beans and can be somewhat masked by a stronger brew.) As Maruyama Kentaro of the Maruyama Coffee Company says, “The quality of the coffee is, in fact, the quality of the acid. By acid I do not mean the sour taste; it is the clear acid that is combined with the sweetness. In growing beans, the potential of the coffee gets higher at higher altitudes, and the quality of the acid gets more delicate and tasty.”4

Overall, the Japanese preference for a stronger brew contributes to the high rate of consumption of coffee in Japan: more beans per cup means a higher import rate. But taste is also specific to region in Japan: coffee roasters and blenders formulate coffees according to local preferences. Osaka tastes are the “thickest”—up to 16 grams a cup and sometimes poured through the grounds twice. Nagoya prefers a medium-high roast and 13 grams of it per cup; Kyoto wants a higher (darker) roast and a 14 gram cup; and Tokyo favors a light roast and only 9 or 10 grams a cup: by comparison, Tokyo's coffee is almost American. While it varies across America, the average nonspecialty coffee has about 8 grams of coffee per eight-ounce cup.5 The other high-consuming nation, Germany, has a greater range—from 6 to 10 grams. Beethoven, it is said, was a bean-counter, wanting 60 beans to his six-ounce cup of coffee—a very mild brew.

From Maruyama's taste buds to those of the ordinary consumer is a considerable

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