Goodman Roaster Kyoto

Atsuomi Ito, a Tokyo native who cut his teeth as a Starbucks barista before moving to Taiwan, spent seven years building a business around Mount Alishan coffee at a time when the beans had a reputation, in his words, for being bad and expensive. He bought a small lot at Taipei's Songshan Airport, sold it for 1,400 dollars, and used that to open four cafes in Taiwan before bringing the idea home to Kyoto in 2020 with a five kilogram Diedrich roaster. The Kyoto shop and the Taipei roastery now share roast profiles over the same Cropster software, treated as one operation split across two countries.

The beans come from a single named farm on Mount Alishan, farmed organically by the indigenous Tsou people at eleven to fifteen hundred meters and picked only for full ripeness, a partnership Ito describes as three years running and counting. Cash only, open seven days a week with a small terrace out front, the shop draws a steady local crowd who stop in near daily as much for a chat with Ito as for the pour over.