World Brewers Cup Champion, Tetsu Kasuya, uses the power of manga in this easy-to-understand, all-you-need-to-get-started beginners' guide to coffee! If you' ve been drinking coffee for years, but only ever drink the “ usual blend,” then this book is for you! Learn how to select, brew, and enjoy the best coffee experience from Japanese master brewer Tetsu Kasuya!

Tetsu's Coffee: A Beginner's Guide to Coffee for Manga Lovers has a story by Tetsu Kasuya and art by Koro Yamada. English translation is done by Nicole Sano and lettering by One Peace Books. Published by One Peace Books (March 6, 2026).

Erica Friedman
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Tetsu's Coffee is an interesting book. For manga readers who are usually introduced to a topic by an “instructional” manga, that wraps a complex fictional world around a concept—think of manga like Drops of God for wine, or Moyashimon for bacteriology—this more strictly non-fiction approach might feel impenetrable initially, with incredibly detailed discussions of countries, coffee types and specific guides to buying, tasting, and brewing coffee. But as I read this manga, I found myself interested in the way these things were presented.

To begin with, there is a story here. Our protagonist is Kaoru, a disillusioned office worker whose grandfather is ill. She decides to leave her job and run his coffee shop, but other than drinking coffee she knows very little. The spirits of her grandfather's notebook assist her, in the form of a coffee plant fairy, human avatars for each county and animal avatars for each bean type. These avatars might also be seen as problematic, as they are presented as light-skinned regardless of country of origin (with slightly darker skin for darker roasts). There are some other issues of colonialism that are elided and may make this a frustrating or even offensive read.

Slowly, Kaoru and we begin to understand more about coffee. The content repeats information, building on it each time so that with each repetition we begin to grasp it better until, by the end of the volume, we recognize the countries, their coffee and what to expect from the flavor.

After we become acquainted with the various countries of origin, the book rolls up it's sleeves to delve deeply into blends, single-origin, the kinds of beans and how the processing affects them. Again and again, however, Kasuya walks us back to just drinking coffee and enjoying it, then we step out into detailed formulas for brewing, or discussing packaging.

If you love coffee and want to know more about it, this volume is chock full o'coffee knowledge.

Bolts
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I must admit, I went from being a certified coffee denier to someone who now seemingly can only survive their day-to-day life with a minimum of one to two cups. I have a problem and I am checking into my local coffee addict anonymous, because I know it's only going to get worse as I continue to pile copious amounts of work on my shoulders to the point where my back breaks under the enormous pressure. Coffee has now become an integral part of my life, so reading a story about what it means to make coffee, studying it, and preparing it seems like a match made in heaven. Although I use the term “story” very loosely, because this manga is far from traditionally set up. There is technically a story here about a young woman who did spend a good chunk of her life drinking coffee and is now trying to take over a coffee shop from her grandfather. The problem is she knows very little about making coffee, but that's OK because she comes across the mysterious coffee fairy that is willing to show her the ropes on what it means to be a true coffee connoisseur. No, I'm not kidding and it's absolutely brilliant.

The book is divided into numerous sections that each start with a small comic strip that technically progresses the story, even though it's just set up for the protagonist to learn more about what it means to brew coffee or taste its different flavors. The presentation reminded me a little bit of Peanuts comic strips given the cartoony yet simple way that things are drawn and also the way that the panel layouts are presented differently from what you would typically expect from traditional manga. But these strips only make up about a third of the overall book right? So what does each section do to fill in the rest of the volume? Well, the book is filled with copious amounts of diagrams, charts, breakdowns, explanations, maps, etc. There are more often moments in this book where I feel like I am reading out someone's printed PowerPoint presentation on what it means to be a diehard coffee connoisseur than it did feel like I was reading a more traditional story.

There's nothing wrong with that and if anything, I appreciate the book's brazenness to just be a book on what it means to brew coffee. There are still elements here to make the story feel less like just a dry coffee textbook, like various different types of coffee being represented by different avatars that act like spirits with their own personality and those personalities are used to reflect the different types of coffee. That's a really cute and fun idea, but those avatars are more as placeholders with breakdowns next to them. They aren't fully flushed out characters in the technical story that takes place in the book. The point is if you're looking for an actual story here, you might feel unsatisfied, but this feels like it was just written by someone who really really loves coffee and is hyper obsessed over what it actually means to them. Then they just printed all that down into a book and sent it out to the masses.

I do respect the commitment and there was a lot that I actually learned through this book. Reading this made me want to experiment with different types of blends, realize that there are very specific words that can apply to different types of coffee and while it didn't necessarily make me giddy at the idea of being a coffee connoisseur, there was a very strong appreciation that I have for the art of preparing it or the art of researching it. If you are an adult obsessed with coffee, which is very common nowadays, then I think this might be worth picking up if only to learn more about what it is that you're putting in your body to get through your standard nine to five. Coffee can be an art form in and of itself, and I think this book does a good job of creatively showcasing exactly what that means