Sakurai Tokyo: Japanese Tea Experience with the finest wagashi
You will see everything what there is to earn about Japanese tea at Sakurai Tea Experience in Tokyo. The newest addition into the Simplicity design group in Japan preceded its owner’s expansion abroad to Paris (Ogata in the Marais). While Sakurai has just a small tea bar, a hojicha roasting corner and a kitchen counter, it offers the best connection between tradition and the contemporary Japanese culture. All in one tiny room hidden inside the smart contemporary Spiral Tower shopping mall in the fashionable Omotesando.
At the comfortable counter seats a simple seasonal bento lunch is served. Water chestnuts with rice, pickles and grilled fish in April, pumpkin in the fall. Extra treats like miso-aged camembert and seasoned nuts (seaweed, ume plum, sesame) are also offered upon order.
Most tea connoisseurs come here for the extraordinary wagashi and a chosen tea set. There is always a seasonal tea, often infused with fresh vegetables, herbs or ripe fruit. You will find the usual array of sencha, gyokuro and matcha, but more intriguing are the off-the-beaten-path floral Japanese oolong, the roasted and aged teas. In summer, green teas as well as houji-cha could be cold-brewed and served on ice.
With the seasonal lunch different teas will be paired. Starting with cold brewed gyokuro (shaded, high umami steamed tea) as an aperitif, your choice from some unusual with bacteria or mould inoculated teas (an acquired taste I warn you!) and other more purist Japanese teas, to end with a bowl of perfectly smoothly whisked frothy matcha. Alcoholic cocktails with tea can also tempt you later in the day or just a tipple after work.
Sakurai goes further in the level of tea service professionally than most tea rooms you know. This is not a tourist attraction to observe serious tea ceremony, but a perfect match for connoisseur’s tea time. Having your hojicha roasted just prior to the service brews the most nutty, straw-deep clay pot of tea. It is a must at Sakurai.
Next to the most famous, traditional Japanese sweets boutiques, the finest wagashi in Tokyo is served at Sakurai in the most perfect freshness. Like the designer behind the Simplicity concept, Shinichiro Ogata, the blend of tradition with contemporary aesthetics and taste resonates with most younger locals as well visitors. Often when I sipped my cha, there was some tea professional from abroad (mostly from tea rooms I already knew and visited), awed at the mastery.
If you are interesting in trying some other great tea rooms in Tokyo, read my selection of the best I have edited over the years of my annual trips.
港区Minamiaoyama, 5 Chome−6−23 スパイラルビル5F, Shibuia, Tokyo
+81 03 6451 1539