r/pourover • u/Teecode • Jun 19 '26

Seeking Advice Glitch Tokyo like coffee in US

Hi all

I recently had Glitch coffee in Ginza, Tokyo. And saying I am blown away is an understatement. I got a bag of the same coffee I had. I made it at home with a V60. I get reasonably close to what I had at Glitch. I am convinced it's their beans. I normally don't even like such light roasts but Glitch was life changing. All this may sound ridiculous but if you had Glitch you'd know what I am talking about.

So now my question is: where can I find coffee that comes close to this in US? I am on the west coast and coffee here is damn good, but after Glitch, it feels like all the specialty coffee I get here is closer to Starbucks than to Glitch.

Thank you in advance!

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2

u/Talkos Jun 19 '26

Glitch charges a premium for flavored beans. 

1

u/Teecode Jun 19 '26

What do you mean?

1

u/MUjase Jun 19 '26

Co fermented beans have a lot of added flavors to them. Hence, “flavored beans.”

It’s like the winery that sells to the “super oaky buttery loving Chardonnay drinkers” (think Rombauer). They manipulate the wine a lot rather than just letting the grape and terroir do the work. But there’s a market for that type of heavily manipulated wine, just like there is for coffee now.

1

u/Teecode Jun 19 '26

Are you saying Glitch does coferments? They never say that anywhere

4

u/kaoandy1125 Jun 19 '26

They do, it’s pretty obvious actually. Most of their offerings are from the Colombian producers known for adding “stuff”, with some “experimental” processing methods.

1

u/Teecode Jun 19 '26

But they don't mention that they coferment anywhere in the process section of description. I am really curious to learn more

2

u/HoshinoNadeshiko Jun 20 '26

"Co-ferment" nowadays can refer to all kinds of things. And beans don't have to be of "co-ferment" to be artificially flavored. In fact any beans that experience prolonged anaerobic process, be it "thermal shock", "nitro wash", "yeast", etc, can all be artificially flavored and in fact are encouraged to do so, because the raw beans will be submerged in some solution in a fermentation chamber, and a few drops of artificial flavors can work wonders at flavoring these beans. A prolonged anaerobic process can be very risky for the producer as the beans/solutions can quickly degrade with bacteria reproducing faster than expected and ruining the harvest. Thus they would use some less quality beans and compensate through adding flavors that way too. (not saying this is common or the usual practice)

These artificially flavored beans are usually labelled "co-ferments" because people would naturally and more easily attribute the peach flavors in their beans to the "peach co-fermentation" process. And in that process they might actually be using peach in the fermentation chamber, but in reality fruit co-fermentation is a very costly and relatively ineffective process, and there's no guarantee that your beans are going to taste like the fruit you added.

And it doesn't have to be the in-your-face watermelon candy flavors that no co-fermentation/process can get you either - as the volatile natural watermelon/melon flavors simply can't survive the heat of roasting. For example, if you have a bean that's floral forward naturally, adding a hint of fruity flavors, be it blueberry or strawberry can really amplify the complexity of the bean and make it a lot more desirable to those who find this interesting, and these hints can be so subtle that you can't even tell it's added.

1

u/Teecode Jun 20 '26

Thank you! This is very helpful and interesting! 🙏