Drinking a cup of coffee every morning with breakfast has been my thing ever since I moved in Tachikawa Garden Town. I usually make a hand brew coffee just for myself. Grinding beans with a handmill is something I like to do even though it takes a while to prepare.
As I drink more coffee, I started to know that there are good coffee and okay coffee out there. I still think the coffee roaster in Berlin called "the barn" sells the best coffee in my opinion but I have been constantly looking for good roasteries in Tokyo as well.

Taro's Coffee Roastery in Tachikawa

Just on the other day I was going through local news media and I found a local coffee roaster in Tachikawa. Taro's Coffee Roastery is the name of the roastery and I tried their beans for the first time last week. The only Roastery I know is the one on the basement floor of Lumine called Yanaka Coffee. They do have a micro roastery at the shop and roast the beans of your choice right away. I did try their beans several times and it was great but I wanted to try other roasteries as well.
While Yanakaka coffee is a chain and there are many coffee shops in Tokyo under their brand, Taro's Coffee Roastery is a family-run micro coffee roastery that only exist in Tachikawa. It is also a new brand that only opened in 2018.

It is not a cafe but a roastery

I was surprised to see how small the Taro's Coffee roastery is when I visited there for the first time. There was a big coffee roaster machine in the store occupying 80% of the space in the store. You can order a coffee at this place but it is to go only.



The choice of beans available seems to be limited. When I went there, there were 10 kinds of beans on the menu. I had a little chat with the owner and he asked me what kind of coffee I usually drink. I said I like the light roasted coffee. Then he recommended to try this beans from India. I got this first coffee he recommended as I have have never tried beans from India before anyway.



Here’s the list of beans available. Most of the beans are medium roasted and each beans are described as follows; which country they are from, name of the coffee farm, roast level, and how beans are processed. Most roasters in Tokyo do not write down this many information about coffee beans. Just by looking at the menu, it’s obvious that this owner knows a great deal about coffee beans and I know he will be happy to answer if you ask any questions about the beans.

Look at the one “Ethiopia Yirgacheffe G1 Washed”. This itself is a pretty common beans that you can find in any third wave coffee shops. However, the beans listed right below is the same exact “Ethiopia Yirgacheffe” but this one is not “Washed” but “Natural”. I know the difference as a knowledge because one of my friends are running a coffee roastery but I never got a chance to try the difference with the beans roasted by the same roastery. I think most roasteries do not do this kind of thing. Importing two different raw beans simply means it costs more to buy each beans.
Roasting the same beans with different roasting levels would make more sense and that’s something I see often. This should be coming from this owner’s playful mind which attracts you to order these two beans just to see how they tastes different. This is definitely something I would do next time I go to his roastery.
The minimum order quantity of the beans is 100g and all the beans is affordably priced as you can see.



The location of this roastery is here. It is a bit of a walk from Tachikawa station, about 15 mins or so but it’s definitely worth trying their beans.

Date posted :

2020.02.24

Poster :

Shima