Maruyo Chaya, the base for tea culture that connects tea, people and food in the Enshu region【Omaezaki City, Shizuoka Prefecture】

Maruyo Chaya is a Japanese green tea café in Omaezaki, the southernmost part of Shizuoka Prefecture, that believes in ‘connecting people and tea’. The café offers a menu that makes use of the abundance of ingredients from the Enshu region, together with high-quality deep steamed tea produced by Akahori Shoten, a tea wholesaler established over 75 years ago. The café is also active in communicating the magic of tea, with a presentation corner where visitors can try their hand at blending, and an assortment of connoisseur products that add colour and fun to people’s daily lives.

This article reports on Maruyo Chaya’s idea of a mechanism to bring tea and people together and the alluring café menu, including an interview with the owner, Mr Daiki Akahori.

An introduction to Maruyo Chaya

Maruyo Chaya is a Japanese green tea café in Omaezaki, the southernmost tip of Shizuoka Prefecture. It is run by Buysabou Maruyo, a subsidiary of Akahori Shoten, a tea wholesaler established over 75 years ago.

The first thing that catches the eye when looking at the exterior of Maruyo Chaya is the long roof connecting the parking space to the entrance. A drum-type blending machine, a tsuboniwa garden and a dedicated take-out window are set up along the long roof towards the entrance.

The bike stands are a must in Omaezaki, a popular road biking destination. They are all popular with visitors as photo spots.

The entrance to the shop is bathed in soft sunlight from the skylight. Walk through the shop and go out the back door to the lawn garden, where you can enjoy take-out tea and rice balls on the terrace.

Maruyo Chaya consists of three sections: a retail corner, a presentation corner and a café corner. At the retail corner, tea, sweets, tea utensils and sundries can be purchased. The tea is deep steamed tea directly from the Akahori Shoten tea processing facility adjacent to Maruyo Chaya.

▲ Tea from Maruyo Chaya is made at the neighbouring Akahori Shoten.

Tea sets and ceramics are available, ranging from high quality items such as Seto ware to more affordable items for everyday use. Pairing suggestions of sweets and teas selected by the staff are displayed here on a flat stand.

Terrines and macaroons in the open-case fridge are also served on the café menu, so give them a try in the café corner before purchasing.

The noticeboard in the shop contains the latest information on Maruyo Chaya, including monthly events and campaigns.

▲Events are held and points are quadrupled on days containing the number 4 every month.

Blending corner

At the presentation corner, located on a small platform, you can compare different teas and experience tea blending under the supervision of a professional tea master. (Reservations required via the website or by phone).

Blending (gougumi) different varieties of tea gives it a deeper and more complex flavour. You can blend teas that are rich in flavour, fragrant or brightly coloured, or add accents such as brown rice, ginger or yuzu. It’s up to you and your ideas.

Follow your senses and create your own tea.

Maruyo Chaya’s Cafe Menu

Located in the Enshu region of Shizuoka, the town of Omaezaki is surrounded by the sea and mountains and is blessed with an abundance of local produce. The Maruyo Chaya in Omaezaki offers a café menu that makes the most of local ingredients and high-quality Fukamushicha(deep steamed tea). Here we introduce a few of its popular menu items.

Omusubi (rice ball) set

The omusubi (rice ball) set, consisting of miso soup, pickles, omelet, two small daily dishes and two rice balls, is Maruy Ochaya’s most popular menu item. It comes with ‘Akane’ tea, specially prepared to go well with the meal.

The flavors of rice ball include pickled plum, bonito flakes, salmon, spicy cod roe, tuna mayo, kelp and salt. For an extra 30 yen you can choose from Yumesaki beef preserve, cream cheese preserve and the daily special.

The rice used for the rice ball is a variety called Milky Queen. It is characterised by its stickiness and chewy texture, making it ideal for a Japanese style omusubi. The miso soup is made with natural water from Omaezaki, and the salt is Nabura salt, a certified Omaezaki brand, with many other local ingredients.

Ochazuke set

The ochazuke set combines Maruyo Chaya’s tea and Tebiyama bonito broth, and is full of the culinary charms of the Enshu region. We also recommend enjoying Maruyo’s tea set with Tsuyu Hikari pudding for dessert.

Tsuyu Hikari Parfait

Tsuyu Hikari Parfait, Maruyo Chaya’s favourite variety of tea. The terrine has an aromatic tea flavour with colourful seasonal fruits peeping out at you from the transparent glass.

Maruyo Chaya’s Plate of Whimsies

A plate of three sweets selected by Maruyo Chaya. The arrangement of sweets changes according to the season.

▲Just the sight of a mizu-yokan is cooling during the summer months.

Interview: Maruyo Chaya’s message connecting tea and people

We spoke to Daiki Akahori, managing director of Akahori Shoten and owner of Maruyo Chaya.

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Why did we open Maruyo Chaya?

Buysabo Maruyo,the operator of Maruyo Chaya is a subsidiary of the tea wholesaler Akahori Shoten, which has been in business for 75 years. Initially, Buysabo Maruyo was a general tea retailer and did not run any café business.

▲Akahori Shoten has received numerous awards for its tea finishing techniques, including the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award.

The number of people drinking loose leaf tea is decreasing year by year. In this context, we decided to relaunch the Baisabo Maruyo brand as a Japanese green tea café called Maruyo Chaya in 2017 in order to raise the profile of tea and more actively promote its appeal.

–It’s a big decision to change from a retail shop to a café isn’t it.

Fortunately, there are many residential areas in the area and we have loyal customers who have been with us for a long time. Believing in our activities over the years, we made the bold decision to switch to the café business.

