Umami Mart

Now, Umamimart has never really been “in” on the “scene”. We don’t really get invited to hip opening events or get star attention from restaurants when dining. We have never paid too much attention to those kind of things — we just like to talk about food and drinks — whether it be gross, pretty, […]

Remember when I designed the Umamimart travel mug back in 2010? Well, this spring Scandinavian Airlines (SAS as we call it in Denmark) called for submissions from designers to redesign their cardboard cups for tea and coffee, during air travel across the globe. They serve 70,000 customers in the air every day (!). You see, when I’m […]

A visual diagram of how a coffee bean from Guatemala evolves into a Four Barrel cup of coffee in San Francisco, California. Photo by Johnny Lopes. Taken at the OPENeducation event in Berkeley, CA.

Bali was our first destination on our honeymoon tour. It is where I was promised we could recover, read and sloth out! After the crazy stress of moving continents (from Japan to Brazil), learning a new language, surviving the first year in my wife’s home country, and four-wedding marathon to boot, well, I deserved this. […]

Umamiventure #30 was indeed a memorable affair, and much more than what any of us expected. It was a night of Serious Coffee Schooling– from the bean picking process, to roasting, to tasting– all courtesy of Four Barrel Coffee in San Francisco. Since opening in 2008, Four Barrel has become a front runner in the […]

Update (Thurs. 11/11, 12pm PST): EVENT SOLD OUT!!! +++ Wow THIRTY Umamiventures, can you believe? Pretty damn awesome, considering the very first one was in 2007, on a trek out to Flushing, Queens for quite possibly the best dim sum in New York City. I’m living in the Bay Area now, and still organizing these […]

Lamill Coffee in Silverlake, LA impressed me because it looked good. They package their coffee beans in tins (made in the USA) that are retro looking and all the staff wear matching t-shirts. Yes, call me superficial – but ever since leaving Tokyo, I have to admit I miss the art of presentation. The menu […]

Who knew that the one and only Ferran Adrià had created a coffee “drink” for Lavazza? I definitely had no idea, since I’m so clueless. But of course Matt, my #1 informant for all-things-awesome, knew about this. Hooray for informants!

After a 4-year, 4-month hiatus, I am back in Berkeley. Robotland (a.k.a. Tokyo) was good to me, but finding myself shuffled in line at the Berkeley Bowl between one of these, and Zack de la Rocha‘s doppelganger on a weekly basis has got me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Not only is it great […]

I saw the coffee cup and stopped dead in my tracks. Best. Logo. Ever. The colors! The font! The way the logo takes up the entire length of the cup! It’s all very 1970’s punk rock meets Communist Russia. LOVIT. Pannikin is an awesome cafe in Encinitas, housed in an old train station. Their motto […]