Tokyo hole in the wall coffee
We’d have fallen in love with this Harajuku spot even if they didn’t give you free dessert (but they do). Harajuku is one of the most fashionable neighborhoods in Tokyo. Clothing stores are the first thing that come to mind when many people think of Harajuku, but no one wants to shop until they actually drop, so along with boutiques, the district is dotted with cafes. That includes major chains, and while you could pop into one of them when you get thirsty, if you’ve come all the way out to Harajuku it’s usually more fun to head for a unique hole in the wall instead, which is exactly what we did by visiting “Himitsu no Drip.” The cafe’s name translates to “Secret Drip,” and it definitely has a mysterious-looking interior. Stepping inside, we were greeted by photos of the drink lineup and a map of Japan showing where the produce is sourced for the cafe’s selection of fruit coffees. However, we saw only a single staff member, who takes orders and payments, but not a single waiter, waitress, or barista.
And yet, the menu has a surprisingly wide variety of beverages to choose from, with 16 different types of fruit coffee using 14 different types of coffee beans. They’re incredibly low-priced, too, priced at just $2.10, and basic black coffee, made with your choice of beans, is even less, only 65 cents. After making your selection, you pay the attendant, who will give you a plastic tag with a number on it. Then we took this tag over to the wall and drop it into this hole. After a short wait, the base of the larger tear-drop shaped hole above where we’d dropped our tag began to rotate, and when it had turned all the way around, there was our drink!
Himitsu no Drip, which is a limited-time cafe run by Japanese coffee company UCC, is as particular about the presentation of its drinks as it is the shop’s interior. Everything we’d ordered came beautifully arranged in tall glasses, looking like something that you’d ordinarily pay at least three times as much as Himitsu no Drip charges for a swanky Harajuku cafe drink.
Rounding out our trio was the Aichi White Fig Special Blend Coffee. This one uses a generous amount of white fig jam, something you don’t come across all that often in Japan in general, let alone in coffee. We’re glad Himitsu no Drip came up with this idea, though, as the gentle mix of flavors brought our taste-testing to a comforting close. …or so we thought! Each fruit coffee comes with a piece of paper with a QR code on it, and if you show it to the cafe staff member, they’ll get you a sample-size cup of the coffee used for your drink, so you can see what the brew tastes like without the fruit too.
And the deal gets even better if you upload a photo of the cafe or your order to social media. Show the post to the staff, and in exchange you’ll receive a bite sized cake from Yoku Moku, one of Japan’s most popular confectioners. In other words, you can get two tasty drinks and a dessert for $3, which is an astoundingly good deal. The only drawback is that each customer is limited to two orders per seating, but there’s no rule against getting back into line after that and waiting to be seated again, which, depending on what time/day of the week you go, could be a very short wait.
Creative coffee comments
Starbucks job interview:
“What’s your name?”
“Alyssa”
“Could you spell that please?”
“L A R I S S A”
“When can you start?”
Instead of water, I put Red Bull in the back of my coffee maker this morning.
I was halfway to work before I realized I forgot my car.
If you replace your morning coffee with green tea …..
You can lose up to 87% of what little joy you have left in your life.
I saw a homeless man sleeping inside a big cardboard box house outside the train station:
Not wanting to disturb him, I crept over and put a Starbucks coffee cup on top of his box.
He immediately woke up and said, “Thank you.”
“No problem.” I smiled.
He looked at me again and said, “It’s empty.”
I said, “I know, it’s a chimney.”
I was on the phone with my wife and said, “I’m almost home honey, please put the coffee maker on.” After a twenty second pause, I asked, “You still there sweetheart?” She replied, “Yeah…”
“But I don’t think the coffee maker wants to talk right now!”
July 21st Birthdays
1987 – Anna Lynne McCord, 1986 – Diane Guerrero, 1977 – Allison Wagner, 1993 – Jessica Barden
1951 – Robin Williams, 1899 – Ernest Hemingway, 1924 – Don Knotts, 1948 – Kat Stevens