PASSAGE COFFEE was founded in 2017 by Shuichi Sasaki, born in Fukuoka in 1985. In 2014, in Rimini, he became the first Japanese winner of the World AeroPress Championship. He gained his experience at Paul Bassett, the coffee company founded by a world barista champion, and opened PASSAGE COFFEE ROASTERY in 2019. He has judged the Japan AeroPress Championship since 2015, and teaches at a vocational college and in seminars.

The idea came on a trip to Melbourne, where Sasaki saw crowds gathering early in the morning at independent coffee stands rather than chains. At the time specialty coffee in Japan was a niche drink known mostly inside the trade, and he wanted the coffee he loved to become a culture shared by many people. PASSAGE holds to one theme: coffee you want to drink every morning.

The coffees come from smallholders whose supply chains are transparent and from committed producers. PASSAGE roasts them light on two machines, a Probat UG22 and a Giesen W6A, to draw out the fruit flavour of the bean, and the roasting team works from data-logged profiles, refining them through tasting and discussion.

There are five shops: PASSAGE COFFEE in Shiba, Minato, and shops in Soshigaya, Ichigaya and Nihonbashi, the last on the second floor of the MIMARU SUITES hotel, plus the Mitakadai Roastery in Mitaka, which is both roastery and coffee shop. PASSAGE also roasts for cafés, restaurants and hotels, brings coffee in pots to meetings and events, and runs coffee seminars.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: PASSAGE COFFEE