Konbini Kinyoubi: Coffee from Family Mart

Welcome to Konbini Kinyoubi, where every Friday (Kinyoubi) we visit our local convenience store (Konbini) and buy something delicious.

As I’ve recently been through a horrific coffee-related injury, I decided to go healthy with this week’s konbini trip, and didn’t get a snack even though there was a new kind of Black Thunder and I was holding it in my hands staring at it like the crazed addict I am.

While convenience stores in Japan are known for their bottled coffee, you can also get a freshly-made drink from their machines, which vary slightly by konbini chain. Purchasing a hot coffee is a bit different in Japan than it is in America. Usually, at an American 7-11 or gas station, you fill up your cup, then bring it to the counter to pay. In Japan, you pay for your drink first, and the employee hands you a cup. You can then go over to the machine and select your drink.

Family Mart has more drink options than some other places, but I stuck with my standard cafe latte because I am smart and good. If you are dumb and bad, you might choose something else. It’s not my place to judge, but I manage to do it anyway.

Beyond the variety of drinks, the real thing that sets our local Famima apart, and makes it worth crossing the street to get to, is the chance to try the free flavored sugars:

I don’t normally take sugar in my coffee, but hazelnut sugar? Uh, a-yeah, I’ll have some.

I swear there used to be four kinds, but this time there were only three. I went with hazelnut today, although I like to mix it up. PRO TIP: I put the flavored sugar into the cup BEFORE I make the latte, so it’ll mix in with the coffee better. Otherwise, it just sort of sits on top of the foam.

It took longer to take pictures of the machine than it did for the machine to make my coffee. I was out the door quickly, which was either a good thing or a bad thing since I was there to avoid starting on my work for the day. On the way home I experienced what can be a drawback to the made-to-order konbini coffee experience: the fact that the cups are not insulated very well. Family Mart is often the worst with this, and I find sometimes I have to hold it with my jacket to avoid burning my hands. Luckily, today wasn’t too bad, and I got home with relative ease.

I received much criticism from Eriko for these pictures. There’s a reason she’s normally in charge of them.

If you’re unable to read that text on the left, it boasts that “Famima’s coffee has clear & rich taste.” Let’s find out if their assertion is accurate.

It tasted… okay. By now I don’t expect a ton from a konbini latte - it’s not like this thing was crafted by an award-winning barista. You push a button, and it gives you coffee and milk, and you’re lucky if it tastes like either of those things. This had some coffee taste to it, the milk was in nice proportion, not too much foam, and it was hot.

As for the flavored sugar, I can’t really tell you if it added anything. I tasted the artificial notes much more than the hazelnut notes, especially at the bottom of the cup, and yet, despite my better judgment, I will always put more of that questionable powder in my beverage when given the chance because it’s free and different and exciting and I just can’t say no.

Overall, Famima makes an okay latte. It’s certainly not better than the bottled kind, and I’m not sure it’s that much of an improvement over 7-11 to make it worth crossing the street for, but if we’re comparing apples to apples, it is the best push-button instant latte in the neighborhood. 15/10. I would like to thank Family Mart for keeping me wired so I could send my little emails or whatever it is that I do for a living.