Baristart coffee is a coffee stand where you can hear all about the milk produced in Hokkaido and its relation to the coffee scene in Japan. What makes the best coffee? Everyone believes that the most important thing in a good cup of coffee is the beans. Of course, we think so too and in fact, we are particular about coffee beans. We source high quality beans from roasters in both Tokyo and Sapporo to pair with our milk. So then why is “milk” so important? Because we were born and raised in Hokkaido and we grew up with an abundance of dairy. Hokkaido's dairy and livestock industry is the strongest in Japan . Over 50% of the milk in Japan is produced in Hokkaido. The cool climate and vast farmland make it ideal for raising cattle. Since we were children we've seen hundreds of cattle roaming across the rich landscape of Hokkaido. A bottle of milk from Hokkaido has been always around us. We would like to show people around the world our lifestyle through a cup of coffee. With that in mind we decided to open a coffee stand which focuses on the uncompromising quality of milk from Hokkaido. That's the reason why we opened “Baristart”. Our head barista and resident milk connoisseur Yuuki Takeuchi visits the farms around Hokkaido every few months to gain a greater understanding of the dairy industry and also scope out some new milk for the shop. While learning about different types of milk we also learned about the entire process of producing milk (how to sterilize the raw milk, milking time and so on)from farmers as they helped us find the right milk. The milk we use comes from different types cows and different regions such as Jersey, Holstein, Guernsey etc. The most common in the world and 99% of cows in Japan are Holstein cows which are speckled with black and white spots. On the other hand , brown Jersey cows are slightly more unique. There are only eight hundred of heads of cattle in Hokkaido.The milk from these cows is very rich and includes a lot of butterfat and protein making it suitable for dairy products such as cheese and butter. Eventually we selected two types of milk (including a pasteurised Jersey milk) and two types of coffee beans. Our Arabica coffee blend has strong acidity and a floral aroma and our Robusta coffee blend is a more on the darker, full bodied side. Once all this came together in June 2015we opened our first cafe “Baristart Coffee Stand” located in Odori. Recently we've opened new shops at other locations around Hokkaido as our demand and interest increases. However we're still making time to visit the farms and maintain a close relationship with our producers. As such we've still been able to source some new and exciting milk throughout the year. Occasionally we'll run a guest milk such as Guernsey milk, this milk is quite uncommon due to the scarcity of both cows and the amount of milk they produce.