First Look: Edo Matcha Sees a Surfing Sumo Barrel Onto Newtown’s King Street

Taka Kaneko is a morning person. When the Australia-born, Japan-raised co-founder of Edo Matcha lived in Dee Why, he surfed every day and then had tea to maintain his relaxed but wakeful vibe. “People always want to know if I drink coffee. I drink coffee too, but I can definitely see the difference between coffee and matcha,” he says, referring to matcha’s gentler buzz.

Pandemic lockdowns meant Kaneko couldn’t travel for his job in scientific-equipment sales, so he turned his tea habit into a side business. Edo Matcha draws on nostalgic moments shared with his grandparents – who would continually steep tea throughout the day – and cultural lessons from his schooling in Japan. “Matcha was always around me. I did tea ceremony when I was in primary school,” he tells Broadsheet.

The tea house specialises in organic matcha from two regions – Kyoto and Kumamoto – and organic loose-leaf tea, including gyokuro, sencha, genmaicha and hojicha. The decision to source organic tea stemmed from the health-conscious habits of his northern beaches neighbours, where morning exercise and a diet of organic produce was the norm. When he spoke with his tea supplier in Kyoto who, as a young man, lost a colleague to pesticide poisoning, it cemented the change to organic tea harvesting. The inner-west crowd appreciates it too, Kaneko says.

Edo Matcha’s Newtown store, wedged between a vintage shop and Turkish stalwart Pasha’s, was previously a record shop – and it retains some of that bolthole charm. Its opening in November 2023 was the culmination of years of market stalls, spanning from the northern beaches down to Wollongong and the South Coast, where Kaneko lived briefly. When he and partner Holly Boyall moved to the inner west, it made sense for the bricks-and-mortar to be nearby.

Boyall, Edo Matcha’s director and co-founder, left a job as a product manager at Apple for this venture; Kaneko will retain his sales job for now, so you’re most likely to see her in the shop, along with Tofu, their Chinese crested pup.

“I like herbal teas, fruit teas, but meeting Taka has given me a whole new appreciation,” says Boyall. “Even if we can’t bring the whole ceremony experience to customers, it’s so nice to be able to bring them the bits and pieces we can.”

Some of those bits and pieces include the chawan (tea bowls) and matcha preparation apparatuses on display when you enter the shop. But it would be remiss to focus on matcha when the walls are lined with gorgeous kyusu (teapots for steeping loose-leaf tea) bearing poetic names such as hinoiri (sunset) for a red clay side-handled pot and sekka (snowflake) for a speckled vessel. Kaneko’s grandma is from Tokoname, a Japanese region famous for ceramics, and most of the store’s teaware comes from there.

Unfortunately the move west has meant Kaneko’s daily surf is no longer viable, but his likeness has been used as the basis for a surfing sumo illustration – by Bunshinren tattooist Chris Gibson – that’s emblazoned on a set of tees and totes.

This year, Kaneko hopes to formalise his tea knowledge with certification from Japan’s Nihoncha Instructor Association, and collaborate with other organisations to offer tea and cultural experiences. “We have a lot of ideas,” he promises.

Edo Matcha
488 King Street, Newtown

Hours:
Mon to Fri 10.30am–6pm
Sat 10.30am–5pm
Sun 10.30am–4pm

edomatcha.com
@edomatcha