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It was a cup of exceptional coffee the 15min course. The motivation is the
and one amazing barista who offered him same – passion for coffee.
the experience that made Yoshikazu fall in
love with coffee. 7 Years ago, he started up Yoshikazu’s idea for Japanese coffee
a mobile coffee truck called ‘REC Coffee’, future and baristas
his own coffee business. In his mind, the He shared that, ‘for an excellent
most important role in a coffee house is the barista, the most important thing is to bring
barista, they connect with customers every out the full potential of the coffee to the
day and they connect with the producers customer. At the same time, serve well.
closes as well. He told CTI that he wanted It takes very good skill to achieve both.
to deliver the stories behind each coffee to He summarized 3 core characteristics to
customers through this moment of connec- be a good barista – curiosity, passion and
tion, and through the coffee itself. tidiness.
When talked about the WBC com- When asked about the future of
petition experience, he sad he never Japanese specialty coffee, he said, ‘in the
thought about switch career, or give up. past 10 years, we tell the story of bean to
He always got inspirations from the com- cup to customers. And in the future 10
petitions to create a difference coffee ex- years, I want to focus more on customers’
perience. Again and again, the challenges needs and what I could do in the coffee
pushed him to achieve broader and deeper consuming counties. We will put more
in coffee. energy to learn more about the produc-
ing countries and consuming countries to
How Ninety Plus helps Yoshikazu to go make more people understand the beauty
further of coffee.
Just finished the WBC completion As the director of his company, he
in Seattle, Yoshikazu shared that “being shared that he will put more time in the
able to discover the possibilities in Coffee, business development side, to open more
is the best reward for him. Take this com- cafes and bring delicious coffee to more
petition for example, it was his first time people. For himself, he would love to spend
to learn about the growing side of coffee more time with his loved ones and spend
and how different processing method is more time on whiskey, photographing and
influencing the flavor. The journey is filled cycling. ‘Japanese people work too much!’
with surprises. Last year, he got a chance He laughed.
to meet with Joseph from 90+, and visited However, he would always like to
the amazing Geisha estate. He said:” to be get on to the stage of WBC again in the
honest, this is the first time he touched a future.
coffee tree! At that time, Joseph kept asking
me – what flavor I want in my espresso? A Short Story of Yoshikazu Iwase Maker
Do I want to show my passion to the whole Series
world? What is the ideal flavor in the cup? Yoshi became Japan Champion in
It was such questions, made both of us go 2014 with Ninety Plus Nekisse Red N3.
even further in coffee. Combine Joseph’s When he came to Ninety Plus Gesha Es-
experience in the coffee producing side and tates in 2015 to produce his Maker Series,
my own passion for brewing and serving, Joseph asked him how extreme he wanted
we created a cold fermentation process, his coffee to be. Did he want his coffee
which could reduce the PH level in the wild and fruit forward, or did he want an
coffee and elevate the bright flavor. The elegant, delicate coffee? Did he want to go
coffee was amazing, and beside that, he as a rock star to compete at WBC or like a
practiced hundreds of times to go over classical pianist, pure and elegant?

Yoshikazu said that he wanted
both, and Joseph suggested they deeply
(for wildness) but slowly (for elegance
and clarity) ferment the coffee using cold
temperatures of an NPGE river to slow the
fermentation of the precious Superpicker
cherry delivered to Yoshi’s team daily, and
Ninety Plus Cold Fermentation was born.
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