NorthStar Beans

Out of all the coffee bean stores I’ve visited in Tokyo, NorthStar Beans in Kita-Shinagawa stocks the biggest variety I have seen yet. They purportedly have over 150 beans on offer, and could be a mecca for coffee bean lovers in Japan. It also still seems to be a bit of a hidden gem. Usually I try and find coffee bean stores by searching for コーヒー豆 (“coffee bean”) on Google Maps whenever I head out somewhere new, but this place didn’t pop up at all. It was only by chance as we were coincidentally walking towards Shinagawa station that this sign caught our eye. From the outside it doesn’t really look like much, so we were only 50/50 on whether we should pop our heads in, but I’m really glad we did! Behind an orange juice machine and up a flight of stairs. Inside the store is an overwhelming number of beans on display. You can choose to buy a cup of coffee made from the beans here, or buy a bag in 100g increments to take home. It was quite hard to choose a bean, but the first thing that…