〈Our encounter with TYPICA〉

In fact, our shop is a small coffee stand with just 7 seats. With a tiny roaster with a 1-kilogram capacity, we roast coffee beans in small batches. We only roast around 200 kilograms a month. We are a so-called micro roaster.

We first found out about TYPICA in a clip of a community cupping event in Tokyo that someone posted online.

Fascinated by the powerful phrase, “Direct trading from a single 60-kilogram jute bag,” I sent out a message on Instagram, asking for a community cupping event in the Tohoku region.

As I exchanged messages with Ms. Fujii of TYPICA, I was impressed with the care and commitment she put into trying to respond to messages from a small roaster like ourselves, and with the strong energy she had for advancing Japan’s coffee culture.

Despite various challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the first ever community cupping in Tohoku was held in the city of Sendai in November 2020. The event featured a colorful range of coffees with great flavors from Cultivar of Peru.

The first ever lot we bought was from Susie, a female farm owner. It had mellow, rich flavors evoking berries or caramel

During the community cupping, Lisanne of Cultivar took plenty of time to answer questions about each coffee.

Susie’s coffee had the complex fruitiness and sweetness of natural coffee, despite being washed. I wondered how her coffee came to possess such flavors and asked questions. Lisanne said that she accessed farm information in real-time and took care of the fermentation process to create such flavors.

Where else could I have accessed coffee origins or farmers so directly?

Previously, we looked at lineups prepared by trading firms and decided which coffee to buy based on prices and tasting comments. That was the norm.

That day, we were able to break through what had been normal to us.

〈What it means to brew directly traded coffee in Aomori〉

Thanks to TYPICA, small coffee shops like ourselves are now able to directly trade coffees from various coffee origins.

Starting with Peru, we’ve sourced from 8 producing countries so far, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia.

I’ve just written only positive things, but there are some issues, too. I assume many small-scale roasters choose to buy somewhere between 1 and 30 kilograms tops of green coffee to avoid the risk of excess inventory. That’s a reasonable business decision.

Even though we buy coffee that we think is great, that doesn’t necessarily mean consumers think it is great, too. We sometimes end up with a surplus of green coffee beans after mustering  courage and buying a large volume, partly because of a lack of our abilities.

There have been a few times where green beans arrived in Japan a few months behind their estimated port entry, which makes it difficult to plan sourcing.

Should we switch back to the previous sourcing method?

My answer is no.

That’s because I feel joy and happiness when I get to meet great coffees and producers around the world through TYPICA, and I feel energy when I introduce coffees to customers. 

Customers tell me, “Roland’s Bolivian coffee was amazing, so I came back to buy it again!,” or, “Marcos’s iced coffee from Peru is my favorite these days!.” I feel more often, they are becoming interested in coffee producers, not just in coffee itself. That’s a very nice thing to see as a barista and roaster.

At a coffee shop quietly standing in a shopping street of the regional city of Aomori, Japan, a community springs up thanks to coffees produced by farmers far away. Isn’t that a miracle?

That’s why I want to continue to try direct trade, no matter how small we are.

〈Off to Bolivia and Peru next month〉

If someone asks me what my favorite is among the green coffees I buy through TYPICA, Bolivia and Peru come to mind first.

Coffees grown by small-scale farmers who only produce a few bags sometimes turn out to be amazing. Such miraculous coffees abound in Bolivia and Peru.

When I cup samples, I feel excited like I’m on a treasure hunt. Coffees from Bolivia and Peru are very well-received among my customers, too.

That’s why I chose Bolivia (and I wish to go to Peru, though it wasn’t on the list) on a questionnaire about a coffee origin of my choice.

Fortunately, my wish was granted, and I will be traveling to South America next month with roasters I look up to.

I’ve told my customers over the past 2 months that I will be off to Bolivia in September. Honestly, I was worried if they might react negatively to me closing the shop for more than 2 weeks. But that worry proved unfounded.

Some of them expressed joy, and other worried about my health. Thanks to the TYPICA Lab project, I’m once again feeling the kindness of people in Aomori.

I wonder what new encounters and emotions this trip has in store for me.

I want to make preparations little by little so that I will be able to give back what I learn during the trip.