[Northern Okinawa] Harvested, roasted, and brewed in the forests of Yambaru: A special experience enjoying fresh Okinawan coffee with all five of your senses.

The Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa has been reborn in a location well-suited as a base for a journey to experience Yambaru. We welcome you to a comfortable hotel that offers a unique stay experience through a wide range of accommodation plans and a variety of activities that guests can select based on their individual preferences.

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Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa offers two special coffees for guests enjoyment during their stay. One is an original blend from Nakayama Coffee Farm in Nago City which is served in the guest rooms. Okinawan coffee grown in the forests of Yambaru is hard to find outside the prefecture. The other is coffee from Amber Holic., a famous coffee shop in Okinawa City. This coffee can be enjoyed in the Club Lounge. Both are carefully selected by hotel staff with expert coffee knowledge who have personally visited farms and stores to ensure they are satisfied with the high quality of the coffee.

We recently visited Nakayama Coffee Farm, strolled around the farm, and experienced roasting and brewing the coffee ourselves while listening to the staff talk about the appeal of Okinawan coffee.

• Table of Contents
• Nakayama Coffee Farm, where coffee is grown on a site of approximately 23,000 m2
• Stroll through the coffee farm and enjoy the nature and culture of Yambaru.
• Experience roasting locally grown raw beans to your own liking.
• Nakayama Coffee Farm is supported by local friends and coffee fans from all around Japan.
• AMBER HOLIC.: Another high-quality coffee you can enjoy at the hotel

Nakayama Coffee Farm, where coffee is grown on a site of approximately 23,000 m2

Nakayama Coffee Farm is located in the forest around Nago City, about a 10-minute drive from the center of the city. When you turn off the main road, you are quickly surrounded by a subtropical forest. The farm is about 23,000 square meters in area and about 1.2 tons of coffee beans are harvested annually. There are few coffee farms in Okinawa that produce coffee on such a scale.

"We started with about 300 seedlings and now we have about 2,000 coffee trees growing," says Tatsumi Kishimoto, the owner of Nakayama Coffee Farm. He rented the land from a friend in 2013 and started the coffee farm.

There are about 13 varieties of coffee trees currently being cultivated ranging from varieties that have been in Okinawa for a long time to those that have been recently introduced.

Okinawa is at a lower altitude than major coffee producing areas in other countries, and there is not much change in temperature throughout the year. For this reason, coffee produced in Okinawa has a lighter, sweeter flavor than coffee from other places. Considering that coffee produced overseas takes several months to be transported to Japan, the fact that you can enjoy fresh raw beans roasted where they are grown is a unique attraction of the coffee produced here.

Another feature that makes Okinawan coffee unique is that only fully ripe cherries are harvested by hand, one by one. In large production areas where the harvest season is shorter and large quantities must be harvested at one time, machines are often used. Although harvesting by hand is time-consuming, it ensures that fully ripe and unripe cherries are not mixed, creating a stability to the quality.

Stroll through the coffee farm and enjoy the nature and culture of Yambaru.

Nakayama Coffee Farm offers courses for guests to enjoy the full experience of coffee production. The hope is that as they stroll through the farm and harvest and roast their own beans, that they will learn more about the depth of coffee production. (Harvesting is only done from late November to late April.)

Nakayama Coffee Farm "Harvesting and Roasting Experience" https://nakayama-coffee.net/harvest/

Mr. Kishimoto will guide you through the farm. As you walk between coffee trees that spread out like terraced fields, you can hear various stories about the ingenuity and hardships of cultivation, the characteristics of the different varieties of trees, and the current state of growth.

"This place was originally a field for shikuwasa and tankan (citrus varieties grown in Okinawa). The big trees around the farm act as a windbreak and protect the coffee trees from typhoons."

"That strange sound is the Oshima cicada. It is often mistaken for a bird, but it's a cicada that lives in Yambaru."

"That big tree is a Horutonoki tree. Apparently Horutonoki trees this big are rare even in Okinawa."

"The bamboo here is to mark the boundary of the property. In Okinawa, there was a culture of planting bamboo along land boundaries."

In addition to coffee, there are interesting stories about plants and creatures that live in Yambaru, Okinawan culture, and more. Your short trek through the farm is a satisfying experience.

Experience roasting locally grown raw beans to your own liking.

The roasting experience begins with making a choice from several types of raw beans harvested at Nakayama Coffee Farm. The lineup for the day we were there was Typica, Mundo Novo, and Nakayama Mix.

With detailed advice from the farm staff such as "This bean is better suited to medium or light roasting rather than dark roasting," you can complete the roasting to your liking. After about 10 minutes of roasting the raw beans to the desired color, the roasting process is stopped by allowing the wind to cool the beans.

A hand drip is used to make the coffee immediately. Grinding the beans and adjusting the water temperature are carefully measured according to the type of beans and the level of roasting.

