Drift Magazine – Volume 2 (Tokyo)

Introducing Drift Magazine Volume 2: Tokyo. This issue contains stories about Tokyo, its coffee, and the people who drink it. For our second issue, we hear from dozens of coffee shop owners, historians, patrons, baristas, writers, and photographers about what it’s like to drink coffee in Tokyo. Tokyo runs on coffee, fueled by an exploding specialty scene made possible by old-fashioned kissaten and changing social mores. Drift, Volume 2 guides us from New York to the Netherlands, from Tokyo’s hurried city center to the suburbs, and from the 1800s to the future, as we take a magnifying glass to what makes Tokyo’s coffee scene tick.

Drift Magazine is all about coffee. It’s about the people who drink it and the cities they inhabit, from consumers to coffeehouse owners to street venders to baristas. It’s about the ways coffee helps us chart the geography of our environment. Each issue, Drift brings you a glimpse of what it’s like to drink coffee in a different city. It highlights locals and visitors both, and explores what makes them tick.

Content: Drift Magazine – Volume 2 (Tokyo)

• The Life and Times of the Kissaten: On the legacy of Tokyo’s old-fashioned coffee shops;
• An interview with Katsu Tanaka of Bear Pond Espresso;
• Reading Murakami’s Coffee Grinds: Unpacking of what coffee means in Haruki Murakami’s works;
• How a tea city became known for its coffee;
• The 2.5 Dimension: A look into Tokyo’s cosplay cafes;
• An interview with James Freeman on opening Blue Bottle Coffee in Kiyosumi, Tokyo;
• Profiles of Japanese latte art champions;
• A primer on canned coffee;
• And more…