Touted by the wellness community for boosting energy and bolstering health, matcha has been riding a serious wave here in Toronto. The bright green, powdered tea can be whisked with hot water to add a bittersweet punch to pastries, ice creams and other tasty treats. On the hunt for your next matcha-inspired treat? From soft-serve to macarons, here's where to find Toronto's top green tea-infused goodies.
If this image has been tearing up your Instagram feed and left you thinking, “what is that?!”—here's the skinny. It’s from Wooffles and Cream in Markham, a place that's been hyped up a lot, but for good reason. Every order is totally custom: first you choose your fave waffles (seaweed, salt and pepper, sesame—so many choices). Next, you fill 'em up with matcha or vanilla soft serve (pro tip: you can also go for the flavour twist). With summer picking up speed, this just might be the ultimate indulgence...
Doubling down on the popularity of Uncle Tetsu’s Japanese Cheesecake shop, the Matcha Cafe focuses on—you guessed it—all things matcha. Expect a very different variety of treats, but just as tasty as the original cakes next door. With line-ups rivalling those snaking from the sister shop, you can expect to wait for upwards of an hour. The must-try matcha treat? Uncle Tetsu's madeleines ($2.30), which are made fresh to serve. Other stand outs include the green tea soft-serve ($4) and matcha shaved ice.
Open since 2011, Butter Avenue is a partnership between siblings Tina and Calvin Su. They made their pastry dreams a reality with their first location at Yonge and Lawrence, and more recently expanded the Butter Avenue empire with a second cafe at Queen and Spadina. Tina, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu's Ottawa school, is the head pastry chef. Her menu is all about natural ingredients, with no added artificial flavours or preservatives. A particular stand-out on their menu is the original matcha macaron, made with rich matcha imported from Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan ($2.50). They also offer a Hōjicha macaron, which uses a smokey green tea from Uji ($2.50).
This shop opened in March 2016 as Tsujiri's first ever location in North America. If that doesn't seem like a big deal, here's some context: the Japanese brand was founded in Kyoto over 150 years ago, it's still touted as an innovator in the tea industry. The all-matcha menu at Tsujiri includes everything from lattes ($6) to sundaes ($7.50) to matcha-and-red-bean macarons ($2.50). With only 10 seats, the shop itself is pretty small. Those that do score seats will be in for a treat: patrons can watch items like the O-Matcha ($4.50) being whisked to order for the lengthy queues.
You wouldn’t know this place was here unless someone let you in on the secret. Petit Nuage is a tiny pastry shop located in the Market 707 shipping containers, just east of Dundas and Bathurst. Don’t let the size fool you: inside, they sell all sorts of macarons, cream puffs and—perhaps best of all—roll cakes. The matcha flavour of these delicate cakes is perfectly matched by a cup of HK milk tea.
Nadège Nourian, a fourth-generation pastry chef originally hailing from France, is the crafty mind behind Nadège. Walking into one of her shops—the slick Rosedale boutique in particular—is like entering an art gallery, with all sorts of beautiful pastries, cakes and artisan marshmallows on display. One of the stand-outs? A cake inspired by the Uji region of Japan. It's made with a matcha biscuit sponge, matcha ganache and matcha mousse, then layered with brown rice pudding and raspberry mousse ($8.50).