–How did you go about creating the shop?

A design company in Osaka, with whom we have a long relationship, introduced us to a designer who suited our concept. We had a lot of meetings to make the best use of the layout of Baisabo Maruyo. The refurbishment alone took about six months.

A teahouse to enjoy window shopping

Maruyo Chaya has various mechanisms to link tea and people. Firstly, display shelves are placed along the entrance of the shop. This creates an atmosphere that makes it easy for customers to enter.

The back door at the back of the shop is always open so that customers can walk through the shop and into the garden to enjoy a little bit of window-shopping. This has been very popular and some customers enter through the back door.

Tea-coloured walls visible from the café area.

The former office and retail space has been converted into a café area. Seating is available on the lawn garden side and the tsuboniwa side. Seats on the lawn garden side are for families, while those on the tsuboniwa side are often enjoyed by small groups of people.

We want our customers to relax and forget about the time, so we have no clocks here, including in the café area. We also have high-quality chairs that can be sat on for long periods of time.

▲An eye-catching display made from old chabako and lights made from recycled cardboard.▼

A display shelf is placed at the end of the line of sight of visitors taking a break in the café area as they head towards the entrance. The green Mino ware walls in the background make the display look like it is surrounded by tea fields.

Our commitment to Tsuyu Hikari and Minami Sayaka.

–Maruyo Chaya appears to be promoting the variety Tsuyu-hikari. Do you have any particular preference for it?

In Omaezaki, Tsuyu-hikari makes up a large percentage of area under cultivation and is a variety strongly promoted in the region. Tsuyu-hikari has a bright green water colour, a beautiful appearance and a fresh aroma.

It has a good balance of sweetness, astringency and bitterness, so we started producing Tsuyu-hikari early on, as we think it is a tea that suits the current era and is easily accepted by beginners.

We offer a range of combined, single-origin and sweet products using Tsuyu-hikari. We are proud of all of them.

Another variety of tea that Maruyo Chaya promotes is Minami-sayaka. We held a tea field replanting experience years ago, where we planted ‘Minami-sayaka’ with local children. It grew to a good grade, and we made it into an aromatic green tea, which turned out to be a wonderful product.

Minami-sayaka tends to be fermented or kettle roasted to maximise its appeal, but this time we made into an aromatic green tea, which gave it a natural jasmine-like aroma. We decided to sell this as Maruyo Chaya’s special fragrant green tea.

▲The aromatic green tea may look like green tea, but it has a completely different aroma.

There is a need for tea alongside rice balls

When I was researching before opening the café, I noticed that most underground station shops sell rice balls, and that bottled tea is almost always sold right next to them.

I realised that when people drink tea, they eat rice balls, so I decided to make them the main attraction at Maruyo Chaya.

–There is certainly a propensity for a cup of tea in one hand and a rice ball in the other.

I was happy when I found out there was a need for tea to accompany rice balls (laughs). Rice balls are easy to get creative with and also suitable for take-away. Selling rice balls helps to raise awareness of tea! Okay, Maruyo Chaya is going to go for it with rice balls!

–People will never get tired of rice balls, so we’ll be able to continue doing it for a long time. Also it’s so easy to have a large repertoire.

Here in Omaezaki, surrounded by the sea and mountains, produce is available in abundance. Taking advantage of this geographical location, we are able to offer a wide variety of omusubi at prices that only we can offer. If you were in the city centre, it might be difficult to offer such a wide variety of omusubi at such a low price.

In addition to omusubi, Maruyo Chaya also puts a lot of effort into other menu items. We hold menu meetings with our staff twice a year and have a dedicated chef in the kitchen. We also have a YouTube channel with instructions on how to make Tsuyu-hikari Granita and Pudding A la Mode.

The future envisioned for the Japanese ash tree planted in the lawn garden

On the lawn at Maruyo Chaya, there is another device that will connect people with tea, which we are very much looking forward to. This is the Japanese ash tree planted in the lawn garden.

The tree is only about five years old, but as it grows, its branches will spread out like a giant umbrella, with sunlight filtering through. It will be fun to sit under the Japanese ash tree, as the sun shines through the leaves, with a takeaway tea and rice ball… (laughs).

Since we opened in 2017, Maruyo Chaya has become a Japanese green tea café that attracts customers of all ages, young and old. We will continue to take on the challenge of bringing tea and people together!

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Maruyo Chaya: Information, How to purchase

Address	1950-2, Kadoya, Omaezaki City, Shizuoka Prefecture, 437-1615, Japan
Website	https://maruyo-chaya.com/
Phone number	0120-04-6089 *Domestic call only
E-money and credit cards	Available
Open	Shop 9:00 to 18:00 Cafe and tea serving 10:00 to 17:00 (Last order is at 16:30)
Closed	Wednesdays except 4th, 14th, 24th of the months, and holidays
Parking lot	Available
Access	Take the Shizutetsu bus bound for Omaezaki on the Osaka Line from the north exit of JR Kakegawa Station and get off at the Kamaike bus stop.

 

Writer	Norikazu Iwamoto
Career	Ochatimes chief editer. Meeting with Vice Governor of Shizuoka prefecture. Judge of Shizuoka 100 tea’s award in 2021~23. Ocha Times link introduced at website of World O-CHA(Tea) Festival 2022, Tea Science Center, The City of Green Tea Shizuoka,  Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

 

English translator	Calfo Joshua
Career	Born and raised in England, living in Japan since 2016. Studying arboriculture in Shizuoka Prefecture whilst operating his landscape business Calfo Forestry. Appreciating the nature of Japan and the culture that places such importance in it.