*to Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Κυνόσαργες

Tuesday 7 May 2013

I'd kill for a machiato in Tokyo about now.

Don't anyone dare tell me to go to Starbucks.  If you're serving a separate premium line of coffee, then what's the story with the regular swill?
For all the coffee shops in this country, chain or otherwise, there is no getting a decent machiato:
- little foam
- no milk
- option of pulling over a bit of hot water

For the second time in my life (Toronto) I have considered getting a machine for the home, other than my moka pot, but the truth is that if spend less than north of $500 it's not worth the trouble.  For that price I can fly to fucking Italy.

All the dark coffee shops here (kissaten) are for chain-smoking oyaji, and if they ever made good pour-over coffee both the owners and customers are too old to have taste-buds anymore, and I am not into pour-over coffee besides.  The chains may make cappuccinos and other baby food, but do not do custom orders.  Segafredo is the only decent chain, though I do not think they do custom either, and even if they did, have you ever tried to go get a Japanese person to improvise...?

Via 'Japan Bash' I have come across the following two in areas I might get to: Bear Pond and Steamer.  Any other suggestions?

7 comments:

  1. Eco farm in Harajuku (they have a couple of cafes there) and Good Morning Cafe in Sendagaya do good lattes. I dunno if you can deduct that a good latte will equal a good macchiato but it's a start.

    Oh, I went to a cafe-bakery in one of those places out from Ikebukuro once. Awesome coffee and the barista trained in Melbourne so he'd know his way around a macchiato. Can't remember the name of the burb but it's famous for where you buy "pre-loved" designer handbags etc (I was there for the coffee not the LV).

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  2. Okay I'm bored at work so did some research. This is the place Parlour Ekoda. This blog post http://poachedperth.blogspot.com.au/2010/12/parlour-ekoda-tokyo.html actually mentions they do macchiatos (though it's up to you if you wanna trust someone who calls it a macc).

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    1. Appreciated. I should have mentioned that I am in the NE of the city, and work on the south end of the Yamanote, so I won't get to this one.

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    2. Well you can't want it too badly then ;)

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  3. Segafredo is definitely the one-eyed among the blind here. I would never ask a Japanese person behind a counter for something custom anyway, as I don't have the time for the hissing, the "wait a second I need to talk to my senpai" shenanigans, and the accordingly bad end result if they even agree to do it. Thinking about it, I've come to limit my exchanges with Japanese people to the absolute necessary minimum, in general.

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    1. Sadly I have come to limit them too. Part of the reason I don't study Japanese at all after my first year on JET, long ago on my first sojourn. While it's true that people back home who've never lived abroad are as thick as posts too, it is simpler for me to deal with them superficially.

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