GLITCH COFFEE & ROASTERS is a coffee shop in Jinbocho that specialises in light roast pour-over coffee. With a cup of coffee ranging from 1000 to 4000 yen depending on the bean, it’s probably not somewhere you would want to frequent every day, but good if you’re keen to see what really good pour-over coffee can taste like.
It had been on my “to visit” list for a while now, and then recently someone asked me if I had ever been - which prompted to actually get around to checking it out (thanks Henrik!)
Glitch is quite popular and I had heard that there can be really long lines, so my husband and I arrived at the store just after 9am. (Bringing the husband is also a tactical decision - with 2 people, you can share more cups of coffee without having a caffeine overdose).
It turned out to be pretty perfect timing, as there was only one person in front of us in the line. And within 5 minutes of us arriving, the line grew to more than 5 people behind us.
The process for ordering a cup of coffee is quite slow since the barista lets each customer ponder their bean choices, and there are a lot of options. This probably half-explains the long lines.
The beans go from most expensive on the left to least expensive on the right, so we decidedly fixed our eyes on the beans towards the right. (I’m not paying 4000 yen for a cup of coffee, no matter how good it tastes). We decided to share two cups between us, and we picked one bean each.
The barista very smoothly managed to convince us into buying a third cup (“I also recommend this one…”). If you get three cups come with a 500 yen discount so it wasn’t as bad. (Even so, the price for 3 cups - 3300 yen).
Was it worth the price?
I think if you just got the one cup, and you didn’t really like it that much, it might have been a bit of a letdown. For us, the clear standout for us was the Columbian Pink bourbon on the right which was supposed to have a scent of mandarin. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that if you take a whiff of it, it genuinely smelled exactly like mandarins. Magical. This was also the most expensive cup we bought, at 1500 yen for one cup.
The Columbian Castillo was more acidic, and like the tasting notes, did have a strong scent of peach, but also with more of a lingering sour aftertaste. While the Abu TN-5500 on the right hand side was the least sour of the three. Getting three really let me appreciate the differences in taste between each of the beans, so I’d recommend getting more than 1 cup if you can tolerate the caffeine.
The customers at Glitch were probably 70 - 80% foreigners, which always gets me a bit suspicious (is this place actually good, or has it just made it onto a TikTok list somewhere…) but yep, this was some good coffee. My husband tends to be a bit more allergic to bougie/overpriced things than I am, but he quite enjoyed it as well, so that’s a double tick of approval from the both of us.
As all the beans are a light roast pour-over, they tend to be a bit acidic. If you’re new to black coffee drinking, this may not be the place to go (I’m only a recent pour-over coffee convert, and I found it easier to tolerate darker roasts at first). But they do offer a latte version as well if you are nonetheless still interested in checking this place out.
Hi, I'm Emma!
I'm a long-time lover of coffee - back in Sydney my go-to drink was always a soy cappucino. After I moved to Tokyo 4 years ago, I discovered the wonders of pour-over coffee and now I'm always on the lookout for new coffee beans to try. So far I've checked out 23 coffee shops and roasters here in Japan.
If you found this post useful, you can also show your support by buying me a coffee ☕
Comments
Glitch was a bit more of a hit and miss for me. I sampled their 3000+ yen cups during my visit, and even at the extreme end, some were excellent while some left me wondering. At this "extreme" end of the price range you're closer to getting cups without defects. Clean washed high end Geshas can be intensely fruity yet pleasantly acidic, sweet. Complicated highly processed beans should surprise with unique tasting notes yet there should be no boozy / fermented taste, and only pleasant acidity.
The mid-range exists because beans rarely meet perfection, and there is some level of defect that has to be tolerated. That said, I also had some very tasty yet affordable Pink Bourbons. It's a solid variety!
Tourists navigate the coffee scene based on Reddit recommendations, so basically everyone ends up going to the same places and you get long lines. I would skip a ramen place full of tourists, but speciality coffee is a very international hobby :)
I'm still relatively new to pour-over coffee but I do find it to be quite a finicky hobby! Both with making it yourself and buying it, so I suppose it might be a bit of a hit or miss depending on the day as well. It seems you know a fair bit about coffee - if you happen to have any recommendations for me in Tokyo I'm always on the lookout for places that aren't just on a Reddit list somewhere :)
You might already find these on some Reddit lists, but they don't seem to be mentioned quite as frequently as Glitch or Koffee Mameya. :)
Since you mentioned somewhere enjoying fruity and sweet coffees with a pleasant acidity, I'd recommend to keep an eye on the following varietals and origins: Gesha (Colombia, Peru, Panama $$$+), Pink Bourbon (Colombia), Sidra (Ecuador, Colombia), and Wush Wush (Colombia).
The flavor notes can also reveal a lot about what to expect. For instance, when a bag lists only "lemongrass, citrus, and jasmine," the absence of red or stone fruits usually suggests a sharper, more linear acidity rather than a rounded sweetness. Personally, I tend to be a bit cautious with notes like "herb" or "eucalyptus," as they can sometimes lean toward a more medicinal or intensely sharp profile.
Lovely, thank you so much Kris for the recommendations! Will add these to my list to check out. I have of course seen Gesha (although I'm scared away by those prices sometimes, ha) but haven't heard of Sidra or Wush Wush before so will keep my eye out for those too.
Leave a comment