24/04/2026
Artisan Focus | Ryuouen 柳桜園茶舗 | Master Blender
For many people (even in Japan), “green tea” has meant bottled drinks - not matcha.
Matcha isn’t just ground tea but a composition.
Each master blender works like a perfumer. Blending different cultivars, some sweeter, some more aromatic, some deeper in umami, some brighter in colour and layering them into a single, balanced profile.
Built on instinct, refined over decades.
The recipe? Rarely disclosed.
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Tucked just off Teramachi Street, Ryuouen Tea Shop is easy to miss. For over a century, they’ve quietly supplied tea to temples and practitioners of the Japanese Tea Ceremony.
Their tea is still sold by weight, over the counte as it always has been.
We found them the old way, through people, through trust. Being able to bring their tea outside Japan is something we don’t take lightly.
Ryuouen chooses to stay deliberately small.
No scaling for trend. No compromise on quality.
No online store. No marketing. And yet, recently through social platform, a new audience has found them.
What Ryuouen represents a slower, more intentional way of drinking tea shaped by craft, not convenience.
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When we visited last month, they were serving Kozakura 小桜, a seasonal blend marking the arrival of spring. For Simply Native, they’ve created Ikka Goyo 一華五葉.
Join us at our Surry Hills store for tastings, we’d love to introduce you to our world.
