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Tokyo · Japan

Switch Coffee Tokyo

Since 2013 · Masahiro Onishi

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Overview

Masahiro Onishi opened Switch Coffee in October 2013 in a small space in Meguro, Tokyo, after training in Australia and apprenticing to Q-grader Katsuhide Izaki at Honey Coffee in Fukuoka. Onishi had taken second at the 2010 Millrock Latte Art Championship before moving to Melbourne on a one-way ticket to learn roasting; the shop's deliberately unfussy, neighbourhood positioning — the espresso machine and Probat roaster crammed into a 6-person space, with the shop named for the simplest possible word — was a reaction to the Melbourne café model not translating directly to Tokyo's lower foot-traffic neighbourhoods. He was named one of Gear Patrol's best coffee roasters in the world in 2018, won the Japan Roaster Competition the same year, and placed third at the 2019 Japan Coffee Roasting Championship.

Known for

  • Founded October 2013 in Meguro by Masahiro Onishi, then 27 years old
  • Onishi: 2018 Japan Roaster Competition winner, 3rd at 2019 Japan Coffee Roasting Championship, 2018 Gear Patrol "Best Coffee Roaster Around the World"
  • Three Tokyo locations — Meguro (2013), Yoyogi-Hachiman (December 2017), K5 Nihonbashi-Kabutocho (February 2020)
  • Onishi trained under Toshiyuki Ishiwata (now head roaster of Market Lane in Melbourne) and Q-grader Katsuhide Izaki of Honey Coffee, Fukuoka
  • Probat drum roaster in the Meguro shop, visible to customers

Why it matters

Switch is the model for Tokyo neighbourhood specialty: serve the people who live within ten minutes' walk first, build a roastery business off the back of that. Onishi is one of the bridges between Australian/Melbourne specialty and the Japanese third wave — the shop's coffee shows up in cafés across Tokyo and beans are exported globally, but the Meguro original is still a 6-stool shop where Onishi roasts at sunrise.

Production

destoning
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head roaster
Masahiro Onishi
color sorting
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roaster machine
Probat drum roaster
filter equipment
EK43 grinder
cupping frequency
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roastery location
Meguro, Tokyo
espresso equipment
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annual volume tonnes
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Café

1-17-23 Meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0063

Recognitions

  • Gear Patrol Best Coffee Roaster Around the World (2018)
  • Japan Roaster Competition Winner (2018)
  • Japan Coffee Roasting Championship 3rd place (2019)

Sources

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