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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 high grade matcha tea in the Notting Hill store and online. 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, as with many fine wines in vintners. 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 a specific subject 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 palate!

Tea Brands

  • Keiko Uchida

    The Keiko Uchida brand was created in London in 2015 to introduce the Art of Tea to a wide audience of European customers, specialising in the finest Japanese teas and Japanese crafts. The Notting Hill shop opened in the summer of 2025. 

    Keiko makes regular trips across Japan, meeting with many tea farmers and tea makers, to find the most outstanding and interesting teas, as well as meeting with a range of important and exciting ceramics artists and potters. 

    As a tea master with 25 years’ experience of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Keiko is also well known for the Tea Ceremony Workshops, held at the shop, which has proved a highly successful way of introducing the Art of Tea, and many aspects of Japanese cultural history, to a whole range of clients. 

  • 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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