 |
| ©iStock/Frank Mirbach |
% Arabica, a Kyoto, Japan based coffee shop, is the brainchild of
Kenneth Shoji, a trading company boss who’s been investing heavily in specialty coffee.
In addition to owning a coffee farm, his company, Asiamix, is a distributor of high-end Slayer espresso machines and the sole exporter of the Japan-made Tornado King roaster. (The first branch of % Arabica opened in 2013 in Hong Kong, where Asiamix is headquartered.)
How does % Arabica have a steady stream of multinational customers?
While overseas visitors tend to discover % Arabica via the TripAdvisor website (where it’s currently ranked as the fourth-best “Restaurant in Kyoto”), Yamaguchi says that Japanese customers often come after word-of-mouth recommendations. Social-networking app Instagram is another major lure: Yamaguchi and his latte art have attracted more than 33,000 followers.
Read more:
Roasted-on-the-spot coffee from Kyoto is going global
Posts
