Coffee Amp The Roaster

A husband and wife team opened Coffee Amp in 2010 on Koenji Minami's old covered shopping street, building the shop around single origin beans at a time when most of the surrounding arcade still ran on instant coffee and kissaten standards. They call themselves a micro roaster rather than a cafe, a label chosen on purpose, roasting small batches on a compact machine so every bag goes out close to the day it was fired, and buying green coffee through buyers who keep direct relationships with growers instead of trading at arm's length.

Inside the Koabiru building the shop runs a counter and a small terrace that together seat about eighteen people, pouring a rotating single origin list that has carried lots from Brazil, Kenya, Tanzania, Guatemala, Sumatra, and Ethiopia across light, medium, and dark roasts alongside a decaf and a pair of house blends. The shop keeps its own hours apart from the rest of the street, closing every Monday and the second Sunday of each month.