Shiogama's Kamado Coffee

    I received a sample of this lovely local coffee a few weeks ago and being a fan of a good cup of the beany brew, I was excited to embrace a locally made product. Then I looked at the length of time required in the English instructions. I'm not used to waiting 30 minutes for a cup of coffee even at a coffee shop, and my time away from coffee shops has not made me more patient. For me, the idea of waiting that long for a cup of coffee at home just did not enthuse.


While I love that English instructions were provided, they probably could have used a run through the spell checker.

    While temperatures have warmed, there is still frequent drizzle up here in Miyagi and a chill hangs in the humid air. My need for a mid-day pick me up that won't keep me up all night has grown considerably. With that in mind, I decided to give both forms of this coffee a try.

Here it goes. T minus three hours and counting.

    The iced coffee form of this beverage requires 3 hours of brewing time, so I put the prescribed amount of water and coffee bag in a glass jar, in this case a mason jar, and let it sit while I set the timer on my phone for 3 hours.

Three hours later: Coffee time!

    The resulting coffee was very pale, a little bit more translucent than tea, and while there was some rich coffee flavor, it wasn't terribly intense. It was refreshing and significantly better than some coffee I have had both at home and at shops in Sendai in the past. While iced coffee has never been my preferred choice for cold caffeine, this one was still quite pleasant.

Little hot coffee, a dash darker. Same great taste.

    Making the hot version took significantly less time, but still required 30 minutes of letting the coffee bag steep in a very small amount of hot water before adding more hot water to finish off the cup. I did as instructed and as you can see, the results in the cup were still a bit pale for coffee, though I think it may be a shade more opaque than the cold variety. Much like its predecessor, the flavor of the hot coffee variant was fine. It felt robust and comfortable, but I did miss the kick of caffeine that usually accompanies such a flavor. As is indicated on the instructions, these steeping coffee bags are all caffeine free.

    If you've got a little time to put into making a great cup of coffee and a sensitivity to caffeine, Shiogama's Kamado coffee may be just the thing. Unfortunately, the coffee seems to only be for sale at certain shops around Shiogama city, none of which seem to have online shopping access. If you want to try some, you may have to make friends with someone in Miyagi or take a trip when the coronavirus situation is finally over.