Filter Notes Japan edition

The Friday Edit

Beans, gear and good finds. Every Friday.

Edition No. 15
30 October 2026

Shopping region

Local availability, prices and fresh coffee sources.

The Friday Edit

Excellent beans. Interesting objects. Once a week.

The new regional edit, every Friday. Nothing else.

01 / The cover story Object of the week

The Friday Edit: Quiet control and made-for-ritual tools

April’s taste-first hand grinder leads a Japan edit of considered manual tools, four coffees from Coffee County and LIGHT UP, and small storage pieces made to settle into a daily ritual.

Spotlight

April Coffee · Grinders

April Hand Grinder 01

A 48 mm conical hand grinder developed with TIMEMORE around April’s filter-brewing taste targets.

Five years of development has produced a hand grinder designed around cup profile rather than headline burr size: top adjustment, recipe engravings, a threaded cup and tool-free disassembly all support a deliberate April Brewer workflow.

¥69,300

Special preorder open at Kurasu Japan; expected around February 2027.

Visit April Coffee ↗

02 / Fresh coffee 4 bags to know

Beans for the week

A short regional edit of fresh coffees worth brewing now.

THE ETHIOPIAN ROAST 200g by COFFEE COUNTY

ProcessNatural

Bean pick

COFFEE COUNTY · Coffee beans

THE ETHIOPIAN ROAST 200g

Shantawene, Bensa, Sidama, Ethiopia · Natural · Ceremony-inspired roast · bitter chocolate, strawberry, sweet spice, earth

Coffee County recreates the uneven intensity of Ethiopian coffee-ceremony roasting on a Probat, aiming for bitter chocolate and wild spice around fruit held in the bean’s centre.

Kenya Gatura Factory AB ‘The Middle’ by Coffee County

ProcessFully washed

Bean pick

Coffee County · Coffee beans

Kenya Gatura Factory AB ‘The Middle’

Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri, Kenya · Fully washed · Medium · mandarin orange, blackcurrant, apple, thyme, brown sugar

A direct-import Nyeri AB in Coffee County’s new ‘The Middle’ roast: deeper than its standard light profile, but still built around mandarin, blackcurrant and a long juicy finish.

Kenya Gichangi Estate AA by COFFEE COUNTY

ProcessFully washed

Bean pick

COFFEE COUNTY · Coffee beans

Kenya Gichangi Estate AA

Mutira, Kirinyaga, Kenya · Fully washed · Light · pink grapefruit, plum, yellow peach, black tea, brown sugar

Gichangi’s SL28 and SL34 lot layers pink grapefruit, plum and yellow peach over brown-sugar sweetness, finishing with black-tea detail as it cools.

ProcessWashed

Bean pick

LIGHT UP COFFEE · Coffee beans

Mi Regalo — Honduras

Intibucá, Honduras · Washed · Light · stone fruit, red apple, loquat, green tea

Yessica Victoria Mancia’s washed IH-90 brings stone fruit, red apple and loquat, with a quiet green-tea finish: a softer contrast to the edition’s Kenyan coffees.

03 / The objects 5 more to know

The gear edit

The objects making brewing more precise, more enjoyable or simply better looking.

Adjustable flow

HARIO · Manual brewing

Alpha Dripper Tritan

A transparent conical dripper with a rotating base that changes flow restriction.

The Alpha makes resistance visible and adjustable at the brewer rather than forcing every change through grind size, opening a useful second axis for recipe development.

Clay and hinoki

tukumo japan · Manual brewing

tukumo Dripper

A Seto reinforced-clay cone paired with a hinoki cypress holder.

Seto clay and a hinoki holder make the material contrast the point, while dual paper compatibility leaves room to shift cup style without changing the object.

Mino craft

Kalita · Manual brewing

Mino-yaki Sand Series Dripper

A Mino-yaki ceramic Wave-style dripper with a granular sand-toned glaze.

A familiar Kalita geometry becomes a more tactile table object through Mino-yaki production and a granular, understated glaze.

Original Coffee Canister by Kato Seisakusho by Kurasu Kyoto

Small find

Kurasu Kyoto · Accessories & oddities

Original Coffee Canister by Kato Seisakusho

A handmade 250 g double-lid coffee canister produced with Kato Seisakusho.

A humble storage object made more satisfying by the double lid and small-scale Japanese metalwork.

Small find

Kurasu Kyoto · Accessories & oddities

Original Pouch

A simple branded pouch for filters, small tools or travel coffee odds and ends.

The sort of inexpensive soft storage that quietly improves a travel kit by giving papers and small tools a home.

Editorially selected, never paid placement. Prices and availability can change; affiliate links are always disclosed.

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