You can enjoy your freshly made coffee while gazing at the rich nature spread out in front of you. Fresh coffee that you have harvested and roasted on your own makes it a unique and truly enjoyable cup of coffee.

Nakayama Coffee Farm is supported by local friends and coffee fans from all around Japan.

"I have loved coffee since I was a student," says Mr. Kishimoto. He has been interested in coffee since he was young, enjoying the differences in flavor depending on the place of origin. After graduating from university, Mr. Kishimoto when to the United States to study agriculture. He returned to his hometown in Okinawa after about two years of learning about flower and vegetable seedlings. He then worked various jobs such as hydroponic cultivation and kayak guiding, and at the age of 29, he opened a restaurant in Nago City. He has been closely connected to the local community and ran the restaurant for about 17 years.

"I started the coffee farm when I received some seedlings from an acquaintance. I had studied seedlings in the United States and liked coffee, so I though I would give it a try. However, I didn't have a suitable piece of land. But a friend from my 'Moai' group told me he had some unused land which I could use freely."

*Moai: A traditional Okinawan culture of mutual support in which a group of friends gather regularly to enjoy food and drink. A set amount of money is collected each time and they take turns sharing with each other.

In 2013, Mr. Kishimoto started growing coffee while still working at the restaurant. He gradually expanded his farm, receiving advice from people who had started growing coffee in Okinawa before him as well as getting information about seedlings and cultivation from coffee lovers all over the country. In 2019, he became a full-time coffee farmer after securing a large harvest. He says that he has been able to continue thanks to crowdfunding (which our hotel participates in), subsidies from the government, and support from coffee lovers everywhere.

Mr. Kishimoto also said that he learned many things other than agriculture during his time in the United States in his early 20s. "I met many different people in the United States and learned that people have different ways of looking at things, thinking, and understanding. What I thought was common sense was different overseas. On the other hand, I also found that people have similar sensibilities to Japanese people."

Currently, about 10% of visitors to Nakayama Coffee Farm are tourists from outside of Japan. The rare coffee produced in Okinawa is gaining attention overseas, and the farm even receives orders from Europe. Mr. Kishimoto's experience in America is put to good use in his interactions with foreigners and in his diverse ideas about farm management.

AMBER HOLIC.: Another high-quality coffee you can enjoy at the hotel

At the hotel, the Club Lounge serves another specialty coffee, AMBER HOLIC.

AMBER HOLIC. is a coffee shop located in the Koza area of Okinawa City. It is one of many home roasting shops with fans throughout Okinawa where coffee culture is currently booming. With a US military base close to Koza, a unique culture that exudes an exotic atmosphere has taken root.

We spoke with Mr. Takashi Kina who is in charge of Lounge operations at the hotel. "Because the Club Lounge is a high-quality space, we want to serve the highest quality coffee possible. I, myself, love coffee and have visited many shops, but I was impressed by the passion of AMBER HOLIC.'s representative, Mr. Nomura. I felt that his passion showed a trustworthiness in his products."

Mr. Yuta Nomura, representative of AMBER HOLIC., personally visits farms overseas and purchases carefully selected coffee beans. He stayed at our hotel and made various suggestions from other perspectives saying, "I think this coffee would be suitable for the Club Lounge." Mr. Nomura has also spent time teaching the hotel staff about coffee so that they can accurately communicate with the guests.

"It was Mr. Nomura who suggested the Balmuda coffee maker. With hand drip coffee, there is inevitably variation in taste depending on who makes the coffee. We introduced this machine so that guests can enjoy the taste of AMBER HOLIC. coffee in the same way as they would at the shop. It is easy to operate with just a few steps, and its excellent design has been well received by guests."

"In order to provide guests with a satisfying coffee experience, we have also planned a service to change the type of coffee served in the Club Lounge depending on the time of day. From 10:00 to 17:00, we offer single origin coffees that pair well with the season. And from 19:00 to 223:00, we offer blends that are perfect for quiet evenings."

"We wanted to be able to offer a variety of coffees depending on when guests come to the Lounge throughout the day and throughout the year. We hope that not only coffee lovers but all of our guests will enjoy the charm of Okinawa's coffee culture." As a coffee lover himself, Mr. Kina's quest for coffee is never-ending.

Coffee cultivation in Okinawa has a long history dating back more than 100 years. However, since it is rarely shipped outside of the prefecture, its existence is not well-known. We hope that a cup of coffee at Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa will give you the opportunity to experience the charm of Okinawa's rich food culture which goes beyond the sea and the forests.

Nakayama Coffee Farm

Amberholic

"Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa" is recommended as a base for sightseeing in Okinawa

Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa completed a three-year comprehensive renovation in April 2024.

The hotel's pool and spa are of course attractive, but it also offers bed-sharing, a kids' space and pool, and a universal room, making it a comfortable hotel for guests of all ages. It also has good access to the theme parks in Nago City and Yambaru National Park, making it an easy base for sightseeing in Okinawa, so please use it when you are sightseeing in Okinawa.

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