Switch Coffee Tokyo

Masahiro Onishi spent six years working as a barista around Japan and placed second at the Millrock Latte Art Championship before he bought a one way ticket to Melbourne in 2010 to find out whether his interest in coffee could hold up outside Japan. A year of learning to roast there led him to Fukuoka, where he trained under Cup of Excellence judge Katsuhide Izaki, before he came back to Tokyo and opened this Meguro shop in October 2013.

The whole operation runs on one small Probat roaster tucked behind a narrow counter along a quiet stretch near the Meguro River, with a bench outside for the handful of people who want to sit. Onishi still roasts and pulls shots himself most mornings, working through single origin lots from Honduras, Kenya, and a rotating list of other origins, and each order comes with a small taste of the bean before it is brewed so a customer can pick something they will actually like.