I am informed by my friend Michael Braly in Seattle that today (yesterday) is the 40th anniversary of Starbucks. I will honor this event with my homage to satisfying my urge for a morning cafe latte here in Japan. My regular hangout between 7 and 8 in the morning is the busiest corner in Tsukuba, just up 64 steps from the underground Starbucks in Tsukuba Station. As far as I have been able to determine, this is the only coffee shop open in Tsukuba before 8 AM. Further, there is a wrought iron table and chairs on this corner, more suitable for a garden in Savannah, Georgia, than Tsukuba Science CIty. I assert without fear of challenge that I am the only person actually to have used them. Prove me wrong.
So, I sit here tapping away most mornings, connected to the world with the WiMax hotspot graciously provided by my hosts in Tsukuba, enjoying the sun and the only latte worth drinking at this place at this time.
I have spent most mornings between 6 and 7 working on the goal of fixing my own in my room (without, of course, violating the prohibition on cooking appliances). I'm on about my eighth iteration, and it is not bad. Along the way, I've broken glass, burned my fingertips, sullied the hot pot with milky coffee, and produced drinks closer in taste to dishwater than coffee.
The directions:
Appliances and ingrediants:
- A standard hot water pot. For those of you unfamiliar, this applicance is nearly as ubiquitous as vending machines, has a volume of a half gallon or so, and a top that opens, allowing unobstructed access to the lumen. 4 buttons - on/off, temperature, engage mechanism to dispense, and dispense.
- A six or eight ounce aluminum juice can with screw on cap (available pretty much within one hundred meters of any location in Japan (see #ubiquity-of-vending-machines).
- An AeroLatte (a tiny battery-powered whisk to froth the milk).
- Milk.
- A packet of Via, Starbucks' instant coffee (pricey at a buck a pop, but latte's are $4.75 and up, so...). I know this is cheating, but all attempts to secure an electrically powered esperesso maker (under, oh, about a thousand dollars) have gone for nought.
- A packet of sugar if you're so inclined. I am.
Methodology:
Put the milk in the aluminum can. Assure there is not too much water in the hot pot, else it will float the can, dumping the milk into the water.
The water is just below boiling, so it takes about 2.5 minutes to heat the milk. Set up the Via and sugar, and when the milk is about ready, flood with a small aliquot of water to form an espresso-like liquid. Remove the can from the hot pot, gingerly with fingers, or more cautiously, by screwing on the still-cool-lid, and lifting out. Froth the milk with the Aero-Latte. Combine with the coffee. Ersatz Latte!
For the record, in my limited experience here, the best latte I've had is from Tully's, a block away from Starbucks, but they are not open before 8 or on the weekend (#useless-virtue)
Happy anniversary, Starbucks!
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The Sakura have arrived. Cherry Blossom season in Tsukuba started yesterday afernoon, and if the terrific winds now howling about the city subside, we have joined the heavens for a time.
