Century Coffee | past Life and present Life of Old St. Paul Coffee, the first coffee chain in the world

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This century-old coffee shop in Ginza was once a favorite Ginza store for writers such as Lien Akutagawa Ryunosuke and John Lennon. A hundred years of history can not be skipped in a hurry, so let the editor tell you the story of this old coffee shop in detail and explore its past life and this life.

When Oriental people talk about western things, they always mention the beginning of the spread of western things to the east, but neglect to study its origin. For example, coffee is often regarded as one of the models of Western life by Chinese people, and there are numerous praise theories, but few people know that daily coffee drinking in Europe actually originated in the 17th century. During the long Middle Ages, there was not a cafe in Europe. This is because coffee trees originated in Ethiopia, Africa. In the 13th century, Ethiopians brought coffee culture to the Arab world through military invasions. Since then, coffee has flourished in the prohibition Islamic world, and the coffee industry has long been monopolized by Arabs.

Europeans will not really taste the aroma of coffee until the siege of Vienna in the Ottoman Empire in 1683. In this battle, Polish cavalry and Polish spies contributed to the final victory of the European coalition, while the looters first knew coffee beans in the Ottoman barracks, and no one knew what they were. Only an unknown Polish spy took all the coffee beans and later opened the first coffee shop in Europe. The spread of coffee to the east is only a story in the next two to three hundred years. Here we have to tell the story of a century-old cafe in Tokyo's Ginza area.

Nowadays, in the propaganda and copywriting of the Japanese country, the Japanese nation often bears the aura of being eager to learn from other things. the so-called stones from other mountains can attack jade, and the Tang Dynasty bathed in the fashion of the Tang Dynasty. With the founding of the people's Republic of China in modern times, the triviality of life in the West will not easily escape the vision of the Japanese. For example, during the warring States period in Japan in the 16th century, the warrior Tokugawa Jiakang was particularly good at Western things. The battle of the Chang Chuan and the defeat of the Takeda family had long been known as the classic battles of the warring States period. It is not known whether Jiakang himself is good at drinking coffee. But what is surprising is that the descendant of the Tokugawa family, the Tokugawa family, is a professional coffee roaster. However, the name of the earliest coffee shop in Japan did not fall on the Tokugawa family, but was retained for a long time by a cafe called Old S ã o Paulo in Ginza.

Perhaps for the Japanese, the garrulous name of Old S ã o Paulo (paulista) misses the point. Those who like to travel may know that Old Sao Paulo is a street of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the earliest coffee shop in Japan, also named Old S ã o Paulo, is directly related to Brazil.

When the European colonists opened up South America, they transplanted coffee trees to South America, so by the time when Japan was founded in modern times, Brazil had become an important coffee producer in the world. As a rising power, Japan obviously did not want to be trapped in its own small territory and scarce resources. Overseas colonization had become the best choice for Japan at that time, and one of the destinations of immigrants was Brazil, which is sparsely populated.

The founder of Old S ã o Paulo Coffee, Shuiye Dragon, was originally the president of the Imperial Colonial Company, specializing in Brazilian colonial business.

In 1908, under the great efforts of Mizuno, the Maru Maru, the first Brazilian immigrant ship in Japan, left the port of Kobe for Brazil. At that time, Brazil had just abolished slavery, and a large number of plantations had to hire workers all over the world because of the loss of labor. While Japan has just experienced the Russo-Japanese war, the recovery of soldiers and a growing population have doubled the pressure on the narrow land, and the problems of lack of food and unemployment are becoming more and more serious. As a result, the two sides hit it off, and in order to solve Japan's domestic problems, Mizuno began to organize Brazilian colonization activities.

As a Japanese, Mizuno has no strong racial prejudice of whites and is actively committed to integrating into the local society, so Mizuno's colonial group has left a good reputation in Brazil. However, Mizuno is also heavily in debt for this. Fortunately, the government of the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil intends to support Mizuno's immigration cause, grants it the right to promote and sell Toyo coffee, and promises to supply 1000 bags of coffee free of charge every year, and entrusts Mizuno to promote Brazilian coffee in Japan.

In 1911, Mizuno returned to Japan to officially establish Old S ã o Paulo Coffee. Unlike other shops under the name of the cafe, which is actually West Point, Old S ã o Paulo only deals in coffee, and the clerks are not waitresses, but mostly teenagers. In view of this, the name of the earliest coffee shop in Japan is worthy of the name. And the old S ã o Paulo was quite like Starbucks today. As long as a cup of coffee costs 5 yuan, the civilian class can afford it.

Old S ã o Paulo soon won the praise of "the originator of coffee shops that are approachable to anyone", and its branches are spread all over Japan. Cultural celebrities such as Akutagawa Ryunosuke have also begun to travel frequently in and out of Old S ã o Paulo, especially among students (especially those at Keio University) and society.

Coffee as black as ghosts / sweet as love / hot as hell

Mizuno's business is booming, but shops in old S ã o Paulo were not immune from the 1923 Kanto earthquake. In addition, the deadline for the free supply of coffee beans promised by the Sao Paulo government has come, Shuiye has to adjust its operation and downsize, and after closing all cafes, it specializes in coffee bean import and roasting. In 1943 during World War II, Mizuno renamed the company Nitto Coffee Co., Ltd., according to instructions from the Japanese authorities.

Mizuno died in the sixth year after the war and did not return to his old business as a cafe. In 1969, Japan, reborn after the war, ushered in a period of economic growth. Nitto Coffee re-established the Old S ã o Paulo Coffee Branch and set up a direct store in Ginza in 1970, which fully restored the old S ã o Paulo Cafe. The century-old shop we can encounter in Ginza today is the re-opened in 1970.

As a cafe frequented by literati and students, the Old S ã o Paulo Cafe was often portrayed in words by popular writers at that time. In the early years, when the old St. Paul was not rich in material life, he made coffee into a popular social culture. At that time, there was an ellipsis in Japanese called "silver cup". It means to drink a 5-yuan cup of coffee at the old St. Paul's Cafe in Ginza (now the word means "go shopping in Ginza"). Today, a hundred years later, when you are lucky enough to take a stroll in Ginza, don't forget to visit Old S ã o Paulo and try the real silver medal.

Old S ã o Paulo Cafe Ginza our shop (shop in Ginza)

Address: 8-9-16 Ginza, central district of Tokyo

Time: Monday to Saturday 8: 30 30: 21: 30, Sundays and holidays 11: 30: 30 20: 00

Tel: 03-3572-6160