Elevate your Starbucks experience with a special service that’ll turn heads during your visit.

Sometimes the best finds in Japan are the ones you stumble upon yourself, and that’s what happened when we stopped by Starbucks the other day and saw a handwritten message on the chalkboard at the entrance that said: “Why don’t you order a coffee press?” Despite visiting Starbucks countless times, we’d never heard of a coffee press service before – we hadn’t seen it advertised anywhere, and moreover, we’d never seen a customer sitting down with a coffee press inside a store.

Curious to try it out, we sidled up to the counter and asked the staff for the coffee press, upon which the barista immediately whipped into action like a pro, handing us a menu filled with a variety of options.

As if sensing our overwhelm at the many options, the barista kindly asked us if we preferred our coffee black or with milk, and when we stated our preference for the latter, they recommended three bean types: “Light Note Blend“, “Colombia“, and “Cafe Verona“. With the “Light Note Blend” purportedly tasting like a light milk chocolate, that was the one we ordered, and after taking a seat at a table, the barista brought the coffee press over to us on a tray, complete with a mug and a small paper cup of milk.

The coffee press usually takes a few minutes to extract the coffee, but given that time had already passed between preparation and serving, the barista told us it was ready to plunge straight away.

▼ Depending on where you are in the world, you might know this as a French press, a coffee plunger, or a cafetière.

First, we tried the freshly brewed coffee on its own, pouring a small amount into the mug and drinking it straight. It had a thicker, more satisfying mouthfeel than drip coffee brewed with a paper filter, as the French press retains the coffee oil, so we were able to fully enjoy the soft richness and light, low-bitter taste that’s  said to be a feature of the Light Note Blend.

After enjoying it straight, we poured the rest of the coffee into the mug and added milk, which gave birth to a mild and light café au lait flavour. It had a gentle mouthfeel that seemed well suited to the spring season, and we totally fell in love with the taste.

We’d initially been concerned that a coffee press coffee at Starbucks might be dark and bitter, but the Light Note Blend showed there are a wide variety of options to suit your taste. Not only did the coffee press elevate our everyday Starbucks visit into a fancy cafe style experience, it also opened our eyes to new possibilities, and now that we know the true extent of the beans on offer, we’ll be ordering the coffee press option more often.

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[ Read in Japanese ]