Green Coffee

If you have eaten at many of the city’s more tendy restaurants and cafes, there is a good chance you have been enjoyed a cup or two of Green Coffee.  You can get this great coffee at home too, by picking up a bag from this little shop in Danbara (2 blocks over from the rear exit of Hiroshima’s Hijiyama park) or by having it delivered to your door.  Kick back and sample a cup of the latest roast, while your beans (lovingly selected and roasted on the premises) are beautifully packaged for you.

Called “green” because that is how the beans look when they arrive at this shop to be roasted; green and fresh. The Nagasaki-born owner, nicknamed Castella (after the famous cake), is a certified coffee meister from a school in Kansai who sometimes lectures on coffee and roasting. The shop is also “green” in that it promotes fair-trade by working within a co-op in Japan based coffee roasters who buy their beans directly from the coffee farmers and coffee growing communities around the world. This is an improvement on most commercial transactions with coffee growers which is unfair and unbalanced. By buying beans directly at a fair price, a more balanced relationship can then form between grower, roaster and us – the happy consumer. He also often has beans that are certified fair trade, organic and shade grown.

Coffee with a conscience is important, but not the main reason for Green Coffee’s success, the coffee roasted on the premises are bold, flavorful and simply delicious. Since opening in 2005 he has developed a very loyal clientele, including shop owners who serve this coffee to their patrons, who regularly stop by for some beans. If you live away from the city or don’t drive, you can arrange a delivery to your home by calling the shop or booking it through his website.

There are 3 main blends on offer, the most popular being the Green Coffee blend number 1: Brazilian (sweet), Guatemalan (acidic, aromatic) and Columbian (full bodied). It is absolutely delicious.

His shop is small, but very fashionably designed with select antique pieces of coffee history. It has a cool, rustic charm. Green Coffee also has its signature designed cups and packaging.

You can grab a cup of coffee in the shop as a “taste” of a blend you want to buy, but as the shop is usually busy, the owner has stopped selling cups of coffee to non-coffee bean or grind buying customers.

If you can read Japanese, the owner often updates the blog on his website.

Opening Hours: 12:00-19:00
Closed: Sundays

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Address: 1-5-7 Danbara, Minami-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima-ken
Tel/Fax: 082-264-7084