THE MÜNCH

Dark circles, puffiness, bloodshot eyes… all of these things come with our modern society. Demands, worries, wants, needs, desires… they keep us up at night, and make us restless in our slumber. While the days of labor get longer, and free time is absorbed into doing the mundane tasks that grease the wheels of our lives, fun time is pinched.
I hear people say coffee keeps them up at night, I think more it’s the ghosts of your actions or inactions that keep you awake, coffee is just an excuse. I drink it all day, and with a clear mind, sleep like a baby. Coffee adds time to life. It has permutated our lives and has added to the lexicon.
«I Need Coffee!»
«Sorry, I haven’t had my Coffee.»
«Coffee! It helps me do stupid things faster!»
My first cup came when I was very young. My grandpa would mix me a cup with milk and sugar. I remember sitting with him at the kitchen table on cold mornings feeling both proud and manly.
That was Folger’s, and he used a percolator. It had a crystal button on top, and my job was to watch it as the heated water cycled again and again till it changed a rich black color. Watching Tanaka-San’s process took me back.
Tanaka Kanji is the owner and operator of Munch. He opens his shop at 6am and closes at 2am. Being the only employee, he gives new meaning to Sole-​Proprietor. He claims to never nap.
Munch is located in the Yao neighborhood, a thirty minute trip by train or car from the Namba Station in Osaka. If you take the train, you’ll need to exit at the Takayasu Station and walk an additional ten minutes.
Entering the door a familiar bell tinkles, and you will meet Tanaka-​San (if he is napping or not, we’ll never know, so I take him at his word). It is a small crowed shop, filled with the lifetime memories of this man. The signature piece is his German made Munch motorcycle (he is a huge motorcycle fan) we take the table closest to it.
All menus are in Japanese, this is where I come in… order the «Silk Road»!! A four hour process of using a Nel bag and four pounds of select coffee beans and his meticulous adding of boiling water. This makes an espresso previously impossible to imagine. The sure power of the flavor, a bitter so strong it fools you taste buds after it has dissipated. A sweetness appears when none should be possible. This is topped with a mixture of heavy whipping cream and a dash of sugar. It is a semi-​sweet, beautifully bitter concoction with a blushing finish… the Silk Road. Call ahead as he will begin the process so as not to consume your whole day.
While you are enjoying the Silk Road, order the Masters Blend. Now this is a painstaking process of watching Tanaka –San slowly add the boiling water to his special house blend grind. Impossible to believe that two pounds of ground beans are packed so tightly into a small Nel bag. No cup is placed under the bag. With his first addition of the water you expect it to come streaming through, but nothing. Then every forty-​five seconds he adds more, but still nothing. Then some twenty minutes later he gathers a cup and places it underneath. With a couple of more pours, the first magical drop appears, and hangs there like some baby Golden Eagle slowly being nudged from it’s nest. Twenty more minutes and it is ready for consumption. Black like death, bitter like hate, but taste like love.
The two together will run you ¥2800, or about $ 23 at the $ 1=¥1200 rate. A once in a lifetime experience that I will be doing again, annually.
During this process we talked extensively about the state of affairs in the coffee industry, Starbucks, motorcycles, and the best coffee bean in his opinion (Jamaican Blue Mountain, but he says it’s really the process that make the coffee). He drinks ten cups of coffee a day «American style, weak»…we laughed. He showed us pictures of his early life, family, and friends. When I ask him if he minded being call a barista, he said no «McQueen» pointing at his chest. I said «Brando?» He smiled and said «Steve McQueen»…my kinda guy.
Lastly I ask which he loved more motorcycles or coffee? He cocked his head to the side as if my question perplexed him, and said,
«To be young and on the open road.»
Aloha