Rio Coffee Ashiya

Welcome to Ashiya, one of the wealthiest cities in Japan, home to Yodoko Guest House (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), The Koshino House (designed by Ando Tadao) and a lovely cafe called “Rio Coffee Ashiya” instagram.com/riocoffeejapan. Rio Coffee Ashiya opened it’s doors in 2009 under a different name ‘Torrefazione Rio’ and is the main store with the second one in Kobe Kitano area and the third one Qoffee in Nakanoshima. The cafe sits on a short walk from JR Tokaido-Sanyo Line – Ashiya Station along a road lined with beautiful cherryblossom trees making it especially worth a visit during cherryblossom season.

The café features a distinctive exterior, highlighted by a stylish pink stucco wall on the left and a take-out window with wooden paneling on the right. Upon entering, you’ll encounter a shelf displaying products for sale, a cozy seating area accommodating up to eight people, and the kitchen at the front, with a roasting area situated at the back of the café. Rio Coffee stands out as a specialty coffee store with a focus on the bean producers. Beans are roasted in-house, and the café specializes in hand-brewed specialty coffee.

The menu features mainly coffee inlcuding handdrip, special handdrip coffee (which includes a drink called “Top Of the Top” which is a rare coffee that sells for more than 10 times the market price. A luxurious drink), cafe latte (700 yen ~), oatmilk cafe latte, espresso, blood orange espresso tonic, coffee leaf chai and affogato. Besides coffee there are also small sweets including homemade cake, carrot cake, brownie or lemon cake.

Rio Coffee Ashiya is a nice cafethat focusses on specialty coffee and beans, ideal for coffee lovers, as well as a great place for viewing lovely cherry blossoms in Spring.