Green tea galore from Uji, Kyoto - Tsujiri

On the first floor of 100AM lies this small shop named Tsujiri which offers lots of green tea-based desserts and drinks made from green tea produced in Uji, Kyoto. There are lots of coffee places in Singapore but the same can't really be said for tea even though I believe that there are enough tea lovers around too. Besides, one of Uji's most famous produce (also recommended on the city's tourism board website) is tea so it's a great thing that Tsujiri brought the real thing over from Kyoto. Being a lover of green tea products, I decided to give this place a try after lunch.

The shop is actually quite simple in terms of it decor which is primarily made up of green and white. Most of the shop space is taken up by the counter and production area with a small shelf showcasing some of the green tea you can buy e.g. the chawan and brush used in traditional tea ceremonies and the green tea in pre-packed packages. As for the glass shelf facing the corridor, it was actually quite bare when I visited so the focus of Tsujiri seems to be more on its matcha drinks and matcha-themed desserts rather than baked goods such as cakes. Maybe they will expand their range of products in time to come? Anyway, with the extensive drinks and desserts menu, they probably won't need to do this anytime soon because it will take some time to taste everything or most of the items on the menu.

And this was what I had during my first Tsujiri visit - the matcha anmitsu dessert. Essentially, this is matcha ice-cream with kanten jelly, red bean paste, mochi and shiratama as its base and toppings. It's not exactly a big serving so it's actually just nice as a post-meal dessert. As such, you don't have to worry about this being too much for you to take after a full lunch or dinner. There isn't a lot I have to say about the side ingredients which is pretty standard in places dishing out Japanese-style desserts but I think the matcha ice-cream deserves special mention here for its rich and flavourful taste and texture which is to my liking. I've tried matcha ice-cream with a tinge of bitterness (too much of the matcha power) or tasted a bit powdery (maybe the matcha powder wasn't blended properly?) before so Tsujiri's version was actually the best I had so far because of the scent of the matcha lingering in your mouth even after finishing the dessert. In addition, it wasn't saccharine-sweet nor bitter (at least with respect to my tastebuds) so I think they got it right with the proportion of matcha used in the ice-cream. Only thing which I think can be improved is, the toppings take up quite a bit of space at the top of the cup so it may be better for them to go below the ice-cream and make it easier for people to eat. I had to navigate my way through the toppings to ensure that while I ate the ice-cream, I did not accidentally push the toppings over and make them land on the table.

On another visit, I didn't actually eat at the outlet but rather I bought their matcha chocolate cake and had it at home. That explains the poor presentation in the photo. ^__^ Anyway, the only thing chocolatey about this cake is the white chocolate shavings on top which I thought I could do without with. It didn't add a lot of flavour to the cake itself anyway so I would prefer to have the cake being pure matcha flavour. As for the cake itself, I thought the sponge portion was a tad too dry although I liked the matcha layer which was again rich enough to leave an impression and not put people off. Since Tsujiri's strengths seem to be in its drinks and desserts, I think the cake needs some tweaking after all but it's still a credible effort. I didn't see the cake on display during my first visit so I'm assuming that this is something that doesn't get served every day.