inspo & info

The matcha-flavoured products outside Japan frequently disappoint with their homeopathic amounts of real matcha. All the more reason to fill your suitcase with the good stuff when you visit Japan. Here's our guide to buying matcha in Japan, the best matcha brands, what to buy, where to buy it and how to make the most of it while you're there

Visiting a matcha farm is a bucket-list experience for tea lovers in Japan, but timing is everything. Go during the wrong month and you might find the fields covered in black tarps - or completely bare. Here is a practical guide to finding the best matcha farms, the ultimate season to see them, and how to book the best local tours.

Just a 16-minute train ride from the shrines, temples and inevitable crowds of Kyoto lies a town where the air smells faintly of toasted grass and the river flows with a thousand years of history. Welcome to Uji, the undisputed "Matcha Capital" of Japan. Most travellers have a bucket-list of attractions that they want to speed through while in Kyoto, but not setting aside time for a day trip – even a half-day trip – to the town of Uji means missing out on UNESCO World Heritag