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Keiko Uchida admits to being ‘slightly obsessed with tea’ and drinking tea bags very rarely. ‘I love Matcha and I drink large amounts of green tea every day. I start drinking matcha in the morning and have sencha in the office when I am working, and then hojicha after 6:00. I also like to drink a good grade of black tea during the weekend.’
As she grew up in a very traditional Japanese family, they were ‘very strict about the quality of tea and how it was brewed, which has had a significant effect on me.’

Highlights

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Japanese Tea in London

One of Keiko’s aims early on was to have a store selling excellent Japanese teas, similar to a fine wine shop. Now the Keiko Uchida London store is a mecca for those hunting the very best Japanese teas. 

Currently Keiko Uchida offers more than 30 different varieties of ceremonial grade matcha tea in the Notting Hill store and on line. And Keiko is keen to keep adding new varieties and introducing new flavours. She visits Japan three times a year to meet with tea makers and tea farmers, as well as new partners, talking and tasting a huge range of teas. 

A Matcha connoisseur

Most tea shops might sell between 1 and 5 varieties of Matcha tea. However, in Japan there are so many more aromas and flavours of Matcha, and Keiko has a passionate ambition to introduce these wonderful delights to UK and European audiences here, in a way rather like the many fine wines seen in a fine wine shop. As with wine, each region has a different flavour, as the soil, the weather and even the tea master can create completely different teas. It is a very Japanese thing to be so obsessed, concentrating on such a thing and trying to improve skills and qualities every single day. Perhaps that is why Japanese restaurants have had such success with Michelin stars. And why there is such a Matcha tea boom globally. 

Finding the best people

One thing Keiko has found is that ‘visiting all our tea farmers and tea makers and the wonderful hard-working people involved, they are producing some of the very best teas in the world. Some of the teas are the favourite of the Japanese Royal Family, and another has won the best taste award from the Japanese Minister of Agriculture.’ These are craft teas, the best of the best, making it an extraordinary experience when you come to Keiko Uchida, for the finest Japanese teas in London.   

 

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How to Choose Your Tea

We have created the following guide, to help you choose the right kind of Japanese tea. I hope it is a useful start along the journey to enjoying the wonderful delights of Japanese tea, and awakening new sensations for you and your palette!

Tea Brands

  • Keiko Uchida

    Keiko Uchida has a mission to bring the art of tea to a wide international audience. For over 25 years she has been practicing the Japanese tea ceremony, developing greater knowledge and insight. Born in Tokyo, where her mother is a kimono specialist and her father developed traditional tea rooms for his clients, she started practicing the tea ceremony as a way of gaining a deeper understanding of traditional Japanese culture. It is now the core of her life’s work.

    Moving to London, she founded Keiko Uchida in Notting Hill in 2012. At that time few people there knew about Matcha tea. She started practicing the tea ceremony and introducing tea to new customers by herself. Awareness grew, and Keiko played a role in the growth of understanding in London, and now the taste for Matcha has changed dramatically worldwide. Keiko Uchida is a key location in Notting Hill, a leading light for Japanese tea lovers, offering a bigger than ever collection of best quality ceremonial Matcha.

    Keiko is well known for her regular trips across Japan, meeting up with many different tea farmers and tea makers, small and large, as well as her visits to kilns to meet with studio potters and find artists’ latest work. She believes the quality and character of tea ware can have a marked effect on the taste of the tea.

    Keiko regularly runs Japanese tea ceremony workshops in her studio in Notting Hill for visitors, while she frequently visits her own tea ceremony teachers in Tokyo and Kyoto, continuing her lifelong journey of reaching for a deeper understanding of culture, and the many gifts that the art of tea can bring.

  • Marukyu Koyamaen

    Marukyu Koyamaen is one of the most prestigious tea makers in Japan, having been producing matcha tea since 1704.  Having developed the original production system, they now use a combination of modern and traditional processes to maintain as many historic elements as possible. They don’t grind matcha tea manually anymore, but they do use traditional stones. Supplying top tea ceremony schools, high ranking shrines and temples, and top hotels, they’ve won numerous tea competition awards.  

  • Ippodo

    Ippodo is another venerable company - one of the most respected tea merchants / makers in Japan - and has been producing green and matcha tea in Kyoto since 1717. They now have luxury teahouses across Japan and in New York. They don’t just sell top quality tea, but are very active in communicating narratives and ideas about tea culture and tastes around the world.

  • Hoshino Seichaen

    Famous for their high-grade shaded teas such as Gyokuro and Matcha, Hoshino Seichaen has been producing tea in the foggy mountain village of Yame for almost 80 years. They aim to manufacture and process high-quality tea with all their heart, whilst preserving the age-old traditions that make Japanese tea so special.

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