What Makes Specialty Coffee Special?

Gaku Ito, The Trip Boutique’s local curator, coffee expert, and the head barista at Auer & Co., Zurich, answers all your caffeine-related questions: What makes specialty coffee so special? How is instant coffee made and is it really as bad as they say? And can local coffee shops survive in a world dominated by Costa, Starbucks, and other, larger-than-life coffee chains?

I knew that the hotel industry was not the right fit for me — I didn’t like the distance between me and the customer.

Despite growing up in Tokyo, Gaku was always more interested in coffee than tea. Which has become, as he explains, more and more common in Japan. ‘Associating Japan with tea is a thing of the past. Today, we actually foster a rich coffee culture. Tokyo, in particular, has a lot of specialty coffee shops. But it’s true that most Japanese drink their coffee black — an American influence,’ Gaku laughs.

Paradoxically, Gaku’s career as a specialty coffee barista — which is associated with smaller coffee shops, but more on that later — started at Starbucks.