Bongen Coffee Ginza Honmaru

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.

Although the café specialises in cold drinks, warmer beverages will also be added to the menu as the weather cools. For coffee lovers, the premium wasanbon latte is a good pick. It’s sweetened with wasanbon sugar, a refined sugar made from sugarcane that’s traditionally used in Japanese sweets such as wagashi, then brûléed on top for a little crunch and smokiness. 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.