Continuing from the last blog post on specialty coffee in Japan, another cafe we visited is located about 20-min walk from the Shibuya station. Streamer coffee company is perhaps more well known for their elaborated latte art. Hiroshi Sawada, the owner of Streamer coffee company who was not present during our visit, is also the first Japanese to win in the Latte Art World Championships.

What caught my attention upon arrival were their espresso machine’s portafilters. They were all bottom-less which tells how confident they are in extracting near-perfect espresso even in such a busy cafe.

The following photo shows the espresso oozing out from the bottom-less portfilter from my home machine. It is usually used as a diagnostic tool as the drip pattern can be used to indicate the quality of extraction. It can get really messy with espresso splatting everywhere if the coffee ground were not well prepared which is also an indication of bad tasting espresso. It is more challenging to diagnose the extraction quality with the usual portafilter.

No photography and filming of the brew bar were allowed though. There is also a small shelf which carries books authored by Hiroshi Sawada and his signature latte art milk pitcher.

The book describes the step in frothing and pouring latte art in great details with the lots of pictures as aid. The Google translate mobile apps has been really helpful as well for Japanese illiterate like myself 🙂

We ordered the Streamer latte and Revolver Latte on our first visit.

And the Seasonal Blueberry latte and a Triple Ristretto Espresso on our second visit.

I was not able to pick up any interesting taste in the cafe latte as there were too much milk. The Seasonal blueberry latte makes a good occasional sweet indulgent as blueberry favored syrup goes into making the drink. The Triple Ristretto Espresso was amazingly balanced, with lots of body and light and pleasant citrus taste.

Streamer coffee company also seems to be a place fascinated with the military. One of the drink in the menu is “Military latte”, the cakes carry few shades of green resembling military camouflage, and the coffee beans are sold in bags with military camouflage too. I wish I had the time for a third visit to try the Military latte, perhaps another holiday is in order.

Streamer coffee company operates daily from 8AM to 6PM on weekdays and 10AM to 6PM on weekends. Check out their webpage @ http://streamercoffee.com