Japanese Matcha Café Chain Looks to Settle in Montreal

A century-old Japanese tea company is looking to bring its mostly matcha-based wares to Montreal.

According to DailyHive, Tsujiri is preparing a location somewhere in the city, something confirmed by the company’s own website, which lists locations for Montreal, Halifax, and Burnaby, B.C. as “coming soon”. A company representative tells Eater they’re not yet ready to announce the specific location.

While DailyHive describes the company as “iconic”, it’s worth noting that it’s not really a huge player in its home country, with just three Japanese locations. But it has focused its efforts on overseas markets, counting many more in China and Taiwan, and a few in Singapore, Australia, the UK, and the Philippines. In Canada, Tsujiri has stuck mostly to the Toronto area so far.

That said, the company has been around for a long time — since 1860, to be precise. It claims to serve high-quality green tea sourced from the Uji area, near Kyoto. The company has modernized itself heavily though, focusing on decidedly non-historic matcha products like cappuccinos, soft serves, floats, baked goods, and cheesecake.

Vibrantly-coloured Matcha-based drinks and snacks have been an ongoing trend in Montreal and beyond. Aside from various coffee shops offering different iterations of the tea, Tsujiri will join at least one café explicitly dedicated to the tea — that’s Livia Matcha, which opened in Westmount in the summer.

• Iconic Japanese matcha cafe reveals it’s opening a Montreal location [DailyHive]
• Double Whammy of Sushi and Matcha Lands in Westmount [EMTL]
• Tsujiri Canada [Official]