Time for coffee bath now?

As a computer junkie and gamer, I’m no stranger to long nights behind the screen. In order to stay awake, I do need my cup of Joe from time to time. So I often swing by a place either on my way home or when I head out of the house barely awake.

I’d like to share a few places where I regularly grab a cup of coffee or just a place that has a coffee I really like.

Starbucks

Let’s start with the most well-known out of the bunch. Starbucks is everywhere even here in Tokyo, and it offers lots of seasonal and region-specific specialty. One such drink I really like here is Matcha Latte as well as its Frappuccino when I need that sugar boost. They also sell nice coffee cups, tumblers and their own coffee beans for home-made coffe in the mid of night.

Costco Wholesale

Whenever I do my monthly shopping at the local Costco that was opened near my place last year, I always tend to grab an Americano before heading out. It’s just something about western style coffee beans that tends to give me that nostalgic taste of coffee back home while the coffee in Asia tends to be more mild and sweet to suit their tastes better. You can actually buy lots of different brands of coffee in whole beans, grounded or capsules in Costco for a fair price. Kirkland’s medium roast is one of the brands I tend to buy a lot because its great for home brewing.

7-Eleven

It ain’t the most fancy but it does the trick. For a dollar you can get a medium sized cup and its ready within 1-2 minutes. No fuss no muss! Go grab some snacks or ice cream too while you’re in it. The thing I love about 7-Eleven here is that you can get your mail or parcel delivered here, pay your monthly utility bills and buy concert tickets at the iBon vending machine. By the time I do all that, my coffee is ready to drink.

Louisa Coffee

If you ever have an opportunity to travel to Taipei, I would like to recommend you a nice coffee shop called Louisa Coffee, a chain store that popped up a lot in Taipei recently. Louisa Coffee imports its black tea and coffee from the UK, Vietnam and Brazil. They make a very tasty and earthy Matcha Coffee that comes with taste of strong Americano and healthy earthy flavor of Japanese green tea. Whenever I don’t feel like coffee, I’ll grab one of their Rooibos or black tea drinks on my way to work. They sell some nice accessories and specialty coffee beans as well. So, try out some of their selection and support the workers on the coffee farms in their native country. It’s a hard job making sure you can get your cup so it’s nice to give something back.

Homebrew Coffee

I don’t always grab my coffee too from coffee shop too often because 1 to 2 cups a day from coffee stand would cost too much in a long run. Yet, I like to fiddle with different grinds and brews if I have some spare time. I used to own an espresso machine, but I didn’t clean it properly. Then, it ended up broken after 2 years. For these days without my espresso machine, I hand-grind my beans with my electric grinder and then steep my coffee in a french press to get the freshest coffee possible. And the cleaning process is simply rinsing a few things afterwards. Check out some of these do-it-yourself coffee here.

Whats your favorite coffee or tea?