Review: Single-Serve Pour-Over Sumiyaki Coffee

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I am a coffee boy. I love fancy coffee shops, and wherever I am in the world, I find the best coffee shop to sit in and drink coffee and eventually poop. Coffee is the greatest thing in the world, regardless of what form it comes in. I’m drinking coffee right now.

A couple years back, we wrote a post about the charcoal-roasted coffee beans from Japanese Coffee Co., which included a discount code so our readers could give them a try. Apparently, our review has inspired a lot of people to order beans, because the company sent us a new package to review, the Sapporo Coffee Kan Gift Box.

Sumiyaki Coffee Hokkaido Blend box

The Sumiyaki Coffee Single-Serve Pour-Over Gift Box had gold wrapping paper and a nice note with some little origami on it. I asked Eriko if she knew how to make these origami shapes, and she said “Yeah,” but in a way that also said, “yeah, of course, you worthless buffoon.” We get along great.

Inside were 28 single-serve packets of coffee inside four plastic boxes. It looked great, and the smaller boxes were handy because we could keep one on our counter for easy access without having to take the whole gift box down from atop the fridge every time I wanted coffee (usually based on a frenzied need rather than a want).

The appearance alone is fantastic, making this a great gift for someone who enjoys coffee. However, your recipient may be surprised by how these individual packets look, because Japanese single-serve coffee is different from the kind you find in America.

Brewing single-serve pour-over in Japan

When I want a good cup of coffee, I use our pour-over setup or employ the moka pot Eriko got me last year to make delicious lattes. I’m sure some of you have enough room on your kitchen counters for an espresso machine, but this is Japan, so enjoy your spacious mansions, jerks.

Sometimes, though, I’m in the middle of writing an ingenious blog post or an ingenious book or an ingenious list of my enemies and I need a jolt of caffeine fast. That’s what instant coffee is for. If you live in America, you probably think of Folgers when you think of instant coffee. They have that sort of thing in Japan, too, as well as sugar coffees that I sometimes mix with hot cocoa when I want to warm up. But Japan has another method, known as the single-serve pour-over disposable blorp.

Basically, this little paper sachet can fit over your mug to create a pour-over setup that works for just one person. You can make real coffee and have it end up straight in your cup, so you won’t be making too much coffee and won’t have to clean anything up after - just dump the paper contraption in the garbage or compost heap or whatever you have. This is more wasteful than using a metal pour-over setup, but sometimes convenience rules, like when you’re traveling and staying at a hotel that doesn’t provide coffee but does provide a kettle, as some places are known to do.

You push in the sides to reveal the small amount of grounds and fit the thing over the cup, and then pour hot water into it. I don’t have one of those gooseneck spouts to do a proper pour-over procedure and don’t have the discipline to actually wait 30 seconds, so my brews are usually a bit dark and muddy, just like my butt. I brewed a cup of this, splashed in some almond milk, and gave it a try.

So how did it taste?

The last time we tried Japanese Coffee Co., the single-serve was a bit too strong, and the beans themselves had a really strong smell. Neither the grounds nor the coffee made from this kit had a stink of any kind, and the coffee was dark, but not too dark.

What really struck me was how smooth it was. Instant coffee usually either tastes like nothing or like drinking the black goo from Prometheus. This was not like that. It tasted like coffee - real coffee - with hardly any bitterness, making it easy and soothing to drink.

The one thing I will say is that, from a caffeine standpoint, this stuff is strong. Really strong. Up-all-night-watching-YouTube-videos-about-sandwiches-in-Rome strong. Whatever your normal coffee-to-milk ratio is, you will probably need to adjust it to avoid having your eyes pop out of your head.

Is single-serve Sumiyaki coffee as good as the charcoal-roasted beans? No. Is it better than any other single-serve or instant coffee I've ever had? Without question. I used to drink Folgers every morning, and this beats the crap out of that. If you have a grinder and the time to make fresh coffee, you should get the charcoal-roasted beans from Japanese Coffee Co. But for travelers, office managers, or busy folks, this will definitely do. Also be on the lookout, because a little bird told me that Japanese Coffee Co. has K-cups coming soon.

How to get Sumiyaki charcoal-roasted single-serve coffee

Single-serve Sumiyaki coffee is available from Japanese Coffee Co. You can also get their charcoal-roasted beans, and the company offers tea and Japanese knives as well. They have gift box options that come in special wrapping, making this a perfect present for the coffee lover in your life.

Our readers can get 10% OFF their first order by clicking the link below and using coupon code SeenJapan10 at checkout. The company offers free shipping worldwide on all orders $60 and up, so you can get it no matter where you live.