I found an interesting collaboration of tea and furniture businesses in Isesaki city in Gunma prefecture. A stylish furniture store “Mishimakagu” has a fancy tea cafe “hiiki” inside.
The entrance of a elegant furniture store “Mishimakagu”, has a fancy tea cafe “hiiki” inside.
This tea café provide us with specialty teas and comfortable atmosphere expressed by using elegant furniture exhibited in Mishimakagu, such as iron tea pots of “Nambu Tekki”, original tea wares for matcha, woody chairs and tables etc.
I think this collaboration work is very interesting. The collaborated service of tea and furniture lets us imagine how we relax at home with the furniture and teas. The café lets us feel the rich passage of time with the elegant furniture of Mishimakagu. This could be a model for our daily use at home.
The café “Hiiki” serves specialty teas brought from excellent tea estates all over Japan.
As a café menu, the café regularly serves a specialty black tea produced in Ikumi village in Shimada city. The black tea has a fruits nuance like apple with medium bodied mouthfeel and fresh finish.
In winter time, there is a special parfait using black tea, which contains ice cream and bavarois of the black tea, cheese cake, vanilla ice cream, pieces of algae jerry and pale red apple compote.
The black tea ice cream has duality of richness and bitterness due to the black tea. And the bitterness goes well with creamy cheese cake and apples. The black tea itself goes very well with the parfait. Especially it gives us a fantastic fresh finish after the rich taste of parfait.
The café also sells specialty green teas.
The original blend of green teas produced in Kagoshima and Shizuoka prefectures. The ingredient tea produced in Kagoshima has rich taste, and Shizuoka tea attributes to the fresh aroma and bright green color of infusion.
The Sencha produced in Doyama tea estate in Shiga prefecture has rich flavor and aroma due to the sufficient dormancy because of the cold climate in winter time.
The Hojicha is processed by the traditional method, which the café roasts crude green tea at lower temperature using an iron pan and then roasts at higher temperature using sand pan. The brand name “Kitsunefuku” is derived from the beautiful infusion color of light brown, which is called as “Kitsune-iro”, literally meaning “Fox color”, in Japanese.
The light brown balls in front of the teas are modern “Monaka” containing solid Dashi soup stock inside. (Monaka is baked rice paste, which is often envelop various foods such as sweet paste of Azuki red beans.
Mishimakagu deals with these foods as examples for usage of the furniture sold in the shop.
We can enjoy imaging diverse lifestyles using these furniture, foods and teas in Mishimakagu. This is the new value provided by the unique collaboration of other businesses with specialty tea.
< Information of the tea café “hiiki” >
- Address : 399, Hinodecho, Isesaki city, Gunma prefecture, Japan.
- Access : It is recommended to visit by car. It takes about 50 minutes’ walk from Isesaki station.
- Hours : 10:30 – 19:00
- Holiday : Wednesday.