5 best specialist cafés for coffee tasting courses in Tokyo

Omotesando’s Koffee Mameya has become a mainstay in Tokyo’s coffee scene, serving up excellent brews while also selling coffee beans from around the world. The only downside of the shop, though beautifully designed, is that there is no seating, so you can’t linger over a cuppa.

Good news: Koffee Mameya has finally given its fans the proper café space they’ve been craving with Koffee Mameya Kakeru, a stylish coffee haven nestled amongst the cool cafés in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Tokyo’s self-proclaimed coffee town.

Koffee Mameya Kakeru isn’t your average coffee shop, though. While you can purchase beans and drinks for takeaway up front, the back of the store is reserved for serious coffee drinkers looking to explore and taste different roasts, coffee cocktails and even sweets. 

The sleek interiors just make your coffee experience all the more rewarding: elegant counter seats face the baristas so you can see them in action as they go about making your brew in their crisp, white coats. The venue is in a former book publishing warehouse and the high ceiling is a nice change of scenery from Tokyo’s often cramped spaces.

The main menu consists of three coffee tasting courses (starting at ¥2,500), where you can sample various roasts prepared in different ways – cold brew, milk brew, filtered and shots of espresso. Courses also come with Koffee Kashi, small sweets paired with your designated brew.

With branches dotted around inner city neighbourhoods including Tomigaya, Asakusa and Hanegi Koen, Fuglen is a Tokyo coffee institution. Its latest café in Sangubashi opened just early this year in January. This pristine café looks nothing like your regular coffee shop, as it’s set in a beautifully restored old Japanese house. The space is divided into two sections: the front of the house and garden for casual sit-down and takeaway drinks, and the back counter which is dedicated to Fuglen’s coffee tasting course (by reservation only).

While this Fuglen uses the same beans as its other outlets, what sets this Sangubashi café apart is the way it pushes the envelope by refining the beans’ flavour profiles through various preparation methods. For instance, beans for hand-drip coffee are first shaken in a canister to air them out and prevent unwanted acidity. They are then ground using a unique hand grinder to prevent heat from affecting their aroma. Then, just before brewing, the coffee ground is shaken through a sieve to extract uniform-sized grounds and eliminate any components that might bring out bad flavours.

With the coffee tasting course (¥2,700), you’ll sample two types of coffee. The first is a hand drip with your choice of bean, meticulously prepared to bring out the individuality of the beans. This brew is paired with an exclusive Fuglen coffee yokan (traditional red bean paste confection). The second cup is a kokekaffe, a Norwegian hiking-style coffee, brewed in front of you in a kettle, making this a more rustic way to enjoy Fuglen’s coffee. This drink is paired with a light snack of brown cheese atop a piece of crisp bread made from oats and sunflower seeds.

If you’ve reserved a seat at the counter, you can choose from either the coffee tasting course or the hand-drip (¥1,400) and kokekaffe (¥1,500) individually. Coffee yokan is available separately for ¥450 (two pieces). If you’re not seated at the counter, you can enjoy the café’s regular menu, which includes a daily coffee served hot or iced.

Relax over a well-made cup of coffee at Lonich in Kuramae, a café offering various tasting courses as well as a premium range of coffee beans including rare single origins. Here you’ll find 10 varieties of beans from around the world, with special focus on coffee from Panama, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Colombia, El Salvador, Yemen and Burundi. Lonich also works with local farms and exporters in Yunnan, China, an up-and-coming coffee-producing region.

While you can order filtered coffee as well as other espresso-based drinks like latte and cappuccino, the coffee tasting courses are the best way to sample Lonich’s interesting array of beans. There are three omakase courses available: a seasonal course (¥4,000), the Lonich creative course (¥4,500) and the Geisha collective course (¥8,500).

The seasonal course serves up a curated selection of coffee drinks based on the current season and is complemented by sweets on the side. The Lonich creative course best exemplifies the brand’s ethos, as it offers a mix of tea and coffee-based beverages brewed with Japanese and Chinese ingredients. The Geisha course is a splurge, giving you a taste of some of the highest grade Geisha beans sourced from Latin America.

While you can drop in for a quick caffeine hit any time, the coffee courses do require advance reservation. Aside from tasting courses, Lonich also offers home coffee subscriptions and specialty coffee equipment to help you brew better at home.

While Kyoto’s Ogawa Coffee may be best known for its kissaten-style cafés, the chain’s latest outpost in Shimokitazawa is an entirely new concept. Ogawa Coffee Laboratory is not a café, and can best be described as a bean salon, offering coffee masterclasses where you can learn to do more with your beans. 

The sleek salon sells numerous types of coffee beans and staff will teach you how to brew the best cup of joe using a selection of 40 different coffee tools. There’s also a roaster on hand where you can try roasting a small batch of coffee beans yourself in less than 20 minutes. 

During a visit, you’ll have your pick from over 20 types of coffee beans including single origin, house blends and even a selection of speciality beans. There’s also a coffee graph on hand which you can use to help pick your beans based on your preferred flavour profiles. From there, you’ll be given a choice of coffee equipment to choose how you want your coffee brewed. Whether it’s with an AeroPress, siphon, or a simple pour over, even the pickiest coffee drinker will find a range of options to choose from. 

The friendly baristas will even walk you through the brewing process, or if you prefer, they can brew it for you while you watch. The shop can also label your beans, so each time you visit, you can try out a different method of brewing using the same beans until you find your favourite.

Glitch Coffee's second outlet in Tokyo (and fourth in Japan) is this sleek new space in Ginza. The café is centred around a chic U-shaped counter and decorated with original ukiyo-e woodblock prints hanging on the walls. A curated playlist of 1980s music playing from a set of stylish Tannoy speakers adds to the atmosphere.

Glitch is known for its light-roast, single-origin coffee beans that are all roasted in-house at its Jimbocho location. By only offering light roasts, Glitch is able to showcase the original flavour of the beans. You won't find any blended coffee here as the café aims to highlight the individuality of the coffee farms and regions it works with. 

Take your pick from 15 varieties of single-origin coffee, each accompanied by an English description of its origin and flavour profile. Glitch also has an interesting ordering system: you first select the bean and then the coffee style, such as pour-over, latte or espresso. However, a good way to get a feel for Glitch Coffee is by ordering the coffee tasting flight, which allows you to try out two or three types of coffee of your choice. 

The shop groups its selection into a few categories. 'Innovation' beans are made using the latest refining methods, 'Hard to Find' are rare, valuable beans, and 'Competition' are beans featured in world coffee competitions.