Kitayama Coffee (北山珈琲) is a very atypical coffee shop in Hong Konger's sense. In Hong Kong, shops usually welcome photo taking. Because the photos taken are usually posted on social media, this will certainly advertise the shops.
However, in Kitayama Coffee, you are not allowed to photo, play around with your phones and you have to leave after 30mins enjoying your coffee. The open time of the coffee shops is not fixed neither. It is supposed to open at noon and close at 5:00pm. But it is stated at the entrance that sometimes it is close at around 7:00pm. From Kitayama's Style Hospitality, one can tell the owner is really really serious about coffee. To show my respect, I didn't take out my mobile and solely focus on the coffee served.
On the first day (16th June 2018) I paid the visit, I arrived at around 11:00am. The shop was not yet open. I went to very local Udon shop nearby to have brunch. When I returned at around 12:15pm, it was still not yet open. I was uncertain whether to wait or not. Eventually, I went to Skytree and rushed back to Kitayama at around 4:30pm. I was very excited that the shop was finally open. I entered and meet the assistant. The assistant was a very nice guy. He was lightly spoken and very polite. I was the only customer at the shop. It appeared that the customers do not speak directly to the shop owner. I looked around and saw a number of glass pots containing coffee beans. With my limited knowledge on Japanese, I saw Blue Mountain No.1, Columbia and "very black coffee beans". All beans are very dark in color. You can tell that all beans are deeply roasted.
The interior design is traditional Japanese Style "喫茶屋". I don't really know the exact English term for "喫茶屋". In the old time, when coffee was first imported from Western Countries, "喫茶屋" was one of the places to serve coffee in Japan. Therefore, in Kitayama, the interior design was quite in a Western style with wooden furniture and curves. The room light was dim and Western Old songs were being played. You could barely hear the noise from outside. Once you entered Kitayama, it was like the hands of clocks having rolled back to the old time. You thought of nothing except coffee.
I was told by the assistant politely and softly the "rules" to have coffee in Kitayama that the bar table was not supposed to serve customers coffee. There were tall wooden boards standing on top of the bar table fencing off customer's sight at the bar. Hence, the owner could carry out his brewing secretly (and concentratedly?). You could sense the aura of secrecy in Kitayama.
I briefly read through the menu. Of course, I have decided to taste the most expensive coffee before this Tokyo Coffee trip. I ordered hot 11-year Blue Mountain No. 1, 2nd expensive on the menu (5000yen). The most expensive one is iced coffee of the same beans. My personal practice for coffee tasting is to taste hot coffee rather than iced ones. Iced ones are for leisure and less serious tasting. You know when ice melts, the taste gets diluted.
I was not playing around with my phones while I was waiting for my Blue Mountain No 1. But I was not really "doing nothing". I listened to the sound passed through from behind the wooden boards. A series of water dripping sound was heard. I did timing by heart. I guessed that was not an one-off dripping but series of dripping. After quite a moment, the hot coffee with white sugar, both coarse and fine and milk was eventually. I have waited for this cup for about half a year. The coffee was as dark as the beans. I took my first sip, of course, of the coffee itself first. The taste came to my tongue was extremely astonishing! No exaggerations by all the rumors I have heard from other coffee lovers. The mouth feel was thick and you can also say it is smooth. The taste of Ginseng ("甘味") was very pronounced, as Ginseng as coffee darkness, yet you would not treat this as extreme bitterness and unpleasant taste. It was mellow like Whiskey. I carefully tried the coffee with sugars added. Woo, it was another brilliant experience. Finally, I added the milk. The quality of milk was also astonishing. The milk was extremely thick, savoury and smooth. The coffee, the white sugars and the milk are great compliments to each other. The very pronounced taste of Ginseng ("甘味") was as if it could never be diluted. This allowed plenty of rooms for you to do your own mixing of sugars and milk. I sipped a bit and added a bit of sugars or milk to taste the changes of coffee flavour. The cup experience was absolutely brilliant. It was worth I paid 3-visit to Kitayama. At that moment, I considered whether I should visit Kitayama everyday for the rest of the trip. (7 more visits, yes still worth it) I was pretty determined to bring a bag of 11-year Blue Mountain Beans back home!
What is taste of Ginseng? Please visit here: Taste of Ginseng, "甘味", in Coffee
More on my Japan Coffee Trip? Please visit: https://supmusiccoffee.blogspot.com/2018/07/june-2018-tokyo-coffee-trip.html
PS: I finally encountered the English name of "喫茶屋”, which is "kissaten"
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