ONIBUS COFFEE with Hiroki Matsumiya
ONIBUS COFFEE
with Hiroki Matsumiya
Riding the bus inevitably brings people together, often people of all different walks and styles of life, much like coffee. Providing accessibility to everyone, without discrimination, the public bus — “Onibus” in Portuguese — gets riders where they need to be, whether in warm exchange or as a pleasure to be enjoyed in solitude, much like coffee.
In chatting with Wataru and Hiroki at 1 of Onibus’ 4 cafe locations, the concept of this local Tokyo roaster was really beginning to make sense. The three of us met at About Life, by far one of the smallest cafés I encountered on my journey, but not in the least bit lacking character.
“We weren’t really trying to fall under the label of third wave – I feel like that term’s been a bit washed out over the years,” Hiroki muses, “Our main priority was to just make the coffee scene better.”
“Even one cup can make your life better,” Wataru chimes in, “And that drives the three main concepts behind Onibus. The first shop was opened by the owner, Atsushi Sakao, in Okisawa, and their concept was to produce the best coffee in Tokyo.”
Wataru went on to outline that the second concept came with the opening of About Life, and it was to spread the quality of coffee not only throughout the city, but all over Japan. The third concept was to maintain collaborations with different roasters in town, overall elevating the quality and sustainability of the scene. They always have three different roasters on hand [Onibus, Switch, and Amameria] and drinkers can choose whichever way they’d like to have those roasts brewed.
Hiroki explained how their dedication to quality and relationships doesn’t stop in Tokyo or Japan.
“Sustainability can be linked to traceability. Onibus staff visit different farms around the world regularly to make sure the connections stay strong. We don’t do direct trade yet, but we’re working with a few local suppliers who are doing a great job with producers. There weren’t typically strong relationships in the coffee supply chain, but we want to continue to change this. Atsushi is leading the way.”
Coffee is about connecting different passions, and this was one of the main concepts behind opening their newest location, Ratio Coffee + Cycle. Bridgestone approached Onibus about doing a collaboration shop not too long ago, and it seemed to fit in perfectly with what the entire team is about. Back to sustainability, everyone in the company seems to ride a bike, as Hiroki put it,
“It’s better for the environment, and for health… better for everything actually. Rather than public transport, or taxi, or cars, biking really connects people.”
And, I’m not surprised. As we spoke about with George at Revolver in Vancouver, cycling and coffee is not a new concept, but likely one that’s here to stay.
About Life has two baristas in the shop at all times, but depending on schedules and availability, they sometimes cycle staff through to different shops, which I think is brilliant actually. In some ways, it emphasizes the vision of maintaining that level of quality and consistency within the four shops as well as developing those connections with the customers.
FOOTNOTES
Big thanks to Wataru and Hiroki for taking the time to breakdown the "public bus" for me, and a special thanks to my good friend, Chiharu, for playing translator when my Japanese skills were lacking.