A guide to Japanese vending machine coffee

Japan has lots of vending machines — in fact it has the highest number of vending machines per capita in the world (one for every 31 people)¹. Coupled with the density of the Japan’s cities, the results are striking to any visitor. They are everywhere.

What’s more, they don’t just sell cold drinks... they sell everything. If you can think of anything smaller than a vending machine, there’s probably at least one vending machine selling it — including homemade hamburgers, soup stock, umbrellas, photos of J-pop idols, batteries, live goldfish, fortunes, and mysteries.

There's even a vending machine selling smaller vending machines.

Of course, it's tricky to find some of these items — but even the standard machines sell things you might find odd — hot corn soup, bananas, cake, clam miso, and both hot and cold coffee.

Obviously we would be negligent in our duties as coffee website runners if we didn’t try and review all the vending machine coffee — so far we have reviewed 22. This is a lot, but even close to the number that exist. You can find all 22 reviews below this article.

Why are vending machines so popular in Japan?

There's lots of reasons why vending machines are so popular in Japan — here we've listed them in order of most compelling:

The post-war economic boom

In 1960s Japan, sudden economic growth and a labour shortage meant people had money to spend, but no one to sell them the stuff they wanted to spend it on. There was an economic need for automation.

Hotels, cinemas, and restaurants started to implement vending machines to lessen the workload — it is very typical for restaurants to use ticket machines for automating food ordering across Japan.

During this period, people began shopping more in city centres — businesses in rural areas moved or closed down. So vending machines took the place of grocery stores to alleviate the need for basic goods.

Lack of crime

Japan has an astonishingly low crime rate. Vandalism is extremely rare, considerably reducing the cost of running a vending machine.

This means there’s fewer costs associated with cleaning or repair — and the vending machines can be out on the street night and day, increasing sales.

Earthquakes, trust, and planning permission

People don’t get so attached to buildings in Japan because they have a history of falling over — mostly from natural disasters, but also from war and the occasional Kaiju. The frequent and random destruction of buildings has resulted in a mixture of styles and highly visible infrastructure.

A tiny house, a towering block of apartments, and next door an old Shinto Shrine — all tangled up in a mess of cables, gas pipes, and overhead railways. Nimby-ism can’t really exist when everything is already in your backyard.

It maybe for this reason, Japan doesn't strongly regulate how things look, or restrict what you can do on your land.

The lack of strict planning regulation means anyone can apply for a vending machine, wether it's next to a beautiful temple or not. Distributors will help install and maintain your vending machine and give you a cut of the sales (around 7-30%², depending on your foot-traffic and location). You don’t have to do any work but rake in the yen.

Profit shares according to 自販機.net:

• In offices or outside stations — 20-30%
• Busy streets — 10-20%
• Average streets — 10-15%
• Countryside — 7-12%

Building regulations are primarily about safety and vending machines are safe — some of them are even designed to continue working in the event of a natural disaster.

Hot summers and cold winters

In Japan the summers are stifling and the winters are freezing. Providing 24/7 access to hot and cold drinks becomes much more important under these circumstance. People use soft-drink cans to cool their heads, hot coffee cans become hand warmers in the winter.

Vending machines feel like a public amenity. During extreme weather, it seems likely that access to vending machines has saved lives, especially when you're off the beaten track.

Japan is now installing vending machines that can dispense food and drinks for free³ in case of a natural disaster.

People in Japan avoid uncertainty and inconveniencing others.

Japan is high on the uncertainty avoidance index⁴ — one of a number of metrics used to define culture.

Interactions with vending machines are always the same — whereas buying a coffee from a person could result in something unexpected⁵ — like a conversation or eye-contact. Better to be on the safe side and drink a horrible coffee from a vending machine.

Generally Japanese people feel strongly about not inconveniencing others. Buying from a vending machine inconveniences no-one (except yourself depending on what you buy, see our reviews below).

Why is vending machine coffee so popular?

There’s something odd about vending machine coffee being so popular. Not only are most of them not particularly nice (see our reviews), you can actually get fantastic coffee from any convenience store (kombini) for not that much more time or money!

This isn't an exaggeration — every kombini does fantastic coffee, and they're practically on every street in Japan.

These coffees also come out of a vending machine, but the kind that grinds fresh breans and brews them on the spot.

