In New York you can hardly move for matcha bars – but Brooklyn-born Matchaful, which opened in its first site in 2012, remains among the original and best.
Loved by creatives including FKA Twigs and Addison Rae (who’ve both collab’d with the brand), its stylish cafés helped popularize ceremonial-grade matcha with a hip crowd, while also remaining steadfastly committed to working with single-origin, sustainably-minded tea from family-owned farms in Japan.
I met up with founder Hannah Habes at Matchaful’s new Ritual Bar, a new edition to its flagship store amidst the boutiques of Berry Street in Williamsburg. Kitted out in soothing neutrals by NYC design studio Now Or Never, and equipped with an eight-seat cipollino verde marble bar, it takes things up a gear, with a programme of by-appointment matcha tastings, whisking demos and limited reserve matcha flights. (There’s also a little landscaped garden and patio out the back.)
Habes’s own passion for matcha was born after a health scare forced her to reassess her diet and lifestyle – and since then she has witnessed the tea become a phenomenon around the world. “As matcha has become more popular, we saw that there was an opportunity to create a space where people could move beyond simply ordering a drink and develop a deeper understanding of the tea itself,” she says of the Ritual Bar.
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“Most people never have the chance to learn where their matcha comes from, how it’s produced or why different cultivars can taste so distinct. This allows us to tell those stories in a much more intimate way.”
The Bar’s programme has been devised by Matchaful’s director of tea education, Alexander Robateau, a Japanese tea specialist and expert in the Urasenke-school tea ceremony, whose mindful approach to matcha is also informed by a background in brain health research.
As well as learning about the tasting and preparation of matcha, visitors will soon be able to witness the grinding of the tencha (the prepared tea leaf) that produces the matcha powder – a part of the process that consumers don’t usually see.
“Watching the stone mill turn slowly makes you appreciate the patience and precision involved,” says Habes. “We wanted to make that transformation visible because it connects the finished drink to the leaf, the farm and the people behind it.”
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But Matchaful is not above the occasional playful drink too. Exclusives at the Ritual Bar include a luxurious riff on a nostalgic Japanese melon soda made with cold-whisked Gokou matcha and Crown Melon, a prized cultivar whose fruits sell for up to $200 a time in Japan.
“Crown Melons are cultivated with extraordinary care, with just one fruit grown on each vine, so that all the plant’s energy is concentrated in that melon,” says Habes, who was inspired to create the drink after visiting a melon plantation in Shizuoka, not far from where their tea is grown.
“[It’s] intensely aromatic and juicy, with an elegant, honeyed sweetness and an almost floral, musky perfume.” Finished with a dusting of tart cherry powder in place of the traditional cocktail cherry, the $30 drink splices the melon’s decadent ripeness with the umami-rich creaminess of the Gokou tea.
If you’re on the hunt for accessories, the Ritual Bar also stocks a great edit of artisan gear. One of Habes’s favourites is the Japanese Kazuho whisk. “It’s made by Chikumeido Sabun, a 24th-generation family-run chasen maker in Takayama, Nara, where the craft has been passed down for more than 500 years. Each whisk is carved by hand from a single piece of locally grown bamboo and has 72 incredibly fine prongs. It’s beautiful, but it is also designed to be used every day.”
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The global boom in matcha consumption, and the resulting matcha shortage, has been well-publicised. And Matchaful has not been immune, says Habes. “We are seeing greater competition for high-quality tencha, longer planning horizons, and rising costs. However, because we have spent years building direct, long-term relationships with our farming partners, we have much greater visibility over our supply and can plan collaboratively with them.”
She says an increased interest in Japanese tea more generally has also resulted in an uptick in sales of matcha’s roasted cousin, Hojicha. “Its nutty flavour is much more approachable, particularly for people who find the vegetal character of matcha unfamiliar,” she says. I sample one of Matchaful’s hojicha hazelnut lattes, which is delicious, a little like an iced mocha coffee.
Matchaful was conceived in Habes’s Brooklyn apartment – now it has eight locations around New York (and two more planned for Tribeca and Hudson Yards). But however hectic life gets, Habes never skips her morning matcha ritual, she says. “I have three young kids, so mornings can become busy very quickly.
“Before any emails, meetings, and school routines begin, I start my day by whisking a bowl of our Kiwami matcha – it is one of the small moments I get to myself.” And creating the Ritual Bar has been an extension of that: “New York moves incredibly quickly, so creating a space which is centred on presence, curiosity, and connection felt especially important and meaningful.”
