Kyoto has been the centre of Japanese tea culture for….800 or so years? So you’d expect there to be some good places to sit and have a cup (or bowl) of tea. Here are some of my favourite tea places to go in the old capital, ranging from the well-known to the more unassuming. I’ll be sticking to Kyoto proper here; there’s plenty more tea in Uji…

Cafes and Tea Shops

Ippodo Kyoto 

If you know matcha, you probably know Ippodo. While this is a lovely shop with some lovely tea, it’s bound to be busy as they are one of the most well-known tea companies in Japan. Stop by if you’re in the area, but you can do better. Actually, if you are in the area, walk a block down the street to Kumagai Dōgusho for some fun antiquing.

Fukujuen Kyoto Main Store

Right on one of Kyoto’s busiest shopping streets is this multi-story tea complex operated by another centuries old tea giant: Fukujuen. The ground floor carries the regular tourist fare: lots of elegantly packaged sencha and matcha. Go downstairs to the basement and you’ll find the first of their experiences: Kyō-no-Chagura. Here you can take quick lessons in brewing and matcha whisking, custom blend your own sencha, or partake in tea guessing games (all subject to availability and reservations).

Go upstairs from the ground floor and see Saryo Fukucha, a cafe centred around pairing tea and sweets. They also offer various tray menus and herbal blends.

The third floor takes things international with a blend of French Cuisine and Nihoncha at Maison de Matsuda. Here, special lunch and dinner courses are offered by reservation.

Continue your upwards climb and things take a more traditional turn with the 4.5 mat tearoom Muryo-an. Here Fukujuen hosts various tea ceremony experiences and drinks. Of course, the tea room is also available to rent if you want to host your own chaji :) 

If you’re looking to buy some tea ceremony utensils, keep on climbing to the fifth floor where you can buy delicate wares for both sencha and matcha. In true Kyoto spirit, most of the pieces offered here are of the elegant, floral, and highly decorated styles.

The next two floors are event spaces, so check online to see if there’s anything going on.

Salon de Kanbayashi

The Kanbayashi name is one of the most historic and well-respected in Japanese tea, with the family’s involvement in Uji tea dating back to the early 1500s, and since then they continued to work with Japan’s most influential figures, such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Furuta Oribe. The family has four branches, with the Shunshō branch, currently on their 15th generation, operating this cafe.

Despite their main association with matcha, Salon de Kanbayashi is a sencha specialty cafe, nestled in a century-old house. 

Garden Lab Tea & Bar

Creative cocktails and mixed tea drinks alongside well-brewed high-quality teas: fun for everyone! This space feels very “Kyoto” to me, with many blends of  contemporary and traditional aesthetics in an old kyomachiya.

Aotake

A personal favourite of mine. Small, dark, intimate, and unassuming. Passing through the gate on the street, you find yourself in a tranquil roji garden, with moss and maple trees to admire as you sit at the koshikake waiting bench (you’ll probably have to sit at this bench because it’s tiny inside). Without any signs or directions, you’ve already experienced a hallmark of Japanese tea culture: waiting on the bench in the roji is an integral part of a chaji.

Inside is ripe with dark wabi rusticity, offset by a view back the moss garden. There’s no matcha here, instead the owner curates a small selection of high-quality local teas in addition to imported teas and desserts.

7T+

A huge aesthetic departure from aotake, 7T+ is bright, clean, modern, and clearly part of the contemporary specialty tea scene, offering many single cultivar teas to drink and buy. They also have some pretty good ice cream.

〇間 (0Ma)

Contemporary ceramics in traditional Taisho-era architecture and lots of tasty tea—what’s not to love. 

Kouroan

Located up by Daitoku-ji, Kouroan has some unique experiences. Alongside the tea ceremony demonstrations and tasty drinks you might expect, you can also try your hand at…sorting tencha!? (and also grinding it and drinking it, of course). 

Museums and Galleries

Raku Museum

A small and quiet museum with a rotating display of raku chawan made by the successive generations of the Raku family, usually spanning from their first generation, Chōjiro, to the present day.

Museum of Furuta Oribe

A lesser-known museum tucked away in Kitayama that focuses on Furuta Oribe, the eccentric samurai tea master who succeeded Sen-no-Rikyū. Highlights here are the various unique wares dug up from Oribe’s old residence in Fushimi. Oribe’s warped and unique aesthetics were extremely popular for a brief period, but have now been replaced by the more elegant fashions of Kyoto, so seeing this small glimpse into a different aesthetic era is fascinating.

Of course, there are many many more tea and tea-adjacent spots to go in Kyoto, but these are some of our favourites.

If you’re traveling through Tokyo as well, check out our Top Ten Tokyo Tea Destinations