Just like the year before, spring 2026 had another long trip to Japan lined up for us. We spent the first few weeks road tripping through the (sub)tropical islands of Okinawa and Ishigaki, the latter of which sits just off Taiwan – and quite far away from Japan’s main island Honshū. This beautiful part of Japan really felt like an entirely different country. Next up was an extended stay in Tokyo once again. Our home this time around was in a cute, residential neighborhood around the Higashi-Matsubara station in the Setagaya ward, not too far from where we stayed the year before. This year again we were spoilt with cherry blossom in full bloom all over.

After our coffee trip in southern Ecuador and northern Peru, we were to explore a more touristy side of Peru for the following weeks: Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and Arequipa. As we were working almost full-time throughout most of the trip, we traveled at a slow pace, spending a week or more in most of these places. Yet, we took lots of day trips and tried to see as much as possible.

Last fall, it was once again time for some coffee farm visits. Within just a couple of days, we visited farms in southern Ecuador and northern Peru – only a few hundred kilometers away from each other. We’ve been buying coffee from both farms for several years and now we had the chance to finally meet in person and visit the farms ourselves. Two very different farms, yet both produce high-quality coffee. This trip reminded us that there is no single right way to produce good coffee.

Between our short stay in Hongkong and our visit in China mentioned in the previous post, we spent two months in Japan. Most of the time was spent in Tokyo, where we immersed ourselves in a quiet but really nice neighborhood called Sasazuka, which is part of Shibuya. We also got to experience cherry blossom season in all its glory and consumed more sakura mochis than we could have ever imagined. Every now and then, we embarked on little trips to discover other places such as Karuizawa, Nagano, Obuse, Mount Takao, Matsumoto, Nikko as well as Kyoto and Osaka. Though we only just returned home a couple of months ago, we can’t wait to go back eventually.

Spring of 2025 brought us to Hongkong for the very first time as well as back to China. Hongkong was amazing! We loved this huge city with a vibrant specialty coffee scene, lots of art museums and incredible food. Having spent a few days in Shanghai the previous year on a stopover, we were very much looking forward to visiting again—and for a few more days this time around. We had a full week to spend in and around Shanghai and while we also indulged in the city’s restaurants and cafés, we went to see Zhouzhuang Town in Suzhou as well as Hangzhou with the beautiful West Lake. Right next to the city, we were also able to visit some […]

It’s been on the list for a long time: In late 2024, we finally visited Brazil, the country that is the biggest producer of Arabica coffee. At Drip Roasters, we buy a lot of coffee from Brazil. And last year we got to visit all the farms and producers we have been buying from for several years. Besides many different sites in Minas Gerais, where the coffee magic happens, we visited São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a town called Ouro Preto, and several incredibly beautiful places further north in Bahia.

Shanghai and Bangkok were two short stopovers on our way to Japan and Korea and on our trip back.

From Taipei to Kaohsiung, via Chiayi to the coffee growing region in the Alishan Mountain Range, to the Kenting National Park in the South of Taiwan.

From Tokyo to the museum islands Naoshima and Teshima, onwards to South Korea’s Busan and Jeju Island.

A good week’s road trip through Andalucía in the summer of 2023.