When you go to a coffee shop, you'll most likely find blended coffee on the menu.
Even the regular coffee sold in supermarkets often has the word "blend" in its name.
A blend is coffee made by combining beans from multiple origins and types.
Blending makes it possible to combine acidity, bitterness, richness, and aroma to create a flavor that can't be achieved with a single bean.
By blending beans from Ethiopia, which have a strong acidity, with beans from Brazil, which have a strong bitterness, it is possible to create a well-balanced flavor.

Single origin coffee is not a blend, but rather made using beans from a single country, region, or farm.
It can be referred to by country, such as Brazil or Ethiopia, by region, such as Alta Mogiana in Brazil or Yirgacheffe in Ethiopia, or even by farm, such as Farm Bau in Brazil or Farm Metad in Ethiopia.
In this way, single origin coffee is a style that celebrates the individuality of the place of origin.

Coffee is sold in both whole beans and ground form.

Ground coffee is originally beans that have been ground up.

With beans, you buy them, then grind them into powder and brew them yourself to drink.

Why are some coffees sold as whole beans and others as ground?

Beans stay fresher longer. Ground coffee increases the surface area, oxidizing faster and losing flavor and aroma more quickly.

Whole beans, on the other hand, help preserve flavor and aroma for longer.

Coffee roasting is an important process in determining flavor, and even the same beans can taste different depending on how they're roasted.
When roasting begins in a roaster, the beans first enter the drying stage at 100-160°, which removes the green smell of the raw beans.
The temperature then rises to around 150°, causing sugars and amino acids to combine and release an aroma. This change in state is called the Maillard reaction, and a fragrant aroma is released. The Maillard reaction brings out sweetness and aroma.

Coffee is brown or black before drinking, but this is because the green beans are roasted and then burnt.
This process of roasting the beans is called roasting, and the roasting process affects the coffee's taste.
Some coffee shops and cafes roast their own beans, while others purchase them from roasters.
Mass-production roasters are capable of roasting over 100 kg in a single roast.
Most roasters use drum-type roasters, either city gas or propane.
Drum-type roasters come in three types: (1) direct-under type, (2) hot air type, and (3) semi-hot air type.

In the hot summer, you're more likely to order iced coffee than hot coffee at a coffee shop.
Iced coffee is likely to sell better than hot coffee in the summer for coffee shops as well.
There are two types of iced coffee: the gold brew method, which uses water to extract the coffee over a long period of time, and the rapid-chill method, which involves quickly cooling hot coffee at around 90 degrees Celsius with ice to make it iced. In Japan, the rapid-chill method is the most common.

Starbucks' mermaid (siren) logo is often seen in office districts, department stores, shopping malls, and roadside locations.

It seems to be just as common as McDonald's.

Starbucks is the largest coffee chain in Japan, with 2,000 stores.

It opened in the summer of 1996 near the Matsuya department store in Tokyo's Ginza district.

The first Starbucks store

McDonald's also arrived in Japan in the summer of 1971, and its first store was also located in the Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza.

You may have come across Fair Trade certified coffee beans sold at mass retailers such as Starbucks, Tully's, Muji, and Ogawa Coffee.
How are these different from other beans?
First of all, fair trade means fair trade.
Behind fair trade is unfair trade.
The idea behind fair trade is to correct this unfair trade and make it fair trade.
The process from growing coffee to becoming a cup of coffee can be broadly divided into:
① Cultivating the coffee tree
② Refining
③ Packaging and shipping
④ Roasting
⑤ Extraction

While walking around town, you might come across a shop with a fragrant aroma.
The sign reads "Home-Roasting Coffee Shop."
When I say fragrant, I mean a different aroma from the aroma you get when beans are ground in a 7-Eleven coffee maker; it has a distinctive caramel-like aroma.
This aroma comes from roasting green coffee beans to brown them.
Home-roasting shops differ from coffee shops and cafes that sell pre-roasted beans in that they start with the green beans.

Ethiopia is said to be the birthplace of coffee.
I think the person who discovered coffee is amazing.
He discovered that roasting the seeds of the plant gives them a fragrant aroma, and that drinking them in hot water was delicious.
I wonder if he experimented with various plants?
Ethiopian coffee is often called Mocha.
Although it's rare, Yemeni coffee is also called Mocha.
This is because Mocha is the name of a port town in Yemen, and Ethiopian and Yemeni coffee beans were exported to the world through Mocha.