{"id":6038,"date":"2026-05-03T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=6038"},"modified":"2026-05-03T09:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T16:00:29","slug":"samurai-coffee-try-edo-period-coffee-once-enjoyed-by-japanese-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=6038","title":{"rendered":"Samurai Coffee: Try Edo period coffee once enjoyed by Japanese warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cafe in Japan\u00a0uses a recipe from an old document to recreate a historic brew.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Japan might be commonly associated with tea, but coffee<\/strong> is also a big part of the culture, having first been introduced here during the Edo period (1603-1868). Back in those early days, coffee was seen as a luxury item imported from abroad and only enjoyed by a select few who used it as a medicinal elixir<\/strong>. Though that might be hard to imagine now, one area of Japan is keeping the spirit of Edo-period coffee alive: Hirosaki City in Aomori Prefecture<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Historically, Hiirosaki was a city where many foreign teachers were employed, so retro buildings with Western-style architectural influences can be seen throughout the area. A lot of these buildings now function as cafes, creating a unique ambience that will make you feel as if you\u2019ve stepped back in time, and one of those places is Salon de Caf\u00e9 Ange<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here, they serve a very special drink called \u201cSamurai Coffee<\/strong>\u201c, using a recipe recreated from an old document that draws upon the area\u2019s rich samurai history. During the Edo period, many samurai from the Hirosaki domain were sent to Ezo (modern-day Hokkaido) by order of the shogunate. At that time, coffee was distributed as a preventative measure against beriberi, a type of edema.<\/p>\n

Although coffee beans themselves had been introduced to Japan during <\/span>the Edo period\u2019s era of isolation, through the controlled area of Dejima in Nagasaki Prefecture<\/span>, it\u2019s said that the first people<\/strong> to develop the habit of drinking coffee in Japan were samurai from the Hirosaki domain. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently, 10 shops in Hirosaki serve \u201cSamurai Coffee\u201d, made using the same methods described in historical documents<\/strong>, with the city determined to preserve its culture as a \u201ccoffee town\u201d. Curious to try the coffee once enjoyed by warriors, we pulled up a chair at Salon de Caf\u00e9 Ange<\/strong>, where a cup of the brew costs 600 yen (US$3.75).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When it arrived, we were surprised to see the coffee presented like a tea set, complete with a Japanese-style teapot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Coffee cups and paraphernalia likely weren\u2019t common back then, so this rustic setup immediately took us back to a bygone era.<\/p>\n

\u25bc When we lifted the lid we received another nice surprise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The roasted coffee beans, ground in a mortar, were bundled up in what looked to be a makeshift tea bag made out of a tiny burlap sack.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The sack was very cute, reminding us of the acorn sack carried by the Medium Totoro in Studio Ghibli\u2019s animated feature My Neighbour Totoro<\/em>.\u00a0It also looked a bit like the drawstring bags used in medicinal baths that you sometimes see at public bathhouses. These bags fill the bathhouse with an intense aroma, and the medicinal ingredients ooze out when you squeeze them.<\/p>\n

The teapot is already filled with hot water, so all you have to do is let it steep for about a minute. Then you can swirl the bag in the water, holding onto the attached ribbon, until it reaches your desired strength. When it gets to a colour you\u2019re happy with, pour it into the teacup. We steeped ours for quite a long time, but the colour remained light, with an amber hue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since there are records of it being drunk as medicine, we braced ourselves for a hit of bitterness upon first sip, half expecting it to taste like a spicy, herbal craft cola. Although the cafe says you can add sugar to the brew, we were worried that might make it taste like licorice, so we kept it black and took a very tentative taste.<\/p>\n

\u25bc Thankfully, it wasn\u2019t bitter at all!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In fact, the flavour was gentle, mild, and very similar to kuromamecha (\u201cblack bean tea\u201d made from roasted soybeans). Rather than being strong, the taste was on the weak side, and the temperature of the water was lukewarm as it took so long to brew.<\/p>\n

It even went down smoothly like tea, with a very slight grassy taste, and we could imagine samurai easily swigging these down without any hesitation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Drinking coffee from a teacup in a dollhouse-like Western-style building in an old samurai town is a reminder of where the humble cup of joe began in Japan. It wasn\u2019t long after this that modern cafes began to spring up, with waitresses in white aprons serving coffee to customers in establishments that became glamorous gathering places for intellectuals.<\/p>\n

\u25bc Hirosaki is also famous for apples, and the acclaimed apple pie at Salon de Caf\u00e9 Ange was delicious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not every day you get to enjoy a cup of coffee in the way it was enjoyed by Japanese warriors. So next time you\u2019re visiting Hirosaki, which you can get to by overnight bus<\/a>, don\u2019t forget to stop for a taste of Samurai Coffee and help keep the old ways alive.<\/p>\n

Cafe information
\n<\/strong>Salon de Caf\u00e9 Ange \/ \u30b5\u30ed\u30f3\u30c9\u30ab\u30d5\u30a7\u30a2\u30f3\u30b8\u30e5
\nAddress: Aomori-ken, Hirosaki-shi, Shirogane-cho 2-1
\n\u9752\u68ee\u770c\u5f18\u524d\u5e02\u4e0b\u767d\u9280\u753a2-1
\nOpen 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (last orders 5:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Images\u00a9SoraNews24<\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cafe in Japan\u00a0uses a recipe from an old document to recreate a historic brew. Japan might be commonly associated with tea, but coffee is also a big part of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}