Don't take our word for it — here's a video of Tetsu Kasuya, multiple-award winning barista reviewing convenience store coffee, and being amazed by the standard of the drinks:

So why, if you can get amazing coffee from a kombini, do people still buy the not-so-nice coffee from a vending machine?

People actually prefer it

It would be arrogant of us to assume our tastebuds can speak for an entire nation — so there is a chance that some people actually like the taste of the ones we reviewed so low.

Price

Price is definitely a factor, as canned coffee tends to be cheaper, around ¥110-¥150. Here's a table of the price of coffees from the most popular convenience store chains for comparison:

The difference in price between canned and kombini coffee isn't huge, so it's surprising when convenience store coffees come as cheap as ¥120 when the quality is so much better.

It's amazing to think that we were drinking such consistent and delicious coffee from a 7/11 for only around $0.85/£0.65.

Culture

As mentioned above, there are cultural reasons vending machines are so popular. These reasons, such as not wanting to inconvenience others and avoiding uncertainty, could be why people forgo very good coffee.

Time constraints

It is definitely quicker to get a coffee from a vending machine — and shockingly some people (like office workers) don't have the time to buy one from a kombini.

Smoking

Cigarettes and coffee have a long history as a pair. In Japan one of the most popular brands called Boss Coffee even has a guy smoking a pipe for their logo.

Smoking, especially heavy smoking, can destroy your ability to taste, particularly to taste the bitterness in coffee⁶, which may explain why most of the black canned coffees taste extremely bitter and ashy.

So it's possible that canned coffee is popular, and remains popular among the smokers of Japan, because they just can't taste how bad it is.

Our vending machine coffee reviews

We attempted to review every canned coffee we could find — but only managed to try a fraction of what is on offer.

We reviewed them independently, and then made an aggregate rating. They range from most delicious, to most gross we had one sip and poured the rest down a drain.

Best Sweet Canned Coffee

DyDo Blend M Coffee

A very delicious milky sweet drink, especially when hot out the vending machine. They're not very common so try it if you see it! M coffee is a range of drinks produced in collaboration by two major drinks manufacturers: DyDo and Pokka. The letter 'M' in the name stands for mild, which explains the milky and subtle coffee taste.

5out of5

Pros

• Creamy
• Pleasant
• Good aftertaste
• No metallic taste
• Balanced sweetness

Kansai region only

Boss Coffee Torokeru Café au Lait (Kansai Edition)

This is Boss Coffee's limited edition canned café au lait, only sold in Kansai (Southern Central Japan)! It's one of the sweetest canned coffees we've ever tried – but surprisingly balanced and creamy, like a melted buttery biscuit. It's neither bitter nor sour, it almost seemed like it didn't contain any coffee at all. It comes in a perfect drinkable amount, and it tastes mildly of toasted cinnamon.

4out of5

Pros

• Creamy texture
• Roasty toasty flavour
• Balanced sweetness

Cons

• Not enough coffee

Very pleasant

Starvending Coffee Café au Lait

Unlike most canned sweet coffees, this drink manages to balance sweetness with other flavours. Although the taste of coffee itself was rather lacking, there was nice notes of caramel and chocolate which we found quite pleasant. The design conforms to very offensive stereotypes of a coffee hipster which is deeply offensive. But all-in-all, a good canned coffee. Unlike most canned coffee which is produced by drinks companies, this drink is produced by Starvending – a vending machine operator!

4out of5

Pros

• Milky
• Notes of caramel
• Well balanced

Cons

• Lacking some coffee flavour

Heart-warming

Ito En W coffee Café au Lait

This was a okay, creamy drink. It tastes a bit like crème brûlée. For something that is called Café au Lait, it was slightly lacking the taste of coffee, but it was a heart-warming drink nonetheless, especially as it was a very cold and wet day by Lake Biwa.

4out of5

Pros

• Like a dessert
• Nice sweetness

Cons

• Lack of coffee taste

Best black coffee

Muji Unsweetened Coffee

This is by far the best dark unsweetened canned coffee we tasted! Although powerfully bitter and acidic, the aroma and flavour is surprisingly rich and complex. If you like your coffee strong, dark and unsweetened, we can comfortably recommend this canned coffee. The only vending machine you can buy it from is next to the smoking room, past the reception desk in the Muji Hotel in Ginza — prepare to pretend like you have a room at the hotel! (or just buy it from any Muji store)

4out of5

Pros

• Pleasant bitterness
• Good aftertaste
• Powerful
• Rich and complex flavour

Cons

• Slightly metallic

Not too sweet

Ueshima Coffee Company Café au Lait

Another canned café au lait that's great – and it tastes enough like coffee to get away with being called a coffee! Sweet but not too sweet, with a texture that feels like drinking hot cream. The design is very simple, but its gold accents make it stand out – making it the Kinkaku-ji of canned coffee.

