Customers that enter the café space located in the observation deck of Roppongi Hills Tokyo, are first greeted by the orderly lined gacha machines.
Customers use these machines which are typically made for buying toys, to buy a capsule that contains coffee beans for one cup of coffee.
Some of the machines contain a mix of a variety of beans, and some even have rare “secret” beans, which adds to the small excitement for the opportunity to encounter an unknown flavor.
Next, the customers themselves put the beans that they purchased into the grinder, then the grinded beans fall into the dripper, and lastly, after setting the dripper and the cup on the extractor and pressing the button, the coffee is finally served.
By simplifying the operation and asking the customers to take part in preparing the coffee, the role of the employees has been reduced, enabling them to spend that extra time to communicate with the customers. Another important aspect is that by having the customers participate, they were relieved from the stress often felt while waiting in line with frustration for their coffee. In other words, the intention was not to create a completely automated café, rather, it was to provide a comfortable and peaceful time for both the customers and the employees.