With over 100 years in existence since 1920, Key Coffee is one of Japan’s oldest and most respected coffee brands, having first paved the way to introducing the love of coffee to the Japanese.

Long before the recent trend of “third wave” coffee culture, Key Coffee has already been serious in its guiding philosophy that having passion for the best tasting coffee comes from maximizing quality from the beginning to end of the production process. Key Coffee strives to ensure the best coffee is produced by employing decades-long expertise alongside the very best in Japanese coffee technology.

2017

Boosterfoods, Inc. (BFI) launched Key Coffee in the Philippines back in 2017 introducing Filipino’s to this iconic Japanese brand through retail product placements in supermarkets and grocery store shelves nationwide. With this successful venture, BFI x Key Coffee is constantly striving to serve Filipinos with more exciting products and services.

2023

In 2023, the Key Coffee Kissaten (キッサ) flagship store has officially opened its doors to Filipinos on the ground floor of the premium Japanese mall, Mitsukoshi in BGC. The flagship coffee shop aims to bring the kissaten and Hi-Fi café culture to the Philippines the same way that Key Coffee has been synonymous with these types of cafés in Japan for over 100 years already.

/kis • sa • ten/

Kissaten is an old-style Japanese coffee shop inspired by traditional tea houses. Its vintage look and classic jazz music scene was popular in the 1920s-1980s. It’s a place that offers a comfortable “western style” atmosphere to have a cup of hand-drip coffee while appreciating your time alone, or with people you would meet and socialize with.

“As such, the kissaten remaining today are often run by the older generation, and the shops have kept their Showa period look and feel. You may see low, red velvet seats, old china tea and coffee cups, lighting fixtures that reflect the era, old coffee grinders and other antiques kept on display.”

— (Delishably, 2019)

Walking through Tokyo’s Ebisu district, they happened upon tiny Bar Martha, one of the country’s many kissaten, a class of cafes geared toward audiophiles. They’d proliferated in the lean years after World War II, when high-quality stereo equipment and imported records were beyond the average person’s reach. What Raza saw there was a place where people could “focus on music while being able to socialize, hang out, and have some good whisky,” she says. “I was, like, Why doesn’t this exist here?”

— Bloomberg, 2019

Hi-Fi lounges/cafe succeed in creating an attractive environment by bringing the past into the present. Things cherished in the past – music, craft, culture, and conversation – are celebrated through modern refinement.

Key Coffee Kissaten キッサ takes inspiration from Hi-Fi cafe’s — brightening up the space but leaving touches of history and heritage.

And most importantly, a space to celebrate Japan’s unique relationship with jazz and the visual language it produced.

Because just like jazz, coffee puts importance on every note. From fruity to nutty to every flavor on the wheel, coffee dances on our tongue the same way jazz plays in our ears.

This modern take on the famous Kissa was the idea of Bryan Chua, President of Boosterfoods Inc., Marvin Chua, Vice President of Operations., and Kathleen Chua, Marketing and Sales Manager. From their travels and coffee crawls in Japan, they knew that they wanted to bring this unique experience back home but reimagined this iconic Japanese coffee culture towards the Filipino’s modern sense and sensibilities. Through the guidance and support of Key Coffee, one of Japan’s most iconic brands, this concept was born.

Bryan Chua
President of Boosterfoods Inc.

Marvin Chua
Vice President of Operations

Kathleen Chua
Marketing and Sales Manager

A concept is not complete without its visual design interpretation. Through our creative collaboration with one of the country’s most respected hospitality designers, Arch. Noel Bernardo and Arch. Yolanda Bernardo of EC Studios, this design concept was made into a reality. It is now an impressive and intricately detailed space that celebrates the past through the present using traditional earthen materials and textures but presented in a playful and structured post-modern, future-nostalgic scenery. The space was made to be an inviting café but also features other amenities such as a Japanese washroom, bakery retail, wine and sake bottle shop and a napolitana pizza oven station.

To make sure that the coffee and food experience is topnotch and captures the story that we wanted to tell, we went above and beyond to form a unique and impressive creative force behind our food and drinks menu. We tapped some of the country’s most celebrated and award-winning chefs as well as chef’s and professionals coming from Japan’s most stringent establishments and certification bodies. Meet the creative force behind our curated Yoshoku food menu and Kissaten inspired coffee and drinks selections.

 

To make sure everything meets the 100 year coffee excellence of the brand, Key Coffee Japan’s head trainer and coffee grader, Yasuhiro Fujita (JCQA Certified Coffee Appraiser, Japan Tea Association Certified Tea Instructor, and Japan Sommelier Association Certified Wine Expert) meticulously worked with our baristas to make Japanese style hand-poured coffee and other coffee concoctions

Yasuhiro Fujita

Key Coffee Japan’s Head Trainer and Coffee Grader

Thirdy Dolatre

Chef Consultant and Owner of Hapag Mnl

Alexa Versoza

Chef Consultant and Owner of Apo Baking Society

Jorge Mendez

Chef Consultant and Owner of Modan, Progressive Japanese Dining

Award winning chefs, Thirdy Dolarte and Jorge Mendez of Hapag and Modan collaborated to reinterpret Japan’s Yoshoku cuisine, using modern cooking techniques and locally sourced ingredients. Yoshoku dishes are Japanized-western style food you commonly find in Kissaten café’s across Japan. Key Coffee Kissaten’s modern kissa dishes such as Chef Jorge’s Truffle Egg Katsu Sando and Chef Thirdy’s Ilocos Gamet Okayu Bento are the fruits of months long of creative collaboration between these artistic chefs and our kitchen team.


Authentic classic kissa food items such as Chicken Omurice & Demiglace are developed together with a chef from Tokyo Japan, who during his youth worked in his father’s Kissaten shop in Ginza and has been an avid Key Coffee drinker ever since.

Mouthwatering desserts such as Chef Leky’s Guava and Pomelo Mille Feuille and other bread and pastry selections are from the head pastry chef Alexa Versoza who worked and trained in famed establishments such as the Four Seasons, and Sonnenalp in the US.

The Key Coffee Kissaten is located at 8th Ave. corner 36th Street, Mitsukoshi Mall BGC, Taguig City. Currently opens at Monday to Sunday 7am-12midnight. Reservations are also accepted by sending it to +639477394347. For announcements and updates, follow @keycoffeekissaten on Instagram and Facebook.

See you there!

Chef Thirdy’s Ilocos Gamet Okayu Bento
Horje-San Truffle Egg Katsu Sando
Leky’s Guava & Pomelo Mille Feuille
Chef Ogawa’s Chicken Omurice & Demiglace

OPENING HOURS

Monday to Friday – 7:00AM to 12:00MN

8th Ave Corner 36 St. Mitsukoshi Mall, BGC, Taguig

CONTACT US

  • kissaten.keycoffee@gmail.com
  • +639477394347 (7am-12mn)
  • 8th Avenue, corner 36th St, Taguig

OUR OFFICE

(02) 654-5159 Local 101
Boosterfoods Inc., 10 Evangelista Avenue Santolan, Pasig City, 1610