Yamamasa Koyamaen opened ATELIER MATCHA, a matcha café where you can enjoy premium matcha in a casual setting, on Monday, August 2, 2021, in Ningyocho, Nihonbashi (Tokyo).
This post is an archive introduction of the original opening announcement from 2021.
Official website:https://ateliermatcha.com
Concept: "The Third Wave of Matcha"
Bringing an authentic matcha experience to the world--casually, and with care.
As matcha continues to grow in popularity worldwide, we felt it was the right time to offer an experience that lets more people truly enjoy matcha's original flavor and the culture behind it--born and refined in Japan. That idea became the starting point for ATELIER MATCHA.
Yamamasa Koyamaen is a tea wholesaler with 160 years of history, with tea gardens dating back to the early Edo period, and an integrated production process--from cultivation to stone-milling. We select outstanding cultivars, and we have been honored with 18 tea names granted by heads of various schools of tea ceremony (blends crafted for each school). We manufacture and supply premium teas--centered on matcha, gyokuro, and sencha--to over 1,000 tea retailers and tea utensil shops nationwide, as well as department stores, trading companies in Japan and abroad, hotels and ryokan, and long-established Japanese restaurants.
ATELIER MATCHA is our first café business, and also our first direct-to-consumer (B2C) venture. Through farm-to-table premium matcha drinks and sweets, we share a new matcha experience--one that lets you enjoy matcha's true taste and aroma, effortlessly--across Japan and beyond.
Why the Name "ATELIER"
Although matcha is one of Japan's most iconic beverages, many people still don't know the differences in types, production methods, or even how it is traditionally prepared. Just as coffee lovers explore beans and brewing methods, we wanted to explore ingredients and production deeply--and share matcha's diverse potential in a way that feels new. With integrated production from tea garden to milling, Yamamasa Koyamaen aims to be an "atelier"--a workshop where high-quality matcha experiences can be enjoyed with ease.
About the Menu
The matcha used in our café includes premium blends originally created for tea ceremony, such as our signature names "Ogurayama" and "Tennouzan." These are high-grade matcha made primarily from hand-picked first-flush leaves--what is commonly called ceremonial grade matcha in English. For limited periods, we also offer rare single-origin matcha(made from a single cultivar) and menu items featuring tencha (the raw leaf used for matcha before stone-milling). Carefully selected gyokuro and hojicha menus are also part of our lineup.
