{"id":406102,"date":"2024-02-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=406102"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"TOKYO-caf-brings-specialty-brew-to-Saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/TOKYO-caf-brings-specialty-brew-to-Saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"TOKYO caf\u00e9 brings specialty brew to Saipan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Takakazu Saishu-Castro opened TOKYO caf\u00e9 in September 2022 to finally bring what he describes as Japanese specialty coffee to Saipan\u2019s coffee connoisseurs.<\/p>\n<p>He said people on island usually only think of coffee as dark with a mild bitter taste but specialty coffee has so much flavors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoffee beans come from a fruit and is actually a cherry so naturally it should\u2019ve a fruity taste like berries and sometimes like honey and orange. It\u2019s just the roasting that makes it acidic and bitter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Just some of the myriad of hot coffee flavors Saishu-Castro and his staff offer at TOKYO caf\u00e9 include, French Press, Americano, Caffe Latte, Cappuccino, Soy\/Oat Latte, Honey Latte, and everyone\u2019s favorite, Caramel Macchiato.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoffee has so many flavor profiles\u2014chocolate, nutty, floral, honey, orange, berry&#8230; a lot. And there\u2019s the usual dark roast like the chocolate and nuts and the light roast like the flower, honey, blueberry, lychee, and honey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from hot coffee, they also serve an assortment of specialty hot tea, iced coffee, iced tea latte, and their quirky shake with ice cream. Saishu-Castro thinks that they\u2019re one of the only establishments on island that sells the latter.<\/p>\n<p>As for snacks, TOKYO caf\u00e9 offers two kinds of sandwiches\u2014the always reliable ham &amp; cheese and the surprisingly delectable salmon, tuna, and potato\u2014as well as a variety of vegetarian plant-based pastries like scones and cookies.<\/p>\n<p>Saishu-Castro, who worked as a barista, trainer, and manager of a coffee shop in Tokyo for more than 10 years before moving to the CNMI, said their location at the covered parking lot of Marianas Business Plaza has also attracted its fair share of local customers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLocal customers are slowly getting to know TOKYO caf\u00e9, but we need more tourist customers,\u201d said the Chiba, Japan native.<\/p>\n<p>TOKYO caf\u00e9 offers al fresco dining for 15 customers and also has a loyalty stamp card (nine stamps gives you a free cup). It also imports seasonal \u201cguest beans\u201d from Japan to allow customers to sample their new brew.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re open Monday-Friday from 7:30am to 5:30pm and Saturday from 8:30am to 2pm and closed on Sunday and holidays. For more information, call (670) 286-7763. TOKYO caf\u00e9 is also on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<p> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/fc1ec97b8c3999ecba6aca4353797556.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>TOKYO caf\u00e9\u2019s Caramel Macchiato and salmon, tuna, potato sandwich.<\/p>\n<p>-MARK RABAGO<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/d46265d75d645a1b838a804a1a01d172.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>From left, TOKYO caf\u00e9 staff Maki Ono and Laurence Abad and owner Takakazu Saishu-Castro.<\/p>\n<p>-MARK RABAGO<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/a786b1572fda75b3fb52d840a1d58d66.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Maki Ono and Takakazu Saishu-Castro happily serves customers.<\/p>\n<p>-MARK RABAGO<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/808900d04889a21edb3f8122d2b18da6.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>TOKYO caf\u00e9 received Grade A from Environmental Health Disease Prevention\u2019s sanitary inspection last August.<\/p>\n<p>-MARK RABAGO<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Takakazu Saishu-Castro opened TOKYO caf\u00e9 in September 2022 to finally bring what he describes as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}