8 best places to get your matcha fix in Tokyo

Wasachi feels like a welcome escape from Roppongi’s hustle and bustle, with this matcha specialist tucked into the neighbourhood’s quieter residential backstreets. The café consists of one large communal table and some smaller benches and tables around the walls where you can linger over your matcha. 

The menu is straightforward, offering iced or hot matcha lattes, as well as oat and coconut milk varieties. For purists, go for the usucha, or pure matcha, to enjoy the tea in its fullest form, without milk. If you prefer something a little sweeter, the matcha affogato is a must-try. 

Wasachi’s matcha is sourced from Fukuoka – perhaps not the first place that comes to mind when you think of tea farms – with the café working closely with some of Japan’s top tea farmers to bring single-origin, ceremonial-grade matcha to visitors. The variety served here is okumidori, a popular cultivar that pairs well with milk and is known for its deep green hue and creamy, umami-rich flavour. Wasachi’s matcha has a particularly nutty profile, making it a great fit for lattes.

You can also buy the matcha directly at the café to whisk up your own drinks at home. Keep an eye out for upcoming collaborations, including a matcha white chocolate cookie created by three-Michelin-starred chef Daniel Calvert, which is set to arrive at the Tokyo café soon.

Whether you’re new to matcha or a serious aficionado, Summer Studios in Ebisu offers a laid-back setting to enjoy organic Kagoshima matcha alongside music and an ‘endless summer’ atmosphere. The café serves a range of matcha drinks, from the strawberry matcha, which balances sweet strawberry with matcha’s bright, grassy notes, to the tropical mango matcha. For something with more of a kick, try the matcha craft cola, blending matcha with a lightly spiced cola. 

You can also take the experience home with the café’s original matcha powders, including ceremonial-grade organic matcha and regular organic matcha. The drinks are best enjoyed while listening to carefully curated hi-fi playlists on weekdays, when the café takes on a relaxed, beachside mood. On weekends, live DJ sets bring a livelier soundtrack. The space’s wooden speakers, designed by New York-based Silence Please, add to the café’s distinctive listening-bar atmosphere.

This sleek café is a great spot to indulge in different varieties of matcha and coffee, with an interior that’s just as impressive as its drinks. The industrial-chic space feels as if it’s been carved out of the building, with striking boulders doubling as counters and chairs. The café will also open its second floor soon, adding more seating and space to enjoy your drinks.

On the tea side of things, Sabo offers five varieties of matcha sourced from farms in Aichi prefecture, available as a latte or pure matcha, either hot or iced. The selection ranges from the slightly bitter okumidori, which pairs well with milk, to light-bodied seimei, with its delicate jasmine notes. There’s also the popular, nutty samidori with a gentle umami flavour, as well as the more precious shin and kou varieties, which are both carefully handpicked and showcase the tea’s herbaceous notes.

Each matcha powder is available to buy in-store, making for a great souvenir. You can also pick up matcha-making essentials, including whisks and beautiful ceramic bowls from Toyama prefecture.

Located just outside Tokyo’s iconic Sensoji Temple, Matchamon is a haven for matcha obsessives. The open-concept café is a chic spot for sipping some of the city’s more creative matcha drinks, ranging from classic matcha lattes and matcha with mango or strawberry purée to inventive concoctions like a matcha einspänner and matcha served over coconut water. The café also rotates seasonal specialities, including fizzy blueberry matcha and matcha topped with salted cream. Matchamon’s classic matcha latte is particularly noteworthy: orange zest is grated over the top, accentuating the matcha while adding a lovely citrus aroma.

The café also serves a handful of sweets that pair perfectly with its drinks, including rich matcha gelato, matcha financiers and crisp monaka wafers filled with red bean, mascarpone and butter.

Matchamon’s matcha comes from Kagoshima prefecture and uses the okumidori cultivar, known for its pleasantly umami-rich flavour and gentle bitterness. The versatile matcha works well in a variety of drinks, and you can also purchase the café’s house matcha powder and hojicha powder to take home. Gift boxes containing matcha financiers are available, too.

For something a little more interactive, don’t miss the café’s self-whisk matcha experience. At the bar, you can learn how to prepare matcha with guidance from the skilled staff, who’ll fill you in on the ideal matcha-to-water ratio, water temperature and whisking technique for achieving that perfect layer of microfoam.

