Have you heard of the world's best barista, Satoshi Kasuya?

He was the first Asian to win the World Brewers Cup in 2016, the world's most prestigious international competition for coffee extraction techniques, and is the proponent of the 4:6 Method, which allows anyone to brew delicious coffee.

Perhaps this makes him more familiar to you if you learn that he co-developed FamilyMart's "FAMIMA CAFÉ" counter coffee and supervised the "Approved by the World's No. 1 Barista" series.

Why is Kasuya attracting attention from around the world? In the first part, we look at his journey to becoming the world's best barista, and in the second part, Kasuya examines the challenges and future of the coffee industry, and we also ask Kasuya how to brew delicious coffee.

Type 1 diabetes makes life richer and freer

An interview with Kasuya was scheduled for January 2025, but was postponed when he fell ill and was hospitalized during a business trip in the United States. As Kasuya suffers from type 1 diabetes, there were concerns about his health, but we were told that his current condition is not related to diabetes, but rather to Fisher syndrome, which causes abnormalities in the peripheral nerves. After three months of rest, we interviewed him at PHILOCOFFEA Omotesando, where preparations are underway for its opening on March 3, 2025.

"There are many difficult things about being sick, but there are also many benefits. When I was suffering from a terrible headache, drinking a cup of coffee calmed me down. I feel like coffee has saved me this time too," he said.

My illness strengthened my resolve to live a life without regrets

"I studied finance at university and graduate school. I got a little bored of poring over numbers, so I chose to work for an IT consulting firm where I could interact with people. At the time, coffee didn't even seem like a luxury item to me."

Kasuya became the world's best barista in just three years, but what made him decide to pursue a career as a barista, even though he's not particularly fond of coffee?

"When I was working for a company, I was suddenly hospitalized due to poor health and the doctor there told me that I had type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease that you have to live with for the rest of your life, so of course it was a shock, but I was relieved that it wasn't a disease that would kill me tomorrow."

During his first long hospital stay in his life, Kasuya had nothing better to do, and remembered that his doctor had told him it was okay to drink coffee, so he decided to try making his own. He left his hospital room, bought a set of coffee equipment at a shop, and was also taught how to make coffee, and made his first drip coffee in his hospital room.

"I grinded the coffee beans in a grinder, put the grounds in a dripper and poured hot water over them. I did it exactly as I was taught, but the hot water just wouldn't drain. The staff told me to brew it for about three minutes, but the water wouldn't drain so easily that it never finished, and the coffee I ended up with tasted awful." At the time, Kasuya knew so little about coffee that he didn't even know that grinders could be adjusted to the desired grind size, but this experience ignited a fire in his heart.

"Until now I've been a jack of all trades, master of none, and I've been able to do just about anything. But I just couldn't make good coffee. I think this was probably the first time in my life that I was completely unable to do something. This experience was the beginning of my research into how to make good coffee."

After being released from the hospital, I worked for an IT consulting firm for about a year, then I put an end to my enjoyable life as a corporate employee and quit my job.

"After the Great East Japan Earthquake, I volunteered to support the reconstruction efforts in Ishinomaki. This was before I got ill, but the scenes I saw then greatly changed my view of life and death. My illness made me want to live my life in a way that I would have no regrets when I die."
So when Kasuya thought about what he would regret not doing at the end of his life, the first thing that came to mind was "living abroad." "Huh? Isn't it supposed to be a barista?" I'm sure there are many people who thought the same.
It must have taken courage to stop a smooth-sailing life and change direction.

I felt this many times during the interview, but Kasuya only had positive words coming out of his mouth. Even when most people would be upset, Kasuya calmly weathered the difficulties. His calmness was enough to calm those around him who were confused by the troubles.

"One of the things I learned at the IT consulting company is that there is a difference between being positive and being optimistic. If 'it will work out' is optimistic, then 'I will work out' is positive. When faced with a problem, I have developed the habit of thinking about 'how can I solve this'. Well, being pessimistic won't help you move forward," he says, again, calmly.

The risky decision that shook the global coffee industry with the "4:6 Method"

"I decided to go to the UK on a working holiday and quit my job in June. However, the lottery was not until January. In the six months leading up to that, I had developed a love for coffee, and I knew I would be able to work as a barista in the UK, so I decided to work as a barista at COFFEE FACTORY."

COFFEE FACTORY is a specialty coffee shop with its own roasted beans, headquartered in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. Learning a lot from the owner, Mr. Furuhashi, Kasuya honed his skills as a barista and served as manager of the Moriya Station store.

It was at this point that Kasuya and the barista finally bonded.

While working as a barista, Kasuya participated in several coffee competitions, but was unable to win. In his second year, he finally won the right to go on a working holiday to the UK through a lottery, and two weeks later, he participated in the Japan Aeropress Championship*¹ and achieved his long-awaited victory. "This will add some prestige to my reputation, and it will make it easier to work in the UK," he said. After that, before leaving for the UK, he competed in the Japan Brewers Cup*² and won, earning the right to compete in the world championship.

