Green tea - or matcha - is a big deal in Japan.
Wherever you are in Japan, you’ll notice green-tea flavoured food and drink all over the place. Alongside sakura or azuki bean, it’s one of the flavours you must try when you’re visiting the country. When you first try it, it can be quite strange, and you might be a little ambivalent about the taste - but it definitely grows on you. You just need to try the green-tea Kit-Kats to know how addictive it can be…
Nana’s Green Tea Café provides practically every matcha-flavoured delight you can think of. Perhaps you want to try an iced matcha latte, or something savoury - Nana’s is the place to go. It’s the perfect stop-off after an exciting trip to the top of the Skytree, located on floor 4f, where the Skytree’s exit is (and entrance).
Tucked away in the corner of the Oshiage Skytree, this café has so much choice that it might take you forever to choose, even with the help of an English menu and time waiting in a short queue. It certainly took me a while to decide what to have, but when I received my order, it was more than worth the wait.
I had the cold matcha latte topped with whipped cream, rice balls, and azuki bean paste, a regular size costing ¥610. I also tried the matcha gateau chocolat, which cost ¥580. They were both really delicious, although it was quite a sugar overload; I wouldn’t recommend eating too much there before going up the Skytree, since the lift goes very quickly and it made me feel quite ill!
The café is a little difficult to find in the labyrinth of the Skytree shopping centre - but if you go to the back corner of floor 4f, you should find it. The queue goes quickly (and there isn’t always one to begin with), and there’s plenty of space inside. Plus, the service is excellent and the waiters and waitresses are very attentive to those not native to Japan.
If you want to go to Nana’s Green Tea Café, which I thoroughly recommend as a matcha enthusiast, then go to Oshiage (Skytree) station. As you exit the station, you’ll see the Skytree towering in front of you, and the steps leading up to it also bring you to the front of the shopping centre. Inside is the café and plenty of people who work in the shopping centre to help you find it.
Nana’s Green Tea Café is Japanese in origin, but can also be found in Singapore and Malaysia. Wherever you are, you should try it, if you can!