{"id":4384,"date":"2021-08-06T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/global.typica.jp?post_type=roasters&p=4384"},"modified":"2025-05-13T18:37:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T09:37:29","slug":"coffee-wrights","status":"publish","type":"roasters","link":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/narratives\/roasters\/coffee-wrights\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Wrights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Coffee Wrights<\/em> was born in Sangenjaya in Tokyo in December 2016 from a casual idea of a barista saying, \u201cI simply just want to make coffee.\u201d We interviewed Mr. Takuto Sakaibara, a roaster at Coffee Wrights and free jazz and improvisational musician, who currently runs three coffee shops in Tokyo. <\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I want to convey the joy of coffee.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara states, \u201cAt Coffee Wrights, which we named to describe the people who make coffee, we feel the people who buy and enjoy our coffee beans are part of our members. We have created a store where people can feel free to consult with us about how to enjoy coffee. We hold workshops at the store so that people can learn more about coffee.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attracted by the concept of increasing the number of people who drink coffee, as written on the website, Sakaibara joined Coffee Wrights in March 2017, shortly after the store was opened.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe person who taught me the appeal of specialty coffee was \u2018Renshiro Coffee\u2019 a roastery in Miyazaki Prefecture. The owner of \u2018Renshiro Coffee\u2019 couldn\u2019t stop talking about coffee and it seemed he opened the store solely because of his passion for coffee. His overflowing passion drew me into the world of coffee; it led me to the store before I knew it. I joined Coffee Wrights so I could tell people -as the owner of \u2018Renshiro Coffee\u2019 had taught me with his passion- that coffee is fun, so everyone should try it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting about coffee compared to other drinks is that you have to brew it yourself to drink it. I think it\u2019s wonderful to be able to experience this feeling of making coffee by receiving the baton that has been handed to me by the various people involved in the coffee business from producers to processors to importers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a roaster, I try to roast coffee in a way that brings out the best potential of the coffee itself. When I had a specialty coffee as a consumer back then, I remember I was very moved by the taste of the coffee. I looked at the cup description that said, \u201cmaple syrup\u201d and when I tasted it, it really tasted like maple syrup. That\u2019s why I try to make the unique taste of specialty coffee easier for people to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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Attracted by freestyle music<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara is also a musician who plays the saxophone. He plays improvisational and free jazz. Right after he entered university, he was captivated by the appeal of jazz at a live music club where jazz musicians gathered to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe performance was the most powerful and outrageous I had ever heard and the distance between the performers and audience was so close that I could reach out and touch them. The directness of the live sound was overwhelming. There was a freedom that was unique and I was attracted to the feeling that the music was \u2018betraying\u2019 the listeners\u2019 preconceived notions in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, he has been absorbed in music. After graduating from university, he continued his musical activities without finding a full-time job. Except for two days a week when he worked from morning to night at a lucrative wedding hall, he devoted all his time to the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was paid 500 yen (about 5 USD) for each live performance. If you drink coffee at the store and pay for the parking lot, you have already used up what you earned. But that didn\u2019t bother me at all. I was more interested in expressing what I wanted to express and being recognized by someone. It was also natural to work in that way because I saw that even jazz musicians coming from Tokyo were working in such a way. It was a niche field to begin with anyway, so I thought it would be fine as long as it was conveyed to the people who would understand it. I even thought it would be not that cool if my music started to sell well.\u201d (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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However, when he was in his mid-twenties, he reached a dead end. He couldn\u2019t find the right distance between music and himself and then sometimes skipped live performances. As a way to escape from music, Sakaibara started working part-time at Starbucks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think much. I just thought \u2018Why don\u2019t I make coffee?\u2019 I applied for a job at Starbucks out of curiosity since Starbucks had a cool image for me and I actually got the job. Just as I was getting interested in coffee at Starbucks, I learned about specialty coffee at \u2018Renshiro Coffee\u2019 and that made me think then that I wanted to pursue coffee as a career. Unlike in the world of jazz where even if they love music, they sometimes can\u2019t empathize with each other, but in the world of coffee, I was happy to find many people I can empathize with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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Music and coffee that influence each other.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara left Ehime Prefecture, where he was born and grew up, to join the university in Miyazaki Prefecture. He had lived there for ten years before coming to Tokyo in December 2016. He moved to Tokyo thinking that he wanted to have a fresh start making music and coffee in Tokyo. Such thoughts were in his mind. While his interest in music was shifting from standard jazz to free jazz, his vision about the future was becoming clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I heard musicians incorporating elements of free jazz in their performances making their sounds that were simply cool and beyond my imagination, I wanted to master such sounds myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStandard jazz, where you play a song, is like an equivalent of music where to a certain extent you follow a script while adding your own lines, whereas in free jazz, there is no framework of a song to begin with, equivalent to the music of a stage play without a script and without the concept of lines. I was attracted to this freedom- if you want to have melodies, scales, and rhythms, then you can have them, but if you don\u2019t want them, you don\u2019t have to have them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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On