In what can only be described as part of the 3rd wave movement of green tea, the world’s first hand-dripped green tea café has opened in Tokyo.
Located in the Sangenjaya neighborhood of Tokyo, a small, unassuming café opened on January 5, 2017. Inside Tokyo Saryo is a minimal, rectangular, wooden counter that sits upon a cement base. Nine wooden stools surround it. Here, visitors can experience what is being called the world’s first hand-dripped tea service. Much like a hand-dripped cup of coffee, sometimes referred to as a pour over, the proprietors have developed a beautiful apparatus that is filled with tea leaves. Hot water is poured over the leaves and drips through the ceramic barrel and into a cup.
For 1300 yen you get to compare two different varieties of green tea. The service, the proprietors claim, is superior to green tea made in a pot because it achieves the optimal balance between water temperature and extraction rate. Accordingly, they’ve developed a method that strikes the perfect balance between sweetness and bitterness.
Did you know that the optimal brewing temperature for green tea is 70 – 80 degrees ℃ (as opposed to the 90s for coffee)? And did you also know that, unlike coffee beans, green tea leaves are meant to be brewed a 2nd and 3rd round? Pay Tokyo Saryo a visit and you’re guaranteed to learn more about green tea than you thought you needed to know.
Tokyo Saryo
1-34-15 Kamiuma, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo (Gmap)
Hours: 11:00 – 20:00
Closed Mondays and holidays
Source: spoon-tamago.com
