Roasted Coffee Laboratory, Tokyo

Coffee culture is pretty legit in Tokyo.  And no, I'm not referring to the prevalence of vending machines with canned and bottled coffee, nor to the fun drink lineup at Starbucks or other chains.  And no, not even to the slew of San Francisco bay area companies who now have establishments there (yes, Blue Bottle, Verve, and more, all with a presence in Tokyo ... its ... odd, really).  I just mean in general, coffee seems to be taken fairly seriously, and it is clear that some care is going into sourcing and roasting.

Roppongi Storefront.

Like a Roasted Coffee Laboratory, a local roaster in Shibuya, with shop locations around town, including the one I visited in Roppongi inside the mall.  The location is not alongside other food vendors on the lower levels or level 6, but rather, on one of the middle levels, alongside clothing stores.

I would have never found it, if I hadn't been seeking it out.

Signage.

But why was I even seeking it out?

Not because I knew anything about the company.  I'd like to pretend that I know anything about the company, but alas, I don't.  And I wasn't even there for the coffee.

I was there because of this sign.

See that image on top?  Yeah, that is soft serve ice cream.  Presumably coffee soft serve ice cream.  With toppings.

Ice Cream!

And I was on a 2-a-day minimum of ice cream eating in Tokyo, and my jetlag was causing some energy lags, so ... yeah, coffee ice cream sounded worth following signs for, even without knowing anything about the place.

I knew I was in the right place when I saw the oversized plastic ice cream cone on the counter.

Menu.

 I did quickly look at the menu, full of all your standard coffee and espresso drinks, teas and lemonade, plus some rather ... interesting items, including grass-fed butter coffee (eh, that's a trend, not totally novel) and tapioca milk coffee (ok, also kinda a trend?), but also ... a lemon olive oil latte?

And then there was  the food menu, which had exactly 5 items: a hot dog, a cheese dog, a triple cheese sandwich, a burger, and ... french toast.  An amusing lineup, really.

Aww, Sweets!

The sweets menu did look pretty good, in addition to the soft cream, there were shakes, the french toast, cakes ...

Grab n Go Cakes.

Additional, already packaged, cakes were waiting in a display case, and I'll admit, I was pretty tempted to grab one of these "for later" as well.

Baked Goods.

And don't get me started on the maple nut bread and glazed cinnamon rolls, again, I almost grabbed, for later ...

But I didn't, I stuck with my plan, and ordered just my ice cream.

Seating.

The location has a small amount of exclusive seating, a few stools along a counter on one side, and two small tables on the other.  Back out in the mall though there is plenty of other seating nearby.

Coffee Soft Cream. 420 yen.

The soft cream comes in one size, one style only.  No cone option, no different toppings option, not even a description of the toppings that do come with it are provided.  The menu simply says "Coffee soft cream", and if I hadn't seen the other image, I wouldn't have known it was actually a sundae.

It looked picture perfect.

The soft cream was intensely coffee flavored, and I quickly worried about how much caffeine I was consuming.  The style was basically no different from soft serve I get in the US, which was a bit disappointing, as I was expecting the creamier, richer, and milk forward flavors I have come to love in Tokyo.  It was slightly icy, but still fairly smooth.  The flavor was good intense, but, it was just coffee soft serve.

Drizzled over it was coffee syrup, totally unnecessary given how intense the coffee flavor was already, but it sure made it look even more lovely.

Then, one side is coated with cocoa nibs, which added the perfect crunch, and another bitter compliment to the already intense soft serve.  The nibs really did make a nice difference.

The other side though is where the magic was.  This view sadly doesn't capture it well, but, coated cereal flakes.  They seemed to be coated in perhaps a light layer of milk chocolate? They were extremely crisp, extremely flavorful, and I really loved what they added.  As the soft serve melted, I had visions of the best breakfast ever, with that totally inappropriate cereal and coffee milk rather than regular milk ... oh man.

Overall, this was a nice little coffee sundae, fine quality everything, and intensely coffee flavored.  The toppings definitely made it standout.  I likely would not get it again, as I was really hoping for something with a different type of flavor and texture, but, still recommended, just with the correct expectations.