one hand, Sakaibara has the additional role of roaster. Roasting, which requires controlling temperatures by looking at the time and developing repeatable performance, is the opposite of free jazz that is performed uniquely each time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara states, \u201cI feel like doing both makes it possible to influence each other and it is interesting to go back and forth between the two worlds. It\u2019s also exciting to meet different people from each world, from the music world and the coffee world. Being able to understand both ends of the spectrum is helpful in maintaining my balance and being present in both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara, who used to stand out in crowds, says he likes the word \u201cbalance\u201d nowadays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come to feel that it\u2019s more interesting to maintain a balance while having many different perspectives when I try to evaluate things. I thought it\u2019s more noble in that way and I started to find it interesting. It is said that you can\u2019t just roast if you rely too much on your senses, but I think it is necessary to have both. It\u2019s necessary to understand what can\u2019t be expressed with numbers like senses and it\u2019s also necessary to understand the sense of what can be expressed with numbers like logic. I think it\u2019s because I am involved in both music and coffee that I have developed a sense of valuing both in a well-balanced manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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At first glance, coffee seems to be placed at the opposite end of the spectrum from music. However, he said that parts of them sometimes overlap providing \u2018once-in-a-lifetime\u2019 opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara states, \u201cFree jazz is music which is \u2018once-in-a-lifetime\u2019 in the sense that it changes your physical condition and mood, while coffee is also a \u2018once-in-a-lifetime\u2019 drink in the sense that its taste changes depending on how you brew it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven coffee from the same producer can vary in quality from year to year and the taste can change depending on the climate and environment. My ideal as a roaster is to maintain the same quality no matter what the external conditions are, although it can be different based on how coffee ages. When you get right down to it, there may be only precise days and times when a particular flavor can be achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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It\u2019s interesting because I don\u2019t know what to expect.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara was fascinated by jazz at a live music club right after he entered university because it was something that he didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI value the process of taking something that I don\u2019t understand and making it understandable. For example, if I go and drink a craft beer as one of the consumers and I don\u2019t really understand it but it tastes really good, I want to cherish that state of not understanding it completely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though something can be understood by asking someone or looking it up on the Internet easily, it\u2019s more interesting to reach the answer through trial and error. In that way, I can keep the fun of not knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can experience joy when I suddenly understand something that I haven\u2019t understood for a long time. It\u2019s not that I want to go to the top of the mountain; I just want to climb the mountain.\u201d (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakaibara is absorbed in his work and lets his passions overflow. Sakaibara will continue to pursue such moments both in the world of coffee and the world of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any goals for the future, but that\u2019s because I\u2019ve made it my goal not to set any goals. I\u2019ve seen many jazz musicians who don\u2019t think about the future much and just enjoy the moments in front of them, so I have been thinking that I am also able to handle anything. By trying to live in the present moment, I feel like I can overcome my vague anxiety about the future.\u201d

Originally written in Japanese by Tatsuya Nakamichi.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4385,"template":"","prefectures":[6,886],"roasters-category":[3],"cut_article_video":[979,983],"roasterss_area":[984,986],"class_list":["post-4384","roasters","type-roasters","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","prefectures-tokyo","prefectures-japan","roasters-category-probat","cut_article_video-all","cut_article_video-article","roasterss_area-all","roasterss_area-japan"],"acf":[],"toolset-meta":{"roasters%e7%94%a8field-group":{"roaster-kvmode":{"type":"radio","raw":"2"},"image-roaster":{"type":"image","raw":"https:\/\/global.typica.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Coffee_Wrights_2021_05.jpeg","attachment_id":null},"name-roaster":{"type":"textfield","raw":"Mr.Takuto Sakaibara"},"roaster-copy":{"type":"textfield","raw":"Passionate to live in the present moment The driving force behind a roastery that combines music and coffee"},"roaster-shopname":{"type":"textarea","raw":"Coffee Wrights"},"roaster-shop-image":{"type":"image","raw":"https:\/\/global.typica.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Coffee_Wrights_2021_SIGN.jpeg","attachment_id":null},"roaster-oncup":{"type":"textarea","raw":"I am so moved when I happen to meet a cup of coffee that really tastes good that I don\u2019t know why I feel that way which happens once in a while. I get excited by things that I don\u2019t understand, so I just prefer to leave them as unknown to me."},"roaster-favorite-farm":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"roaster-favorite-beans":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"roaster-ec":{"type":"url","raw":""}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/roasters\/4384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/roasters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/roasters"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/roasters\/4384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13343,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/roasters\/4384\/revisions\/13343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"prefectures","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/prefectures?post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"roasters-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/roasters-category?post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"cut_article_video","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cut_article_video?post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"roasterss_area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typica.coffee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/roasterss_area?post=4384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}