I’ve always been infatuated with coffee art and since we were making a trip to Japan, I already knew of a couple of places I wanted to stop by because now there is 2D and 3D coffee art in Japan!

REISSUE - HARAJUKU

What is 2D and 3D coffee art? 2D coffee art is a flat design on top of the coffee. 3D coffee art uses milk froth to create shapes popping out of the coffee.

We stopped by two cafes in Japan, one in Harajuku and the other in Ginza. The cafe in Harajuku is called Reissue (リシュー) and it’s a little coffee shop in an alley across the street from the end of the famous Takeshita Street. We used Google Maps and found it pretty easily. It’s on the 2nd floor and it’s a tiny space with about 5 tables and a couple of couches. Even though the cafe was pretty full, we were lucky enough to sit at the cute lounge area with the couches.

The waiter gave us English menus and it’s a short menu with hot drinks, cold drinks, alcohol and a few desserts. The menu informs you that they only take cash and that each person at a table must order one item. The prices are actually pretty expensive considering you’re only getting coffee, but you’re paying for the artist’s skills. The latte itself is ¥650 and if you want the 2D or 3D art, it’s an additional ¥400, making the total cost of the latte ¥1050 (~$10).

Japanese girls taking pictures of their 2D coffee art

We ordered the cappuccino and vanilla cafe latte and requested the 3D art. The artist, Kohei Matsuno, can pretty much design anything you ask for. You can either request something generic or give him a picture to reference. We requested a dog and Totoro for our 3D coffee art.

If your’e in a hurry, this is not the place to go because it took about 20 minutes to get our coffee. To me, it’s actually not that long considering there’s only one guy working on every art coffee order. He’s a one-of-a-kind artist, so you have to be patient and wait for his creative magic.

Taking in all the cuteness of this dog 3D coffee art

Once we got our 3D coffee lattes, we were blown away at how awesome the artwork was. Totoro was spot on and the dog was so darn cute. We took a million pictures of the latte art and once we were done, we didn’t want to drink it because we felt bad crushing the artwork.

We looked around at everyone else’s coffee art and they were all amazing too. There were a couple of Japanese girls that had the artist draw their favorite Japanese idol for their 2D art latte which was pretty funny.

Totoro 3D Coffee art at Reissue in Harajuku

Dog 3D Coffee art at Reissue in Harajuku

NISSAN CROSSING CAFE - GINZA

If you don’t want to pay for expensive art coffee or don’t want to wait that long, the 2D coffee art called Macchi-art at the Nissan Crossing Cafe will be a better fit for you.

This cafe is located in Ginza at a Nissan exhibit. At first, you think you’re at the wrong place because you wouldn’t think there would be a cafe inside a car exhibit, but once you walk in, you will see a sign directing you upstairs to the cafe.

Everything inside this building looks modern and high-tech. The cafe is located on the second floor and there are a few sitting areas with a charging station by the large window overlooking the busy streets of Ginza.

When you go up to the register, you have two choices for your Macchi-art. Either a Nissan car model or a photo they take of you. Most people choose to take their picture, which is exactly what we did. The staff took a picture of us on their iPad and then their machine went to work producing a perfect digital image of us on top of our iced coffee. We were impressed with how clear and sharp it was!

THERE'S OUR PICTURE THAT'S ABOUT TO BE PRINTED ON OUR COFFEE!

PERFECT DIGITAL IMAGE OF US ON OUR ICED COFFEE

The wait time depends on how many people are at the cafe, but it really didn’t take that long. I would say 10 minutes tops. The price of the coffee was ¥400 (~$4), which is pretty normal. We liked that we had the option of getting hot or cold coffee for the Macchi-art.

We really enjoyed both locations, but I was personally more impressed with Reissue because the artist custom designs every single cup of coffee. You will really appreciate his unique talent.

REISSUE
ADDRESS: 神宮前 3-25-7, 丹治ビル 2F, Shibuya, 東京都〒150-0001 Japan
ACCESS: Harajuku Station
HOURS: Open daily 10 AM - 6 PM

NISSAN CROSSING CAFE
ADDRESS: 〒104-0061 Tōkyō-to, Chūō-ku, Ginza, 五丁目8−8番1号
ACCESS: Ginza Line, Hibiya Line, Marunouchi line “Ginza Station” Exit A3·A4·A5
HOURS: Open daily 10 AM - 8 PM