The World Brewers Cup brings together the best baristas from around the world, but no Asian has ever won. How will Kasuya win? Will he follow the example of past winners in his presentation, or will he take a gamble that could mean losing in the preliminary rounds?

"Looking at previous winners, it was a competition of skills. It seemed like the emphasis was on techniques that not everyone could do, but my presentation was the complete opposite. I proposed the '4:6 Method' with which anyone can brew delicious coffee. I felt that winning with a reproducible presentation that included disclosing the recipe, something that was taboo until then, has led to reform in the coffee industry."

The 4:6 Method, which incorporates the ratio of coffee beans to hot water, pouring timing, and other factors into a logical system, is the world's first theory that allows anyone to make delicious coffee. The recognition of this groundbreaking proposal has surely led to a broadening of ways to enjoy coffee. Another big change is that since Kasuya won, the number of Asian winners has increased.

The launch of "PHILOCOFFEA," a place filled with Kasuya's passion to promote the appeal of coffee

After becoming number one in the world, Kasuya gave up on his plans to move to England and, as the World Brewers' Cup world champion, became busy working as a coffee ambassador, giving seminars and lecturing all over the world.
At the same time, Kasuya began importing, roasting, and selling specialty coffee beans that he purchased from coffee farms, and opened the first Coffee Rotary Café, "PHILOCOFFEEA Chapeau Funabashi" in 2018.

"Ever since winning the championship, I've continued to hold seminars and coach top baristas, but to be honest, I'm not very good at seminars. I began to wonder what the people who came to listen were looking for. Even if a technique is common sense to me, what does it mean to everyone else? That's what led me to start YouTube. On YouTube, anyone who wants to hear can come and listen, I can talk freely and broadcast it to the world, and I also receive comments from all over the world. I use it as a platform to efficiently communicate my ideas to the world."

On YouTube, Kasuya shares a wide range of information about coffee in his own words, from technical topics such as coffee beans, roasting, and brewing recipes to coffee tasting comparisons and introductions to baristas from around the world, and his channel has nearly 14 subscribers.

Establishing three companies and working towards our dreams with our colleagues

"My dream is to make PHILOCOFFEA a company with annual sales of 50 billion to 100 billion yen. When I quit my job to become a barista, I saw the salary of a barista and realized it would be difficult to start a family. Unless the profession of barista is more valued and a business model is created that allows people to earn a decent income, the coffee business will not grow."

Kasuya is currently the representative of three companies. The first is PHILOCOFFEEA, which imports, roasts, and sells specialty coffee beans, including three cafes in Chiba Prefecture and one in Omotesando. The second is Kasuya's personal company, Coffee Aru Tokoro, which is involved in product development and consulting with companies such as FamilyMart, as well as coaching baristas. The third is a joint venture recently launched by PHILOCOFFEA and office coffee service Daiohs called Special Coffee Experience, which roasts, manufactures, and sells specialty coffee for office coffee.

"My income comes from 'where the coffee is,' and I try to give as much of PHILOCOFFEA's sales back to my employees as possible. I want PHILOCOFFEA to one day be a company that can pay the highest wages in the industry."

In order to pay the highest possible wages, it is necessary to create a profitable business model, and to do so, the cooperation of employees is essential.

"At our company, we require our employees to learn how to read numbers properly. In that respect we may be stricter than other coffee companies," he says.
This means that each employee will be able to manage the sales of each store, which means they will be able to acquire managerial skills.

Kasuya's thoughts when he first started PHILOCOFFEA are printed on the PHILOCOFFEA coffee packaging.

"There is no such thing as being satisfied with the path to perfection. We continue to pursue greater quality and experience value, and work hard every day to achieve this. We do not just seek the highest quality coffee, but also aim for a sustainable coffee industry, show understanding for producers, and respect for the great nature that produces coffee."

The words "There is no such thing as perfection on the path to perfection" were given to Kasuya by a now-deceased regular customer when he was working as a barista at COFFEE FACTORY.
"It was thanks to these words that I was able to become number one in the world. They still remain in my heart," says Kasuya.

It's been about seven years since the first PHILOCOFFEEA store opened, but the passion he felt back then hasn't changed. Kasuya says he's preparing to take a bigger step on the world stage, and he's confident that he'll "definitely get it done." We look forward to seeing what PHILOCOFFEA and Kasuya do in the future.

*1: A competition to compete in coffee extraction techniques using the Aeropress coffee extraction device.
*2: The Japan Brewers Cup is the Japanese competition of the World Brewers Cup, a coffee competition organized by World Coffee Events. The winner will be eligible to compete in the World Coffee Events.

(Titles omitted)

Text by Yuko Taniguchi
Photography by Hidehiro Yamada