Seeing the professional spirit of the Japanese coffee god from the self-made bean grinder to maintain the coffee flavor

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Ichiro Kawaguchi, the god of coffee who has an irreplaceable position in the roasting coffee industry in Japan, operates "Amber Coffee," which focuses on Japan's favorite aged coffee beans, and makes a self-made bean grinder to minimize the amount of fine powder after grinding beans. reduce the sour problem after brewing coffee.

Written by Hu Chuan an (historian, columnist on the website "stories: history for all")

Although coffee originated in Europe and the United States, after it spread to Japan, the Japanese invested in coffee with a unique professional spirit, from the selection, roasting to brewing of beans, attention to detail, and almost exacting demands, that is, the "taste" of the staff. Ginza's "Amber Coffee", which has been open for 67 years, is the best embodiment of the spirit of coffee workers.

"I was born to explore the nature of things."

It is not the philosopher who says this, but Ichiro Kaniguchi, the amber coffee in Ginza, and by "things" he means coffee. He was born in 1914 and is over 100 years old. although he has handed over the cafe to his nephew, Lin Bueryan, he still sits in the shop a few days a week. He has an irreplaceable position in the roasting coffee industry in Japan, and for him, the only thought is how to make the coffee well.

"the only thing I read in my life." He said. Ichiro Kanaguchi graduated from the Engineering Department of Waseda University. He learned how to master the nature of things from engineering, and then through his enthusiasm, he created his own coffee flavor.

You can understand the intentions of Ichiro Kanaguchi from the beans. Generally speaking, European and American coffee lovers like "new beans (New Crop)". Because of their high water content, rich taste and aroma, they are regarded as excellent coffee beans. The Japanese like "Old Crop", harvesting more than 2 years of raw coffee beans, this kind of beans with less water content, taste and flavor are relatively light.

Amber coffee uses not only old beans, but also so-called "aged coffee beans (Aged Coffee)". This kind of coffee beans need to be placed in a certain humidity and temperature environment, in this era of speed, it is not easy to get. Amber coffee is the most valuable bean, even as old as 40 years old. Aged coffee beans are like aged wine, with a mature and mellow flavor, and time has removed the excess acidity and moisture from the beans.

In addition to his insistence on beans, Ichiro Kawaguchi found that when the beans were ground into powder, the thickness could not be the same, and some fine coffee powder (called micro-powder in Japanese) would be over-extracted in the process of brewing coffee, causing the coffee to be too sour and bitter. In order to solve the problem of fine powder, he studied engineering and developed a machine different from the general grinding machine. When the coffee powder reached a certain thickness, it was thrown out of the filter by rotating centrifugal force, and the amount of fine powder was reduced to a minimum.

However, the coffee powder ground by the bean grinder invented by Ichiro Kanaguchi cannot be brewed by siphon, because for aged beans, this method of cooking cannot show the mellowness of the beans, so they can only let the water pass through the layers of powder by hand and drip the amber juice through the filter.

Amber Coffee is located in the back alley of Ginza, which is even more special than the bustling and lively Zhongtong (a boutique in the morning and a lounge with a hundred flowers at night). The decor of the cafe is reminiscent of coffee: dark brown wooden doors, nostalgic space arrangements, brightly colored geometric tiles with wooden walls. The space in the store is divided into a bar and a separate seating area, and the crimson sofa is matched with a solid wood bar to give out a warm, calm and elegant feeling.

The sign says "Coffee only, own roast, and hand drip ─ only sells coffee, bakes at home, and insists on making it by hand." Such a declaration is the difference between Japanese coffee and European and American coffee. European and American boutique coffee is mainly popular with a single variety, while coffee workers' mixed coffee is popular in Japan. The owner of each cafe chooses the mixing method that best suits his own style, and it is the only one that has no semicolon and cannot be copied.

Hand-brewed coffee is a feature of amber coffee. If you insist on grinding coffee powder with only one cup of coffee beans at a time, you will not grind them first for convenience, because after the beans become powdered, the taste will change because of the humidity in the air. Here, only one guest at a time prepares his beans, cooks his hot water and makes his coffee by hand. In the era of innovation, speed and convenience, such coffee is very precious. Watching Lin Bueryan, the current store manager, holding a hand to make a pot and carefully and accurately control the flow of water, his attentive expression naturally connects people with the spirit of the staff. He inherits the will of Ichiro Kanaguchi. I hope everyone who enjoys coffee can feel his enthusiasm and dedication.