Suzukien and Matcha – Japan

Matcha – Japanese green tea – is only a fraction is popular in the United States as it is in Japan. While it has long been available as a hot beverage, traditionally prepared by whisking powdered leaves in a ceramic bowl with hot water, it became one of a handful of signature Japanese dessert ingredients alongside red bean paste and sweet rice, balancing herbal and bitter notes that become even more compelling when mixed with dairy and/or sugar.

At Tokyo’s Suzukien, a tea shop that has served matcha in the Asakusa district since 1848, there are seven different green matcha gelato versions – intensity levels 1 to 7, with levels 4 and 7 shown here. They are perhaps the world’s best matcha desserts for a fan of the flavor, as there is no other place where one can contrast and reflect upon how spinachy matcha becomes when it reaches maximum saturation in a confection. (The only other place in Japan known to offer similar matcha levels treats it as a gag, powdering ice cream so heavily that people naturally cough it out like a green cloud after taking their first bite.)