Located in Tokyo’s trendy Tomigaya neighbourhood, Hatoya is a great spot for a matcha fix, especially if you like customising your drink. For lattes, start by choosing from four matcha varieties sourced from Kyoto: the slightly bitter gogumi, a blend of okumidori and samidori; two varieties of roasted baisen matcha with rich, nutty notes; and hand-picked tezumi, a single-origin matcha with a more pronounced umami flavour and less bitterness.

Once you’ve picked your matcha, you can customise your drink with toppings including shiratama mochi balls, matcha ice cream, matcha whipped cream, a matcha financier and seasonal fruit sauce. There’s also a rotating seasonal matcha latte flavour that changes throughout the year.

Other drinks include a hojicha latte, the popular Hatoya matcha shake, Japanese black tea latte and black tea lemonade – all of which can be customised to your liking. For the ultimate matcha treat, pair your drink with one of Hatoya’s many sweets, including the signature monaka wafer sandwich, parfait, matcha lava cake or affogato. You can also pick up matcha and hojicha powder to take home, along with the shop’s popular matcha financiers.

Savour some of Japan’s best green tea in the form of matcha lattes and green-tea-infused sweets at this revered tea shop, which has been in business in Kyoto since 1854. The shop mainly serves takeaway drinks and desserts, with a few chairs at the back. You can also pick up tea bags, sweets, gift boxes and, of course, matcha.

This long-standing tea label’s outpost is a great place to sample all sorts of Japanese tea, from popular sencha to the complex, umami-rich gyokuro. Its matcha is also a good choice, whether you’re looking to enjoy a drink at the shop or take some tea home.

Café drinks are straightforward and include the ‘mixcha’ – essentially usucha (pure matcha) poured over milk, available hot or cold. It comes lightly sweetened, but you can request no sugar or an alternative milk. Other popular options include refreshing usucha topped with fragrant matcha jelly and matcha cream, hojicha with milk, and seasonal specials such as sparkling teas and shaved ice.

If you’re looking to take matcha home, Nakamura Tokichi stocks an extensive array, with around eight varieties available in store. The matcha is made from tencha, or shade-grown green tea leaves, with reduced sunlight helping to bring out sweetness and umami while minimising bitterness and astringency. One of the most popular varieties is Senun no Shiro, which is also used in the café drinks. It has a slight bitterness and a refreshing, crisp aftertaste, making it easy to drink on its own or with milk.

Bongen Coffee has expanded to several locations around Tokyo in recent years, but you can’t beat the ease and convenience of their newest Ginza café which specialises in cold drinks. As soon as you walk in, you’ll be greeted by a gorgeous hand-painted ceiling depicting flowers from all four seasons. Beneath the gilded ceiling is the café counter, with a bonsai tree at the back – a signature feature of Bongen cafés that adds to the elegant atmosphere.

The drinks menu focuses on coffee, matcha and hojicha, with Bongen being one of the few cafés where you can combine coffee and tea in the same cup. To really appreciate the flavours of both, try the unsweetened premium rich matcha latte with espresso, made with Bongen’s premium matcha from Miyazaki prefecture and milk, then topped with espresso for an extra caffeine hit.

If you want to take the matcha experience home, the shop stocks three varieties of matcha as well as hojicha. Two of the matchas come from Miyazaki, including the one used in the café drinks, which has a slight bitterness and is ideal for appreciating the tea’s aroma. There’s also a premium variety from Uji in Kyoto, which has a more mellow flavour with less bitterness.

Bongen also offers a few snacks, including sweet mitarashi mochi served with espresso and kinako (roasted soybean powder), as well as matcha cream-cheese monaka.

Housed inside a former sento dating back to the 1950s, Miyano-yu retains the charm of its bathhouse days, now transformed into a cosy café. The main space is a quaint little room with tatami seating, while a recent expansion turned the former bathing area into additional lounge and seating space.

Miyano-yu roasts its own coffee in-house and also serves its own brand of matcha, grown and harvested in Shizuoka prefecture. The organic okumidori cultivar comes from revitalised tea farms, with Miyano-yu supporting young producers who are taking over farms without successors and helping keep them in business. 

Their single-origin matcha has a vibrant green colour and a rich umami flavour with relatively little bitterness. You can enjoy it in the café or buy the matcha to take home, along with handcrafted tin canisters and other unique souvenirs.

The drinks menu includes coffee staples such as lattes and cappuccinos, while the matcha is served as a simple latte or straight, either hot or cold. Keep an eye out for the rotating seasonal specials, which have included matcha topped with ice cream and a refreshing matcha honey-lemon soda.