As professional tea enthusiasts, we’re often asked for recommendations on where to best experience Japanese tea while visiting Japan. As our full list of favourite spots is very very long, here are our top ten picks for Tokyo.

Sokkon

Cafés, Tea Shops, and Restaurants

Ippodo Marunouchi

When visiting Tokyo, it would be remiss to ignore one of Japan’s oldest tea companies. This branch of Ippodo offers loose tea and teaware for sale, alongside teas to go and teas to be slowly sipped at the counter or table. We recommend trying the koicha and wagashi pairing if you are a big fan of matcha as it is rare to come across koicha in a café setting. If you have more time to spend, they also offer a flight of five teas: gyokuro, sencha, usucha, koicha, and houjicha.

Sakurai

If tea flights and guided tastings are up your alley, Sakurai in Minamiaoyama offers various options ranging from a simple 3 brew tasting of a tea of your choice to an 18 tea course, each infused with a matching liquor. Additionally, they serve blended teas and in-house roasted houjicha. Their guided experiences are quite popular, so we recommend making a reservation beforehand.

Té Hong

Just down the street from Sakurai, this small, lesser-known one-man tea shop serves high-grade Chinese and Japanese teas in beautiful teaware in a cozy bar setting. The owner is sweet (as is his pet rabbit, Sakura, who you may meet) and prepares his own homemade desserts to go with your tea.

Senchado Tokyo

If Ippodo represents traditional Japanese tea, then Senchado Tokyo sits at the cutting edge of the modern Nihoncha movement, emphasizing single-cultivar transparency, and introducing new technology to the industry. At their minimalist Ginza store, you can select from dozens of single origin teas, with each tea showing you who and where it is from, along with detailed tasting notes.

Sokkon

Swinging right back around to tradition, Sokkon in Minamiaoyama presents what I would deem the most immersive and authentic tea ceremony experience (and as a tea ceremony practitioner myself, I don’t say that lightly!). Overseen by the 18th generation grandmaster of the Sōwa-ryū of tea ceremony, Sokkon allows you to participate in a chaji, which is typically reserved for ceremony practitioners. While most ‘tea ceremony experiences’ in Tokyo and Kyoto mimic a chakai, serving simple usucha and sweets, Sokkon is a full cha-kaiseki restaurant where you can partake in sweets, a multi-course meal, usucha, koicha, and cocktails, throughout three rooms. Reservations required.

Higashiya Ginza

Operating primarily as high-grade wagashi store, Higashiya also has a classy tea salon where they serve tea, kaiseki, sweets, and liquors. They also carry a range of loose tea for sale, as well as elegant teawares.

Museums

Seikado Bunko Art Museum

At first you might think there is nothing to do with tea or tea culture at this little museum in Marunouchi, and you’d almost be right. However, this museum houses one of the most famous tea bowls in the world: the Inaba Yōhen Tenmoku, one of only three surviving yōhen tenmoku in the world, and a Japanese national treasure (though actually of Song-dynasty Chinese origin). They also have plenty of tenmoku merch including a plushie! (if it's not sold out).

Nezu Museum

In addition to a healthy collection of beautiful teaware and tea ceremony utensils (including some famous chaire and Ido chawan), the Nezu museum garden houses a small tearoom where you can enjoy a simple bowl of matcha. The museum is also famous for its café.

Other Shops

Yamadamatsu

Our favourite incense house in Japan and our proud partner, Yamadamatsu's incense is based around the aromatic woods of sandalwood, aloeswood, and kyara which form the heart of Japanese incense culture. Their original recipes lean heavily on the exquisite quality of their raw ingredients and the ingenuity and creativity with which they combine them to form unforgettable aromas. At their Tokyo location, you can also participate in various incense workshops.

Oribe Shimokitazawa

As big fans of Furuta Oribe and the wares that bare his name, we couldn't leave out this cute little ceramics shop in Shimokitazawa that specialises in Oribe wares. In addition to selling traditional Oribe-yaki, the shop also exhibits contemporary potters that continue the exotic flair this style promotes. They also have a small café and a collection of Hyouge Mono manga volumes to peruse.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, and new and exciting tea spots pop-up all the time, so check back to see if we've added any new picks!