21 January 2026
The vending machine game for drinks is much better in Japan than it is in Australia. There can be both hot and cold drinks available from a single machine, and most corners/streets have one or two machines. Since our travel was in winter, the hot drink scores may be inflated. All coffees are hot, any other drinks where the heat may be ambiguous have been marked.
Through the trip I’ve enjoyed strong matcha tea a lot, since it resembles espresso in a lot of ways. It has a bitter flavour that invigorates and gives a strong caffeine hit. Our introduction to matcha came from a Kaiseki restaurant experience in Tokyo, where the final course was a strong matcha tea, it was almost paste. I haven’t included it here because I believe it’s not in the spirit of this list, as it was a component of the 11th course within a set meal, not a single standing beverage.
*VM = Vending Machine
Beverages
From VM: FANCL X KIRIN Sparkling apple
10/10 for sugarless drinks, tasted like natural apple juice.
Americano From VM: Boss Black Coffee
8/10
Pretty good.
From VM: Hot Chocolate
5/10.
Average, kind of watery. Most of the 5 points came from the heat.
Komeda’s Coffee
8/10 feels like American filter coffee, it’s getting at least one nostalgia point from me. Komeda’s is like a lazy cafe, where you can sit for hours and they don’t really press you (at least I never stayed that long). The bread at Komeda’s is the best, super fluffy without being sweet. Great butter too.
From VM: Hot Corn
9/10*
Conditionally 9/10 that it is a cold night. The corn drink is flavoured with onion, and contains chunks of corn kernels.
Americano From VM: Wonda Black the aroma
5/10 Tasted like they used a sock for a filter, very thin and no distinct flavour.
Americano From VM: Dydo Blend The Black
7/10 I love the design and feel of Dydo’s The Black, since it resembles a tiny barrel. The coffee was decent but not inspiring, slightly watery and slightly bitter, no detectable subtle flavours.
From Shinkansen VM: JR Shinkansen (bullet train) coffee, (long black)
8/10 Slightly acidic, good amount of burnt and bitter flavour. The machine that makes the coffee is a treat, it shows a video of the coffee as it’s being made.
See video of coffee vending machine during an order. It takes 95 seconds to make a coffee so it can feel like a wait. Worth it if you are about to board your Shinkansen though.
Americano from Cafe 107 in Kazamatsuri (near Odawara City)
7/10 pretty average for cafe coffee, not a lot of distinct flavour but did have some bitterness.
Americano from vm: Dydo cafe black
7.5/10 like its Dydo barrel counterpart, it’s not a drink that brings disapointent, but it doesn’t make me feel much of anything else either.
Espresso from vm: Tully’s Coffee Barista Espresso
5.5/10 I can’t fully explain why I didn’t like Tully’s espresso as much as I did. I’ll have to revisit. I think it was very thin for an espresso, which made me feel lied to.
Americano from vm: W Coffee Black
9.5/10 The perfect espresso/americano from a vending machine, highly recommended. I wanted to drink water soon after this drink so I could enjoy the subtle aftertaste, which was light, non-acidic and roasted nutty.
Demitasse from vm: Dydo Blend Demitasse Coffee
3/10 Not black coffee. It was sweetened and had a small amount of milk. Really not for me, might appeal to Turkish coffee drinkers?
Americano from Mister Donut in Odawara
6/10 Hard for me to judge at the time due to surrounding factors (See day 10) and the relief the next day that everything worked out after returning the car. I don’t think this coffee was good though.
Americano from VM: Georgia Coffee
6/10 Watery, slightly acidic flavour, didn’t bring on a nostalgic feeling for american black coffee as I was hoping.
Espresso from Bread, Espresso & Minimorimachi Station
9/10 Great espresso, reminds me of Australian coffee. Fruity and still a bit bitter. I loved the shop too, it had fresh baked pastries and bread, not like the Bread, Espresso & in Wollongong. So funny to that they have the same name, I’ve been wondering which came first.
Espresso from City Bakery
9.5/10 Slightly less fruity and more of the subtle taste when drinking water, super nice espresso. Fun little non-functional lid too. The shop was a very similar deal to Bread, Espresso &.
Komino Yuzu Drink
7/10 but Clare’s favourite.
Oro Espresso outside Kyoto temple Kinkaku-Ji: Matcha Latte
9.5/10 such a yummy Matcha Latte, 10/10 recommend going here if you’re in the area. The guy who runs it had good English and was thinking about travelling to Australia to experience the coffee which was pretty cool!
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ozqaWWj4diyBUY146?g_st=ipc
**Photo from their website
Matcha Latte from Grandine Kyoto station
2.5/10 Terrible, very sweet, not a strong matcha flavour, and the colour was a very milky/white green. A little disapointing after enjoying the matcha from Oro Espresso, and the Kaiseki restaurant in Tokyo so much.
Fukucha Tea Tasting in Kyoto station
6/10 Tea tasting, teas were cold, I liked the matcha it’s a very pure green and bitter flavour, the rest were ok. It’s a cute ensemble. The desserts were also a 6/10. You’re probably better off trying to matcha tea alone, the rest were pretty standard (black tea, roasted black tea, yuzu tea).
Espresso from non Stop Coffee Roasters
10/10 They had the smallest door (the top of the door came to my belly button). They also had aroma puffers for different coffee beans (from different origins, though 4 were from Ethiopia). The espresso was a nuttier style though it still had a lot of aroma.
Photo taken by Kon-San our AirBNB host and probably the best host of all time.
Sunny Bell Americano and Drip coffee
8/10 it was a nice Americano, the Drip was a bit less flavourful than I’m used to, maybe it was lacking some aroma. I think Americanos have a lower bar to meet.
ALL HAKUBA COFFEE WAS TOO EXPENSIVE FOR WHAT IT WAS AND AS SUCH HAS BEEN EXCLUDED FROM THIS LIST
Hakuba Iwatake snowfield espresso and baileys
9/10 Delicious and alcoholic.
