12 Matcha

Everything here starts with Uji leaf. 12 Matcha uses first-harvest tea, shade-grown and hand-picked in April, then steamed, roasted and stone-milled, and the NoHo counter in New York City is built to show that rather than to run a general café menu.

Matcha, hojicha, cheesecake and ice cream

The tea programme defines the room, and the house frames matcha as a living practice rather than a flavour. The Matcha Americano lets the powder, the water and the whisked texture lead with no milk in the way, and the Matcha Latte is the other anchor for anyone who wants it softened.

Hojicha appears on the frozen side, and the sweets stay inside the same family: Matcha Basque Cheesecake, Matcha Ice Cream, Panna Ice Cream and Hojicha Ice Cream. The menu is deliberately short, and nothing on it is there to catch someone who does not want tea.

A counter you walk along

Service is unusually choreographed. You order, then move down the counter alongside a barista as the drink is made and the pastry is plated, so the preparation is visible rather than hidden behind a machine.

Finished items sit under a spotlight before you carry them into the living-room-like space beyond. The room was designed by Ciguë around a green marble tasting table sourced from France's Volvic volcano, which tells you how much of the experience is deliberate.

Start with the Americano and the cheesecake

Keep the first order simple: Matcha Americano or Matcha Latte, then the Matcha Basque Cheesecake. Those three are the highlights, and the cheesecake was developed specifically to pair with the house's deeper blend rather than borrowed from a standard pastry list.

This is a tea-and-dessert counter rather than a general café, so treat matcha as the thing you came for instead of looking for a coffee alternative. For something frozen, the Hojicha Ice Cream is the most distinct, with Matcha Ice Cream and Panna Ice Cream beside it.