February 17th, 2016. The Japan AeroPress Championship. Held at the Roastery—located in the bustling fashion hub of Harajuku—JAC 2016 was a night of smiles, beverages, and banter. Once again, there was fierce competition for the perfect cup of coffee, mixed with an air of fun, camaraderie, and playfulness. Spectators jostled for viewing space, and spirits were high as five hours of pressing, tastin

Last June, Hidenori Izaki became the first Japanese competitor to win the World Barista Championship (read about his victory here in Japanese). Sprudge.com Assistant Editor Alex Bernson recently sat down with Mr. Izaki in Ecuador for his first major English-language interview since winning the WBC. This interview happened as part of a Cafe Imports origin trip to Ecuador, a prize given to US region

You can find the original english-language version of our story on Hidenori Izaki’s 2014 World Barista Championship win online here. イタリアのリミニで開催された「2014 World Barista Championship」で、日本代表として出場した丸山珈琲・小諸店の井崎英典（いざきひでのり）バリスタがチャンピオンに輝いた。今回初の優勝を勝ち取った丸山珈琲はオークションでトップクラスのコーヒー豆、特に「Cup Of Excellence」（カップ・オブ・エクセレンス）の称号を持つ豆を取り扱っている事で世界的にも知られ、軽井沢を中心に７店舗のカフェを展開、そして焙煎も行う会社である。過去５年間のジャパン・バリスタ・チャンピオンシップの優勝者は、全てこの丸山珈

Update #2: The Sprudge.com pop-up web store is now closed. Orders are now being fulfilled, to a bevy of soon-to-be-happy customers in every corner of the planet. Thank you for supporting our store! This was a wonderful experience for us, and a successful experiment. Special thanks to Joanna Han and Thomas Putman, our super talented design and admin collaborators on the pop-up store. We can’t wait