If you are a matcha fan like I am you will be very excited to hear that Japan's Nana’s Green Tea recently opened it first North America shop in Vancouver on June 6th.

With over 80 locations in Japan and 16 other locations world wide, this mega chain is regarded as the ‘Starbucks’ of Japan that specializes in a range of drinks and desserts made with green tea.

Prior to their opening, I was lucky enough to attend a media preview where guests got to taste a few of the menu items. And I can tell you....I will be coming here A LOT!

Here is the menu of the items we got to sample:

Drinks:

We started with the Matcha Chocolate Latte which was good. The matcha flavour was strong but not bitter with hints of sweetness from the chocolate.

My absolute favorite was the Hoij-cha Shiratama with mochi balls. If you are not familiar with Hoij-cha, it is a roasted green tea. The roasting process creates a nutty, earthy, slightly caramel-like tasting tea. Combined with the creamy Hoij-cha ice cream and the chewy mochi balls this drink alone will bring me back over & over!  I highly recommend this one!
 

The Azuki Strawberry Latte was on the sweeter side. The azuki (red bean) and strawberry combo worked well. I'm not a huge fan of red bean drinks, so this was my least favorite of the three.  My guest, however, loved it.

Food:

Beyond the variety of sweets and drinks, there is a small selection of Donburi bowls. We were treated to the Fresh Tuna with Curry Tartar sauce donburi. While I was hesitant about this dish because of the tuna/curry combo, I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty and light it was. The tuna was fresh and well marinated, mixed with veggies and the curry tartar sauce on top. The curry was subtle but notable and I found the portion of tuna reasonable for the price. It's also comes with a bowl of miso soup.

Parfait:

The Matcha Shiratama Parfait is one of the chain's popular sellers, and may I add, very IG worthy. The parfait is made of layers of matcha syrup, matcha pudding, vanilla soft serve ice cream, cereal cornflakes, mochi balls, azuki paste, matcha ice cream, topped with whipped cream and drizzled with more matcha syrup. Wow!! This was so good! It's a huge dessert and can easily be shared. I, however, would want it all for myself!

Cakes:

Another winner is the matcha roll cake;  moist, fluffy matcha sponge cake with a whipped cream filling and a large dollop of the-most-intense matcha creamy paste center. The paste was the very strongest tasting matcha I have ever had... and I loved it. 

The Matcha Gateau Chocolate was quite good too. Similar to a dense flourless cake or a brownie like texture, the cake had a good balance of both matcha and dark chocolate flavors. The whipped cream with the black sugar drizzle was a perfect pairing.

We only sampled a few items but you can see that they have a pretty extensive menu.

I am so happy Nana's Green Tea decided to open a location in Vancouver. I found the items to be reasonably priced and I can't wait to go back to try all their other items.....I am determined to try EVERY-SINGLE-ITEM! Check them out in Kerrisdale at 2135 West 41st Avenue.