Sarutahiko Coffee The Bridge

Materials (素材, sozai) - To them, they play the role of the "customer" (お客さま, okyaku-sama) and the "manufacturer" (生産者, seisansha), and then "Sarutahiko Coffee". They try to create a symbiotic and beneficial relationship between these three roles that they play. "Deliciousness" (おいしさ, oishisa) and "sustainable" are the two baseline necessities of their materials, and to go a step further, is to not neglect on their commitment in gathering up the best high-quality raw ingredients for their coffee.

Roasting (焙煎, baisen) - A coffee that they themselves think is delicious, and one that customers or their own friends will want to drink over and over again. The goal is to create a coffee that surpasses what one already thinks is the limit of what coffee can do, and to that end, Sarutahiko Coffee has prepared a lineup of delicious coffee that ranges from light to dark roasts. To be a team fitting of the name "Japan's Best", Sarutahiko Coffee's roasting team endeavours to give their best to developing new flavours and dimensions of coffee.

Extraction (抽出, chūshutsu) - Regardless of whether it's a drip coffee or cafe latte, the pledge is to brew coffee of the highest quality, cup by cup, to deliver to their customers. And to have customer service that aims to just make even one more person think that their coffee was delicious, and to feel even better about their day after their coffee. Each and everyday, the staff at Sarutahiko Coffee are engrossed in their pursuit of coffee and that's something that will never chance. And that is the ideal form that they believe in striving towards, "a coffee shop where even a single cup will make you feel bliss" (たった一杯で幸せになるコーヒー屋, tatta ippai de shiawase ni naru kōhii-ya).

Sarutahiko Coffee is, in our opinion, Tokyo's Best Coffee Shop for several reasons. They strike the perfect balance of quality, variety on the menu, beautiful interior design, convenience, and Japanese influence. Whenever we're in Harajuku, we can't help but visit Sarutahiko Coffee The Bridge, located just on top of the JR Harajuku Station.

The cafe boasts a beautiful interior, first striking you with the beautiful large log table in the centre of the cafe, then further back with the traditional Japanese-inspired seats that infuse shoji (障子, Shōji) and tatami (畳) aesthetics, and lastly the beautiful industrial-style metal counter seats that overlook the streets of Harajuku outside. It's a great cosy spot to rest and hang out, or even people-watch out the window.

Their menu offers up a perfect blend of classic Western-style cafe items, together with some classic Japanese kissaten (喫茶店, Traditional Japanese Cafe) items and wagashi (和菓子, Traditional Japanese sweets). You have to try their Sarutahiko's Cafe Latte which uses a thick and rich milk, together with their in-house blend of Tokyo 'Til Infinity. Their house blend mixes together various award-winning African coffee beans creating this really unique coffee blend with a strong fruity fragrance. Their cafe latte is really unlike many other generic cafe lattes you might drink in Japan, it is very much a perfect blend of milk and coffee. The richness of the milk gives the drink a creamy, almost ice-cream-like texture, punctuated by the fragrance of the coffee.

For those who also enjoy whisky, Sarutahiko Coffee offers up a novel barrel-aged coffee, whose coffee beans are aged in a whisky cask, allowing the whisky fragrance to seep into the beans. It's definitely not a regular cup of coffee that you'll find anywhere else.

My own personal favourite is their Honey Latte, and it's especially great for those who might not like the usual bitter taste of coffee. Their Honey Latte is sort of a perfect balance of flavours, you get the nice fragrant smell of the coffee, combined with the creaminess of the milk, and then blended together with the rich fragrance of the honey that produces a nice well-rounded, somewhat floral tasting drink. It's not easy to put into words, but it's an absolutely delicious drink, although coffee purists might debate whether or not it still tastes like a latte. If you're not into the coffee scene, Sarutahiko Coffee also serves up a wide range of teas, including matcha latte (抹茶ラテ, Maccha Rate), hojicha latte (ほうじ茶ラッテ, Hōjicha Ratte), chai tea, green tea, hojicha (ほうじ茶, Hōjicha, Roasted Green Tea), and black tea.

Those looking for something to munch on can try out the classic kissaten (喫茶店, Traditional Japanese Cafe) menu of Pizza Toast, a thick slice of shokupan (食パン) that's toasted with cheese, ham, and capsicum. You can also try out their Tiki Taka Ice Cream sub-brand, with a wide variety of flavours available. Our personal favourites include their matcha (抹茶, Maccha, Powdered Green Tea), hojicha (ほうじ茶, Hōjicha, Roasted Green Tea), and milk ice creams. Lastly, you can also consider trying out their seasonal wagashi (和菓子, Traditional Japanese sweets) menu, including seasonal manju (饅頭, Manjū), if you're looking for something a bit more Japanese-inspired.

If you're looking for some unique souvenirs to bring back home, or some coffee to bring back for coffee-lovers, then Sarutahiko Coffee The Bridge offers a huge selection of coffee souvenirs.

You can find a wide variety of drip coffee packets, coffee beans, and ground coffee. It's one of the best places in Tokyo to get affordable coffee souvenirs and also aesthetically pleasing and impressively packaged souvenirs.

The reason why we love Sarutahiko Coffee is because it really isn't your "usual cafe". The effort that they spend innovating and experimenting with new blends really comes through when you first sip into their coffee. Even novel ideas to push the boundaries of coffee including ageing the beans in a whisky cask, these aren't things you typically see anywhere else. We also really enjoy their ice cream, and especially the Japanese flavours are something you should try as you won't easily find them outside of Japan. Most of all, we just love the ambience and customer service at Sarutahiko Coffee The Bridge because it really feels like a cosy family-run coffee shop than that of a big mass-produced chain like Doutor or Starbucks, so we really do think that Sarutahiko Coffee is Tokyo's Best Coffee Shop.

Sarutahiko Coffee was founded by Otsuka Tomoyuki (大塚 朝之) in 2011 in Ebisu, Tokyo. It was started as a small coffee joint tucked away in a popular neighbourhood. The original reason for starting his own cafe was really to create a place where he could just be engrossed in making coffee each and every day. To create a place where he could brew coffee that he himself, thought to be delicious and serve it up to share with many people.

When they first started out, Sarutahiko Coffee was a small coffee stand that only served up drip coffee. As time went by, a few years later, they started their own coffee roastery as well. And now, they've grown to be able to build their own exclusive supply chain, starting from their own coffee bean farms, all the way through preparing the beans themselves.

The ingredients, the roasting methodology, and the extraction of the coffee, each part is carefully researched and experimented with in order to move closer towards Sarutahiko Coffee's ideal "delicious coffee".

While Sarutahiko Coffee was started with the reason of creating a place for Otsuka-san to brew his own coffee, the goal was always to be a coffee shop that brought a smile to the face of customers with a single cup of coffee. That goal continues on today. On Otsuka-san's last day in university, one of his professors asked him if he knew the verb form of "young" (若い, wakai). He thought of "youth" (若さ, wakasa) and "to be young" (若く, wakaku), but he couldn't come up with the answer. The professor then explained to him, as a Japanese pun, that it was "to flow out" (湧く, waku) because from youth: ideas flow out, hope flows out, and energy flows out. When Otsuka-san started Sarutahiko Coffee in 2011, he was already almost 30, but he hopes that his passion can continue "flowing out" for the rest of his life.