Higashiya, Ginza, Tokyo – Traditional Japanese afternoon tea Samajiki style

It is day 3 of our 6 days in Tokyo and we are still loving it. Even though we have been on the go non-stop. It literally was a case of doing the most and showing out like

As we are in the Orients, there was no way we were going to pass up the opportunity to experience Japanese afternoon tea. It was a mission finding a tea house that was equidistant to our hotel. Most places required a booking in advance which we tried to do prior to getting to Tokyo and it didn’t happen. Nonetheless, we made a shortlist of potential places and Higashiya was our choice. Why? well it was close enough to the hotel as indicated on google maps. Now, with our past experiences with google maps on holiday, we did a trial run (don’t judge), found the place, made a reservation and today is the day!

We have had several afternoon tea experiences, it’s a thing we do with my nieces and my sister. Afternoon tea to them, is food tasting for us. They are hella serious with it! They do themed ones, traditional ones, country ones, yep, the whole shebang! Anyway, we are quite versed in the traditional afternoon tea of the west, but, we are in uncharted waters when in it came to Japanese afternoon tea. Trust when I say, we were not ready for the level of art in tea drinking!

Higashiya is a Japanese confectionary shop that sells a wide selection of sweets, original tea blends and table ware products. The Samajiki afternoon tea is one where you get a selection of higashiya’s confectionaries and what a selection it was. Now with English or shall I say European / traditional afternoon, you get a selection of sandwiches, pastries and then sweets all arranged in a tiered cake tray and then your choice of tea selected from the menu. Here, choosing your tea is a whole process! You get a menu as well as various options of loose tea – flavoured, bespoke tea blends, fruit teas (with real fruit pieces) et al. phew… these guys do not play at all.

Can I talk about the confectioneries? Not only do you get cake, you get sushi, buns, vegetables, soup. It’s a whole darn feast! I loved that everything was presented in wooden tea tray too. I settled for an orange tea and Neal had an apple tea, one time for the tea pot though?

The confectioneries were scrumptious, particularly the cake it was a dry sponge cake reminiscent of Nigerian sponge and it tasted so yummy!

Still undecided about the fruit that looked like a tomato but tasted nothing like one. Anyone know what it is?

Afternoon tea in Tokyo, did!

Kanpai

Ndidi