Lattest

The eponymous Lattest, the signature drink of Lattest in Omotesando, Tokyo: a single espresso shot extracted into a glass of chilled milk.Lattest, the self-style Omotesando Espresso Bar, is in good company, Omotesando being the home of several excellent coffee shops, including Sarutahiko Coffee, Ratio &C and, of course, Koffee Mameya. It’s also across the street from Bread, Espresso &, where I had started my current Tokyo coffee adventures the day before. It also helps that Lattest is a few minutes’ walk from both my hotel and my office for this trip.

Lattest began in 2012 and now boasts six branches, this being the original. There’s an evening espresso/alcohol bar in Azabujuban, a bag/shoe shop across the road (but not coffee) and three coffee/bike shops, continuing the long association between espresso and cycling. Two are in Tokyo, with the third in Kyoto.

Lattest does pretty much what the name says, serving a range of espresso-based drinks, including the synonymous “lattest”, an espresso shot over cold milk. All the coffee is roasted in-house, originally on the roaster in Glitch Coffee, but now at its own dedicated roastery. There are two single-origins on espresso, plus three others roasted for filter and available to buy in retail bags. During the week, you can order pour-over, plus there’s a small selection of other drinks, a handful of cakes and a toasted sandwich option if you want something more savoury.

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Single O Tasting Bar

Beans & Dreams decoration, taken from the wall in the Single O roastery in Tokyo.Like two of my recent Tokyo posts, today’s Saturday Short is a roastery/coffee shop, although this one, Single O, is from my current visit (I was there yesterday). Like Switch Coffee Roasters in Meguro and the now closed coffee bar at Fuglen Coffee Roasters, Single O is not somewhere you would stumble upon by accident. Somewhat off the beaten (tourist) track, down a lane off a side-street in an anonymous grid of streets in Ryogoku, east of Sumida River, it is at least noticeable when you get there. The large outside seating area is clearly visible from the street, while, if the sliding doors are fully retracted, so is the counter.

There’s not much to the tasting bar, just the aforementioned counter, beyond which, behind another set of sliding doors, is the roastery. As always, the coffee’s the draw with either the Reservoir blend on espresso or a selection of seasonal single-origins (three during my visit) as pour-overs through the V60 or Aeropress. And that’s it, other than some retail bags of coffee for sale.

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Switch Coffee Tokyo, Meguro

Lovely (and long-lasting) latte art in my cappuccino, made with the house-blend, at the Switch Coffee Tokyo roastery in Meguro.This is the original Switch Coffee Tokyo, a small coffee shop in Meguro, which doubles as the roastery. That said, a better description is a roastery doubling as a coffee shop, the roaster occupying the bulk of the space at the back of the store, with a small counter at the front, where the coffee is served. There’s a second, equally small branch of Switch in Shibuya, by the Yoyogi-Hachiman station.

The principle draw is the coffee, which is just as well, since other than a small selection of gin and wine, that’s all there is. No tea, no food, not even a cake. When it comes to coffee, there’s a house-blend on espresso, plus a single-origin filter, one of the four seasonal single-origins Switch has in stock. In an interesting twist on the batch-brew model, this is made in a large cafetiere then kept warm in a flask.

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Bread, Espresso &

Some gorgeous latte art in my cappuccino in Bread, Espresso & in Tokyo.Bread, Espresso & pretty much does what the name says, serving bread-based dishes, espresso-based drinks and a few other things from its original store in Omotesandō, a bustling district that’s seen the birth of some of Tokyo’s best coffee. So successful has it been that there are now 16 branches dotted around Tokyo and beyond, including a pair of new locations in Kyoto (which opened in the summer of 2019).

I’ll be honest: Omotesandō has many great coffee options and, as such, Bread, Espresso & is not somewhere I come for the coffee alone. That said, in a city where the non-speciality coffee can frequently be disappointing, Bread, Espresso &’s coffee has always been spot-on, plus it makes an excellent breakfast (until 10:00) and lunch spot, as well as a take-away bakery. There’s not a lot of seating, but for both my visits, table turn-over was high and the staff will always fit you in if possible.

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Fuglen Coffee Roasters

The Fuglen logo, from the outside wall of Fuglen Coffee Roasters, Tokyo.Fuglen is one of several western/Japanese hybrids which I found in Tokyo. In this case the western element comes from Oslo, where Fuglen started and is still going strong. The Tokyo offshoot opened in 2012 in the residential streets on Shibuya’s northern edge, somewhere I have yet to visit, with the Tokyo roastery, subject of today’s Coffee Spot, opening in 2014. Ironically, Fuglen only started roasting in Oslo in March this year.

The Tokyo roastery doubles as a coffee shop, opening its doors to the public from Thursday to Sunday every week. It’s a lovely spot, tucked away up a driveway on a quiet street, somewhere you would never stumble upon by accident unless you were very lucky. Inside, there’s a single, open space, with the roaster at the back, and a simple coffee bar to your left, with minimal seating.

Of course, the real draw is the coffee, all single-origins, all roasted on-site. It’s all seasonal, changing every two to three months. Naturally, it’s all available to buy in retail bags. There’s one single-origin on espresso and a choice of four on pour-over, all through the Kalita Wave. And that’s it. No tea, no food, not even a cake.

