Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/146883
Japan. He currently owns five cafés, four of which are in a mountain resort area. "Surrounded by trees, quiet, very busy in summer but very quiet in winter," he says. Two of these are in Karuizawa, which is one of the country's oldest resort areas and is a small town of just 19,000 residents, though it expands to 200,000 in the summer months. In October of 2012, Kentaro opened the first Maruyama Coffee Shop in Tokyo in a western, largely residential area called Setagaya. And this coming October, he plans to open a second café in Tokyo, closer to the center of the city. Of training his customers to appreciate the fine coffee he sources for Maruyama, Kentaro says, "The most important thing is to let people taste." It is this hands-on philosophy that has made Kentaro one of the most respected coffee roasters and buyers in the world. I was delighted to have the opportunity to talk with Kentaro and learn more about how he grew up and came into coffee, what his vision is for Cup of Excellence, as well as for Barista Camp, and his perspective on specialty-coffee culture in Japan. Sarah Allen: What role, if any, did coffee play in your home when you were growing up? Kentaro Maruyama: We didn't drink coffee at all. After every meal we had green tea. We are [a] traditional Japanese family. When somebody visited our house (usually my father's colleague) my mother served instant coffee. When I was 10, I asked my mother [to make] me a cup of coffee because she was preparing instant coffee for a visitor. I had curiosity. I drank a cup of coffee, black—how bitter it was! I couldn't sleep till 2 a.m. that night. SA: Please tell me about your interest in Buddhism. KM: After graduating high school, I went to India to meditate. I was very much influenced by Buddha's teaching. Also Zen. I was a little strange boy. I wanted to be a monk. I was almost a monk. I really wanted to be enlightened. But with a few years of experience in those communities I found that even in [the] "holy world" there is competition, comparison, politics, etc. I was tired of them and decided to come back to "marketplace." So I had to find a job. I was very much [an] introverted person at that time. (I am sure you don't believe me!) I was looking for a job that I can be alone, quiet. SA: How did that lead to coffee? KM: So, I wanted to become a translator. I could work alone at home. But at that time in [the] Japanese countryside there were no translation jobs. Internet was not there. I was already living in Karuizawa with my girlfriend (later my wife). Her mother was running a small hotel in Karuizawa but she quit [it] and started [a] pottery workshop. So [the] dining space of the hotel was available and she asked me to use the space knowing that I had [a] hard time finding work. I liked the idea. I was not a coffee drinker at that time. Because I was so familiar with India, I liked milk tea and curry. I opened a café called Acorn and our vegetarian curry became popular. One of my customers knew many good coffee shops in Tokyo and suggested [I] visit some of them. So I did. Those shops had small roasting machines. Coffee was dark roasted, and they [were doing] pourover using [a] cotton flannel filter. I liked the style. [It] looked very professional and dedicated. Also, they looked very confident. SA: When did you have your first amazing experience with coffee? KM: During my visit to coffee shops in Tokyo, I visited one shop in [the] west part of Tokyo. A cup of strong coffee that [was a pourover prepared with a] flannel filter shocked me. It was very strong but 82 barista magazine very sweet. Also [the] mouthfeel was very thick. I felt like [I was] drinking chocolate liqueur. I think that was a blend. Many other coffee shops [were] making [the] same kind of coffee but this one was much sweeter, much thicker. I asked many questions to the owner. He talked about roasting much more than brewing techniques. The secret seemed to be in roasting techniques. I wanted to make same coffee. So I started to roast. He became my mentor. I thought of closing Acorn and working in his coffee shop as an apprentice, but my mentor said to me that I [didn't] need to work as an apprentice physically. But he said he could help me. So every month I visited his shop with my roasted coffee beans, [and] then he gave me advice. This relationship continued for seven years. SA: At this time, what was the coffee scene like in Japan? KM: I opened Acorn in 1990. Then in 1991 I changed the name to Maruyama Coffee. Kissaten, the traditional Japanese coffee shop, was still everywhere. But soon kissaten started to decrease and more and more coffee stands started [to] appear. Starbucks came to Japan in 1996. Microroasters were [the] main player for high-end coffee. [The] roasting degree was very much dark. SA: I'd like to talk about your involvement with Cup of Excellence— no one has been more involved in the Cup of Excellence than you! Why has it been important to you and your business? KM: When I came to know Cup of Excellence, I thought that this will change the industry. I thought this new standard for quality will be very, very important. Also I was relatively new to specialty coffee. I was fresh, so I thought it is good opportunity for me to install this quality standard into my body and brain. That is why I participated [in] so many competitions, so that I would become almost incarnated with this standard. Also for introducing specialty coffee to my Japanese customers it is efficient to introduce the best of the best. That is why I have been buying top-ranked coffees in Cup of Excellence—so that I can spoil their palates. Once your palate is spoiled you are in danger! SA: When Cup of Excellence began, there were very few coffee buyers traveling extensively in coffee producing countries. But now, many coffee buyers make their own relationships—has Cup of Excellence changed? Or has the market changed? How will Cup of Excellence continue to serve the industry, as more and more buyers adopt the relationship-coffee model? KM: Yes, that is true. Now many companies are sourcing coffee by themselves directly. But I think COE has [a] special role still. For example, last year there were two new countries [that] came into the program: Mexico and Burundi. Many companies were interested in competition results and used them as reference. Because COE is happening in many countries, people forget how important its role is. SA: How is specialty coffee in Japan different today than it was when you first started Maruyama Coffee? KM: Compared to 22 years ago, more young people are working in the industry as barista, roaster, etc. Twenty-two years ago there [was] not so much information about coffee. We could get information from books but there were not so many. [The] amount of information [available has] changed dramatically. For example, 22 years ago only few people knew how to make proper espresso. Pourover has been [the] main method of brewing in specialty coffee [shops in Japan]. In Japan we call the method "hand drip." It has been