Sawawa Asakusa: All You Can Eat Matcha Sweets & Snacks

I always wondered what made Japanese women’s skin so beautiful but then I remembered how they love drinking green tea.

“Green tea” – rich in antioxidants, fiber and nutrients. In recent years, it’s gained popularity in the Philippines with the aid of social media and health forums vouching for its effectiveness in helping the body repair itself and promising beautiful skin through continued use. I have seen first hand the start of its boom and how it’s influenced cafes and restaurants to start injecting green tea flavored beverages, snacks and desserts. 

In Japan’s Asakusa where foreign visitors can experience Japan’s culture and tradition I found a matcha specialty shop that offers a new take on this otherwise traditional Japanese drink. Join me as I visit one of the most popular matcha specialty shop in Japan: Sawawa Asakusa. 

The inside of the cafe is lined with rows and rows of matcha desserts and snacks. On the right side you will see a crystal counter where you may order “Warabimochi” which is a kind of jelly-like confection made from bracken flour and covered with matcha powder. They make warabimochi on the same day or per order so it’s best to eat it right there inside the store or before the end of the day for it’s shelf life is quite short. You may also order their famous matcha ice cream and enjoy it’s rich flavor and texture while sitting in their eating area.

Their Asakusa branch offers a huge variety of matcha menu such as matcha lattes, matcha mochi, matcha ice cream and matcha soft cake among others. Their best sellers are their ice cream and Warabimochi though, so be sure to try it when you visit their store. They also remind their customers that eating while walking is actually prohibited in Asakusa so it’s better to have their desserts and snacks beside the store or within the surrounding areas of the store. 

One of my favorite item here is their matcha powder which you may use for your tea or as flavoring for when making matcha-flavored sweets. 

TRIVIA

• Matcha is over 100 times more powerful than regular brewed tea of other kinds 
• Matcha is the only suspension tea in the world.
• Among the many benefits of matcha is an overwhelming sense of calm and euphoria, therefore it s known as a calming drink and is used for meditation .

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