Your £265 cup of coffee
‘Exquisite’ Japanese bean in Berkeley Street
IT MIGHT cause you to splutter into your morning latte — but one Mayfair coffee shop is selling a brew for a staggering £265 a cup.
The speciality coffee bar Shot sourced the eye-wateringly expensive drink from the Japanese island of Okinawa, which is famed for its beauty and the healthy diet and long lives of its inhabitants. It is believed to be Britain’s most expensive cup of coffee.
The “exquisite coffee” is made of Japanese typica beans and is described on the menu as being “reflective of the deeply-held Japanese value of striving for perfection”.
It is available as an espresso, macchiato, flat white, americano, cappuccino or latte.
According to the menu, the beans are courtesy of the Kishimoto family, which has produced the drink on Okinawa since 2015. Three-time UK barista champion Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood said one of the reasons for the high price may come down to the scarcity of coffee grown in Japan. He told The Telegraph: “Hardly anyone grows coffee in Japan.
“It typically grows in the tropics — either side of the equator — it’s very hard to grow in places like Japan.
“Rarity is obviously sought after in coffee, and most of the ‘fancy’ coffee people drink is all arabica.
“Typica is not the most sought-after variety of arabica, which suggests the value is coming from the fact that it’s grown in Japan.”
Baristas at Shot, based in Berkeley Street, said it was ordered “two or three times a week”.
It is just one of the coffee shop’s house specials, which include a £70 Savannah Zombie made from beans from Thiotte region of Haiti.