4out of5

Pros

• Pleasant sweetness
• Creamy and rich

Cons

• Would be nicer with more coffee flavour

Lacks body

Muji Cafe Latte

It's okay! It's definitely the least sweet milky coffee we've had. It has some similarity to the UCC milk coffee, with clear body and some floral/fruity notes. The lack of body and sweetness does mean that the metallic taste lingers after a sip.

3out of5

Pros

• Subtle sweetness
• Clarity

Cons

• Metallic taste

Worst can design

Ito En Tully's Coffee Barista's Cappuccino

A cappuccino in a can, produced by the popular American coffee brand. It's sweet, milky and smells slightly of toasted cinnamon (which is promised on the can). It's not bad! But the design of the can is surprisingly rubbish – it's covered in what looks like stock images. There was also no hint of foam which makes you wonder why they called it a 'Cappuccino'.

3out of5

Pros

• Lovely cinnamon

Cons

• Bad can design
• Not really a cappuccino

Cool can

Kirin Black Fire

This was one of the better black coffees we had! It had very clear distinct flavour, much like a fresh pour-over brew. The drink was too weak, and it left a astringent aftertaste. This drink was also one of the most metallic tasting of all the canned coffees, as if it had an iron supplement in it! It has a cool geometric design which makes it sturdy and satisfying to hold.

3out of5

Pros

• Good flavour
• Cool design

Cons

• Weak body
• Astringent
• Very metallic

Watery chai

Dydo Blend Original

This unique can design has a jute/hessian pattern to represent the bags that coffee is imported in, and the logo for DyDo blend is influenced by the Jamaican Flag (because the predecessor to DyDo Blend was a canned drink called DyDo Jamaican Blend Coffee, made in 1973). The three coloured stripes of the logo are green orange and brown, representing the colour of the coffee as it changes throughout the roasting process. Fun canned coffee trivia aside, we found this milk coffee tasted pleasantly nutty and cinnamon (not dissimilar to a chai latte) although we thought it was slightly too watery.

3out of5

Pros

• Good flavour
• Good aftertaste

Cons

• Weak body

Retro can

Boss Coffee Horoniga

This coffee is very sweet with a hint of bitterness. It arrives hot and smells like warm milk. There is a slight metallic aftertaste, though it's not overwhelming and somewhat expected from canned vending machine coffee. It has a faintly fruity flavour, but other flavour notes are hard to discern due to its very high milk and sugar content. The retro graphic design makes it one of the coolest looking canned coffees we had.

3out of5

Pros

• Retro design
• Milky

Cons

• Too sugary
• Lack of flavour

A bad coffee

Kirin Fire Kiriman

According to the can, this coffee uses 100% high grade beans from Kilimanjaro, which has a sharp bitterness, modest sweetness with a clear aftertaste. This coffee genuinely tasted like a filter coffee! But not a very good one, as it is let down by its weak strength and artificial tasting sweetness.

2out of5

Pros

• Distinctive coffee taste

Cons

• Watery
• Sugary

The original canned coffee

Ueshima Coffee Company Milk Coffee

The original canned coffee! The design and recipe have barely changed since its inception in 1969 – which may be the reason why it's so low on the list... The coffee tasted metallic, and it had no distinctive flavour. In fact it tasted very strange, and at one point we thought it was releasing an odd gas because the smell was so alien from every other canned coffee we tried. There was some powdery texture in the coffee too, which could be denatured milk or sugar. All-in-all, quite a disappointing experience, but maybe a nostalgic one for those who still remember first drinking it in 1969.

2out of5

Pros

• Very cool design

Cons

• Extremely metallic tasting
• Odd flavour
• Powdery texture

Good morning!

Asahi Wonda Morning Shot

"Suitable for morning"... apparently. It tasted empty and you could barely taste the coffee – it actually tasted like sugary watered-down milk with a pinch of salt (maybe that was the coffee?). At least the texture of the faceted can is quite nice to hold. (We actually did drink this in the morning, so we aren't at fault here!)

