KYOTO, Japan — Guidebooks support this city’s reputation as the theater of the country’s spiritual and aesthetic past: It contains the must-see temples, the must-stroll zen gardens, tea-ceremony-kaiseki restaurants, stealth geisha photo spots — and walks along a lover-lined river. The residence of a thousand years of emperors, the workshop of elegance in painting, ceramics and silk, Kyoto makes us feel like connoisseurs.

Some wonderful connoisseur experiences in Kyoto, however, are under the guidebook radar. And the beverage that flavors scenic paths and hidden hostelries is not green tea. It is, surprisingly, coffee.