Matcha 108

The order here starts with a question most cafes never ask: how bitter do you want it. Matcha 108 works only in matcha and hojicha, made to order, in a Lower East Side room small enough that the preparation is the whole show.

Matcha and hojicha, and nothing else

The programme is deliberately narrow. High-grade Japanese matcha and hojicha carry the menu, with no attempt at a broad coffee-bar format around them. The leaves and powders are Japanese-sourced, which is the one sourcing claim the shop makes and the one that matters here. Koicha is the most concentrated expression on offer, a thick, intense preparation closer to tea ritual than to a cafe drink, and it is the clearest reason the shop calls itself a tea house rather than a place that happens to stock matcha. The 108 Shot sits beside it as a short, potent dose of green tea for anyone who wants the flavour straight. Drinks are made individually rather than poured from a batch, and guests set the intensity anywhere from sweet to bitter.

A small room for a short visit

This is a compact tea stop rather than a hangout. The scale suits one person, or two settling in briefly, more than a group taking a long table, and the turnover reflects that. The room is spare and calm, and the shop ties premium Japanese tea to a modern New York sense of art and fashion, which shows in how carefully the space is kept rather than in any noise it makes. Come for the tea and the making of it, not for a long afternoon.

Order koicha, then something with banana in it

To understand the place quickly, start at the tea-forward end: koicha for the thick, highly concentrated version, or the 108 Shot for the short one. Either explains the whole premise faster than the flavoured list will. When you do move to the flavoured drinks, they stay tea-led. Banana matcha and the banana hojicha latte are the two guests single out, lavender matcha is the floral option, and iced vanilla matcha and iced vanilla hojicha lattes cover the cold end. Orange miso matcha is the outlier worth trying if the usual flavours feel too safe. Hojicha is not an afterthought here either, since the roasted side of the menu gets the same attention as the green.