2out of5

Pros

• Perfect for the morning!
• Nice to hold

Cons

• Sacarine
• Weak body
• Salty

Wrong beans

Asahi Wonda Taiyō no Moka Blend

This coffee smells like nattō (a fermented soya bean dish) which in Japan, is both a compliment and an insult. Nattō is a love-it or hate-it food in Japan, much like liquorice, or marmite. The taste is quite bizarre – it just doesn't taste of coffee. It tastes of milk mixed with sugar, herbs and beans – just not coffee beans. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste. Just a very odd drink.

2out of5

Pros

• A new experience

Cons

• Odd flavour and aroma
• Doesn't taste of coffee

Dusty

Kirin Fire

The initial aroma of coffee is always gratifying, whether it's from opening a new bag of beans or receiving a flat white at a café. Receiving a whiff of dust and iron after opening a Kirin Fire is not as nice. The drink itself was also very disappointing – more like coffee-flavoured milk than coffee. It's watered-down, flavourless, artificially sweet, and has an unpleasant bitter aftertaste to top it off. At least it tasted like coffee.

2out of5

Pros

• Tastes of coffee

Cons

• Too sweetened
• Unpleasant aftertaste
• Watery
• Dust?

Disgustingly sweet!

Georgia Coffee Emerald Mountain Blend

You could tell how sweet this drink was going to be just from the smell. There was hardly any taste of coffee, we might as well have been drinking a can of liquidised gummy bears. "Emerald Mountain" is a high grade coffee bean grown in the Colombian Andes. It was a very snowy day deep in the mountains at the time, so at least the alpine branding was on point.

2out of5

Pros

• Pretty design

Cons

• Very sweet
• Acrid aftertaste
• Too sweet
• Doesn't taste of coffee
• Just so so sweet

Smell trap

Ito En W coffee Black

Although the initial aroma was rich with floral notes, which made us think we were about to have a very good coffee, the taste that followed was disappointing. It almost tastes like old watered down stovetop coffee. A bad coffee — the bland taste coupled with the resulting betrayal from a promising aroma, lowers the rating somewhat.

2out of5

Pros

• Floral aroma

Cons

• Watery
• Bland taste

Grim

Georgia Coffee Caramel Latte Nista

Although technically not a canned coffee, it's often sold alongside canned coffees in vending machines. This drink is unpleasantly sweet – it tastes like heaps of pure sugar diluted in water. It doesn't even have the creamy texture that you would associate with a caramel latte. The name of this drink is hard to understand until you do some research. The name 'Latte Nista' is a combination of 'latte' and the Spanish and Italian suffix '-ista', meaning 'specialist in'. We think they added an 'N' to make it roll off the tongue better. They should've done a bit more research into what Nista might mean in other languages. It means 'unpleasant' in Indonesian.

1out of5

Cons

• Unspeakably sweet
• Bad texture
• Unhealthy

Gone off milk

Dydo Blend Premium Demitasse

The DyDo Blend Premium Demitasse is anything but premium, it's gross. Although it smells like sweet roasted nuts, the taste is acrid, acidic — like gone off milk. The aftertaste is also very harsh. However the design is multifaceted and shiny like a diamond – which we admit is kinda premium.

1out of5

Pros

• Premium design

Cons

• Acrid
• Very acidic
• Tastes off
• Harsh aftertaste

Disgusting

Georgia Coffee Platinum Black

Again, a coffee that smells great but much like the Ito En W coffee Black, the drink has a very weak body and severe lack of flavour. Tastes like the liquid left over from deep cleaning an espresso machine.

1out of5

Pros

• Nice initial aroma

Cons

• Watery
• Tastes stale
• Very bland

Ashtray water

Asahi Wonda Kiwami Black

Not only does this canned coffee smell like an ashtray, it tastes like one. We've never actually drunk cigarette ash before, but this must be close. If you've ever wanted to experience drinking ash without the repercussions of drinking ash, I guess we can recommend this canned coffee. It's shockingly bad. It's disgusting. The only explanation for how it managed to become an accessible product in vending machines, is that the taste testers were all chain-smokers who've seared their tastebuds away after decades of smoke based inhalation.

1out of5

Cons

• Like ash in water
• Disgusting
• Badness

Final thoughts

Japan is an amazing country and has fantastic coffee almost everywhere you go — just not in vending machines. We really recommend drinking kombini coffee, or trying any one of the huge number of incredible independent coffee shops.