Food & Drink | THE HIGH GROUNDS May 30, 2020
Can’t visit your favorite coffee shop? Try these customized coffee subscriptions instead
by Claire Williamson
Four coffee subscription services to keep your mug full from the comfort of home.
World / Social Issues Apr 10, 2020
Caffeinated conservation: Colombian farmers switch coca for coffee to protect wildlife
In a clearing around his modest smallholding, farmer Arcadio Barajas stands before a sea of coffee plants, cloaked in the shadow cast by a wall of verdant forest that covers the San Lucas mountains of northern Colombia. The San Lucas range is one of the ...
National Mar 1, 2020
A project is underway to produce premium coffee from beans grown on Tokunoshima, an island in Kagoshima Prefecture, on a commercial basis. The project was launched in June 2017 by beverage-maker Ajinomoto AGF Inc., major trading house Marubeni Corp., the town of Isen and the ...
People | 20 QUESTIONS Feb 15, 2020
Alvin Cheung: Coffee and keyboards — a perfect combo
by Claire Williamson and Mio Yamada
Alvin Cheung talks about the caffeine-charged world of entrepreneurism, design and "coffee terroir."
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Jan 18, 2020
Japan's news outlets take one step backward before moving forward
by Mark Schreiber
Before going forward into the new year, an extra edition of Shukan Shincho (with a Jan. 27 publication date) flashed back in time to track down author Ben Goto. Now a spry 89 years old, Goto achieved instant fame with a 1973 publication titled ...
Business / Tech Dec 6, 2019
Nonprofit and IBM to sell 25-cent AI devices for analyzing soil
A piece of paper no bigger than a business card could enrich struggling coffee farmers and their soil, a growing challenge as temperatures rise and prices fluctuate. Enveritas, a U.S. nonprofit, signed an agreement with International Business Machines Corp. on Thursday to pilot the AgroPad, ...
Business / Corporate Nov 6, 2019
Japan beverage-maker AGF to launch trial sales of domestic coffee around 2022
Beverage-maker Ajinomoto AGF Inc. will launch trial sales of coffee made from beans grown on Tokunoshima, an island in Kagoshima Prefecture, in around 2022. The Ajinomoto Co. subsidiary aims to release the product in a limited quantity in 2023, the company said Tuesday. AGF plans to ...
Food & Drink Nov 2, 2019
Portals of the past: Peering into Tokyo's traditional kissaten coffee shops
by Russell Thomas
"Sorry, we're full," I hear someone say as I open the door to Ladrio, a pre-eminent kissaten (traditional coffee shop) situated in a tumbledown alley in Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood. Ladrio is located in a tumbledown alley in Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood. | RIKO MONMA I'm naturally disappointed ...
Food & Drink | DESSERT WATCH Oct 19, 2019
Don't dread the red of Starbucks's new Halloween Masquerade Party lineup
by Patrick St. Michel
Starbucks Coffee Japan's new trio of treats brings the Halloween spirit with blood-red berries.
Books Sep 28, 2019
'Before the Coffee Gets Cold': As an agent of time travel, this coffee has limitations
by Nicolas Gattig
Toshikazu Kawaguchi's "Before the Coffee Gets Cold," gets its first English translation. This play-turned-novel has an all-female cast of main characters and a hefty dose of sentiment — a page turner to finish before your morning brew.
Food & Drink Sep 7, 2019
Sipping the spectrum of Kanazawa coffee
by Katherine Whatley
Kanazawa has a reputation as a hub for traditional Japanese arts and culture, but its coffee shops, new and old, offer a glimpse of how locals live and enjoy this historic city.
Business Aug 23, 2019
With technology and machinery, Brazil and Vietnam tighten their grip on coffee trade
by Marcelo Teixeira, Phuong Nguyen and Julia Symmes Cobb
A towering machine rumbles through the fields of Julio Rinco's farm in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, engulfing whole coffee trees and shaking free beans that are collected by conveyor belts in its depths. This automatic harvester is one of several innovations that have ...