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Brian’s Travel Spot: Returning from Tokyo Haneda

The nose of one British Airways Boeing 777-300 looks very like another. This one is taking me back from Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow, seen here on the stand at Haneda.Last week I wrote about my flight from Manchester to Tokyo’s Haneda airport via Heathrow. This week it’s the turn of my flight back, on Friday, 27th July, two weeks to the day after I flew out. As I mentioned in the previous Travel Spot, Tokyo has two international airports, Haneda and Narita, with British Airways having one flight per day to each. It’s perfectly possible, by the way, to fly into one airport and out of the other, but, as with my flights over, price dictated that I flew both into and out of Haneda.

This left me on the 08:50 flight from Haneda, an entirely unreasonable time to be at an airport, let alone to be taking off from one. Since we were heading west, this was a daytime flight, scheduled to arrive at Heathrow at 13:10 local time on the same day, 12 hours and 20 minutes later. From there I had a connecting flight to Manchester at 16:00, touching down in at 17:05, a mere 16 hours after I set off.

However, before any of that could happen, I had to get to the airport from my hotel in Nishi Azabu.

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Brian’s Travel Spot: Flying to Tokyo Haneda

My British Airways Boeing 777-300 on the stand at Heathrow Terminal 5, ready to take me to Tokyo Haneda.This is my second trip to Tokyo, the first one being in April last year when I made a rather hastily cobbled together visit. This year, despite having had less notice (I only found out I was going at the start of June and only had confirmation four weeks before I flew on July 13th), I managed to do a little bit more planning, although the end result was a much less ambitious trip, where I stayed in Tokyo for the two weeks I was there.

Both times I flew with British Airways, last time in economy (World Traveller) and this time, since I had the money in the travel budget, in business class (Club World). As I’ve been doing the last few times I’ve travelled, I flew to and from Manchester so that I could visit my 85 year old Dad before/after the trip. This meant taking the short hop down to Heathrow and catching a direct flight to Tokyo from there.

It was also the first time I’d flown with British Airways since it started serving Union Hand-roasted coffee in its lounges and in Club World and First Class cabins, giving me the chance to try it out.

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Sarutahiko Coffee Ebisu

One of the lovely espresso cups at Sarutahiko Coffee EbisuSarutahiko Coffee in Ebisu is another places which I discovered on my first visit to Tokyo in April 2017, but never had time to write up. I first came across Sarutahiko when I found its Omotesandō branch, around the corner from my office, which shares a multi-level space with a bookshop and travel agent. This branch, opposite Ebisu train station on the Yamanote Line (amongst others) is very different, being a stand-alone shop, but it shares the two winning factors from the Omotesandō branch: excellent coffee and, in a culture where service is king, uber-friendly and welcoming staff. In fact, even if I didn’t like the coffee so much, I’d be tempted back just to see the staff.

When it comes to coffee, Sarutahiko has one of the widest ranges of any coffee shop I know. There are six blends and six single-origins, with roasts from dark all the way to light, so there’s something for everyone. All the coffee is available as pour-over, while there’s the house-blend and a single-origin available on espresso. You can also buy retail bags of the beans, although there’s a much wider selection available in Sarutahiko’s retail shop just a few doors away.

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Kaido Books & Coffee Update

A single-origin Yirgacheffe from And Coffee Roasters, served in a classic black cup by Kaido Books & CoffeeOn my first visit to Tokyo back in 2017, the final part of my stay was spent in a lovely, quiet residential area just south of Shinagawa Station, where I made the chance discovery of Kaido Books & Coffee, which was a couple of minutes’ walk down the street from my hotel of my trip. Much as Nem Coffee & Espresso became my “local” for the first part of my stay (and filled the same role during the second half of my return to Tokyo in 2018), so Kaido became my “local” for the final week of my stay.

Kaido Books & Coffee does what it says on the tin: a book shop combined with a coffee shop, spread over two delightful floors, with more of a coffee shop feel downstairs and a bookshop/library vibe upstairs. I liked Kaido so much that I immediately wrote it up, posting my original piece while I was still in Tokyo.

However, due to various technical reasons, I never managed to create a gallery to go with the original post, so on my return to Tokyo last week, I popped down to Shinagawa to pay Kaido a visit and to finally complete the gallery.

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Little Nap Coffee Stand

Detail from the black, sliding door to Little Nap Coffee Stand in TokyoIn a small corner in the northwest Shibuya in Tokyo, west of Yoyokgi Park, there’s an interesting cluster of coffee shops, including the new branch of Switch Coffee Tokyo opposite Yoyogi-Hachiman station, another new arrival, Coffee Supreme Tokyo, and old hand, Fuglen. However, one can argue the trendsetter that started it all is just a little north of the station, where you’ll find a tall, thin building backing onto the railways tracks, home, since 2011, to Little Nap Coffee Stand.

Little Nap now boasts a roastery a 10-minute walk away on the other side of the station, but this is the original, a narrow, wedge-shaped space that serves four seasonal single-origins on pour-over (hot or cold), an impressive output for an infeasibly small space. When it comes to espresso, there’s the house-blend, available as espresso, macchiato or Gibraltar (the first time I’ve seen that in Japan outside of Blue Bottle Coffee), all served hot and only available if you’re sitting in. If you want a longer drink, there’s a choice of Americano, latte (hot or iced) or cappuccino. There’s also cakes, sandwiches, ice cream and a selection of retail bags to take home with you. Little Nap’s also crammed in an impressive sound system!

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