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Options for coffee-connoisseurs expanding

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JAPAN NEWS / YOMIURI

Roasted coffee beans are sold in wine bottles at Grand Cru Cafe Ginza in Tokyo.

As more people are drinking coffee, more coffee shops are offering unique services to draw them in, such as reserving high-end coffee beans for particular customers and allowing customers to grind their own beans.

There’s even a place that offers a monthly all-you-can-drink coffee “subscription.”

Grand Cru Cafe Ginza is a coffee shop in the Ginza Six shopping complex that opened in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, in last April. The cafe sells roasted coffee beans stored in wine bottles that are each labeled with information such as the coffee’s country of origin and name of the farm where the beans were cultivated.

Aiming to offer “cups of supreme coffee,” the beans sold by the cafe must meet strict standards in terms of their origin, cultivation methods, selection, transportation and roast.

Bottles range in price from $94.40-$1,132.80. Each bottle makes five to six cups of coffee.

“Experienced baristas carefully handle coffee beans of the highest quality. I hope customers enjoy their special tastes and aromas,” said Takuro Tomita, the general manager of the salon.

Some cafes let you feel like you’re a barista, as they allow customers to make their own coffee. At Drip &Drop Coffee Supply Sanjo in Kyoto, for example, customers can grind coffee beans themselves using a manual mill. Customers then choose one of three coffee-making methods, such as drip filter, and make their own coffee.

The price of a cup starts at $4.25.

According to the Tokyo-based All Japan Coffee Association, consumption of coffee beans in Japan reached a record high of about 470,000 tons in 2016, up by more than 100,000 tons from 20 years ago.

Consumption temporarily declined in 2011 after the Great East Japan Earthquake, but it’s been increasing since then.

In recent years, freshly made coffee sold at convenience stores has proven popular, while a flood of specialized “third wave” coffee shops, which pay special attention to bean origin and roasting methods, have appeared. This has further expanded the scope of the coffee market.

Stores offering a flat-rate subscription service have also emerged.

At Coffee Mafia’s Iidabashi cafe, which opened in mid-January in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, customers who pay a monthly fee of $28.32 can enjoy one cup of coffee per visit at any store in the chain.

Store manager Koichiro Okumura said, “I got the idea from flat-rate music and video streaming services.”

At Alpha Beta Coffee Club in Tokyo’s Jiyugaoka district, membership involves a monthly fee of $84.96. A single cup of coffee usually costs $4.72, but members can drink as much as they like. They can also choose from three kinds of coffee beans, which change every month. The cafe is equipped with Wi-Fi, and many people bring their laptops and work there.

Spacee Coffee utilizes restaurants that are only open at night and rents them during the day on weekdays in six locations, including the Shinjuku and Shibuya districts of Tokyo. Each Spacee Coffee store is equipped with Wi-Fi and visitors can get a cup of coffee for 47 cents if they register as a member for free. Customers can stay for up to an hour.

“There are a wide variety of coffee shops, ranging from those focusing on high-end products to those targeting ordinary people, which is unique to Japan,” said Yoko Kawaguchi, author of “Coffee People,” among other cafe-related books.

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