[Hyogo, Minami Awaji] Experience roasting coffee beans at a traditional Japanese cafe, grind freshly roasted beans and sample "specialty coffee" and enjoy your own time

The owner travels to coffee-producing regions around the world and carefully selects coffee beans that are thoroughly managed from cultivation to harvesting and transportation! In order to enjoy high-quality coffee with a rich original flavor called "specialty coffee," he roasts and brews the beans himself. The flavor changes drastically depending on the strength of the roast and the time, so adjust the roasting level to match your favorite flavor and aroma. Experience the profound world of coffee. A place in the Shitoori district of Minami Awaji City, where idyllic rural scenery spreads out. After getting off the car, walk for two minutes along a country road surrounded by trees to the Awaji Island Coffee Laboratory "BASE COFFEE," an annex to the premises of "Fuku Cafe," a quiet, hidden old-style cafe. If a cafe is a hideaway, this laboratory has the atmosphere of a "secret base." The owner, who is obsessed with the depth and unanswerable charm of coffee, is researching and studying every day to get to know coffee better and to pursue the creation of "coffee that makes you want to talk about it with others and makes you smile". The owner carefully selects coffee beans from producing areas around the world, including Central and South America, Africa, and Asia, and thoroughly manages the process from cultivation to harvesting and transportation. Using these top quality beans, you will experience roasting, the most important process that determines the taste and aroma of coffee. For the roasting process, we use a roasting pan called "mankashakasha", which is actually used in Ethiopia, one of the countries where we purchase beans. You can choose to roast lightly to bring out the fruity aroma and acidity of citrus fruits, or roast deeply to bring out the richness and bitterness of chocolate, or you can aim for something in between. In either case, it is difficult to conduct heat thoroughly to the inside of the raw beans in order to remove the moisture contained in them. In addition, even if you choose the same beans and roast in a hand pan, the heat transfer changes depending on how the beans roll and how the wind hits them, so even if the conditions are slightly different, the taste will not be the same and an original taste will be created. The staff will give you a thorough lecture, so please feel free to try it. When the roasted beans are cooled and ground in a coffee mill, a scent containing various elements, including the scent of nuts, caramel, and citrus, rises. This is the moment when the coffee beans emit the most aroma in their life. There are hundreds of elements of the aroma, which becomes a complex and rich coffee aroma that fascinates many people. Then comes the finishing process. Hot water is poured over the fragrant freshly ground beans to extract the maximum aroma and flavor, but there is also an appropriate way to pour the hot water. When you put the carefully extracted coffee in your mouth, your face will naturally break into a smile. *One cup of roasted and ground beans will be used for tasting, but you can take the remaining beans home with you.

・The flavor of the coffee liquid in the cup held by the consumer (coffee drinker) is excellent, and the consumer is satisfied with the coffee, rating it as delicious. ・It has a distinctive and impressive flavor characteristic, a refreshing and bright acidity characteristic, and the lingering coffee sensation fades away with a sweet sensation. ・A consistent system, process, and quality control are thoroughly implemented at all stages from the coffee bean (seed) to the cup. (From seed to cup) More specifically, "The green beans are grown in a country where cultivation management, harvesting, production processing, selection, and quality control are properly performed, and there is very little contamination with defective beans," "The roasted beans are roasted in a state without deterioration through proper transportation and storage, and there is no contamination with defective beans," and "The coffee is properly extracted, and the characteristic wonderful flavor characteristics of the production area are expressed in the cup." The Specialty Coffee Association of Japan (SCAJ) defines "specialty coffee" as coffee that meets these conditions. (Extracted from the Specialty Coffee Association of Japan website: https://scaj.org/about/specialty-coffee)

The Specialty Coffee Association of Japan (SCAJ) World Specialty Coffee Conference and Exhibition, held annually since 2005 at Tokyo Big Sight, is one of the leading specialty coffee events in Asia, bringing together industry professionals and all kinds of coffee-related products from producing countries and regions such as Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Famous roasters and baristas from Japan and abroad are invited to take part in various events and demonstrations. In various competitions held on stage, fierce battles are waged for the title of Japan's best. In the Roast Masters Team Challenge (national coffee roasting competition) held at the event in 2021, the Chugoku/Kansai team, consisting of five people including the owner, won both the "Judges' Award" and the "Audience Award" at the same time, a first in the history of SCAJ, and won the championship.

[Schedule] 1. Explanation of the origin and characteristics of coffee beans, roasting method, etc. 2. Selection of coffee beans 3. Roasting experience using a roasting pot (mankashakasha) used in Ethiopia 4. Explanation of how to brew (extract) delicious coffee with ground beans after roasting 5. Tasting of extracted coffee * You can take home any coffee beans left over from the tasting1