Page 66 - #51 English

About Life Coffee Brewers was the smallest shop on our
café hopping trip because it’s a coffee kiosk. There is no table
or chair, just a bench in front of the kiosk. Basically, the whole
kiosk is the working space for the barista, and it only serves
take-away coffee. About Life Coffee Brewers uses a La Marzocco
Linea espresso machine and a Mazzercoffee grinder, as well
as a Drip Stand. After ordering our coffee on one side of the
kiosk, we made our way to the kiosk front to see the barista in
action through the glass window, then it’s off to another side of
the kiosk to pick up our coffee. From our research, the owner
of About Life Coffee Brewers is the owner of Onibus Coffee
Roaster. He wanted his customer to try different coffee beans
from different roasters, and the little kiosk in Shibuya was born.
Regardless of its small size, the kiosk offers variety of coffee
beans from roasters across Japan and some imported coffee
beans. However, baristas seem to be the real highlight of the
kiosk. Different baristas take turn to run the kiosk, but if you
are in the coffee industry, you might be able to recognize them
because these baristas are high profile baristas who had worked About Life Coffee Brewers
in famous cafés in Europe, USA, and Australia, and sometimes
About Life Coffee Brewers would invite well - known baristas
from overseas to run the kiosk.

Hiroshi Sawada

Coffee House Nishiya If you are a coffee aficionado, you’d probably have heard
the name “Streamer Coffee Company”, since the owner, Hiroshi
Sawada, is the first Asian to win the champion title in Free Pour
Within a walking distance from Shibuya train station is Latte Art Championship. For this trip, we visited the first of all
another unique café. Coffee House Nishiya takes you back to the 6 branch across Japan, the Shibuya branch. Walking into the
90’s where baristas dressed more formally in their long slacks, café, the café looked chic and cool with waxed cement wall,
white shirt, black vest, and a tie. The café was packed when we industrial style lighting and wiring, wooden furniture, and a
walked in, and judging from the atmosphere and the how they coffee bar decorated with skateboards. Unlike formally dressed
talked to the barista, most customers were regular customers. baristas at Coffee House Nishiya, Streamer Coffee Company’s
In addition to coffee, Coffee House Nishiya also serves cocktails, baristas dressed in a hip street style, and it looked like our coffee
beers, juices, sandwiches, and snacks. We ordered an Espresso was brewed by a skateboarder, but the things that really caught
Shakerato which has a deliciously smooth foam created by our attention were the amazing Nuova Simonelli Aurelia and
shaking a shot of espresso with ice cube in a shaker. It was Slayer espresso machines on the bar. We tried the signature
smooth, well - balanced between bitter and acidic, and when Military Latte which is a creative blend between green tea, white
we were down to our last sip, the barista suggested we added chocolate espresso, and cocoa. The 12 Oz. cup with superb latte
some warm milk which instantly added sweetness to the cup. art gave an impression of having milk green tea with coffee. The
I personally love this café because of its friendly atmosphere bitterness of coffee smoothly contrasted the sweetness of green
and attentive service. Unfortunately, we arrived there quite late tea and it was strangely enjoyable. For creativity, it’s a 10 out of
and their legendary pudding menu had already sold out. Well, 10 as the latte art really resembles the military colour and
maybe next time! pattern, hence the name “Military Latte”.
66