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First-ever cafe on Tokyo Imperial Palace Garden grounds is now open

Casey Baseel a few minute ago
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Green oasis in the center of Tokyo is site of city’s newest cafe serving exclusive coffee blend.

With people in Japan long having been fans of cafe culture, Tokyo has plenty of spots in the city in which to sit and sip a cup of coffee. However, there’s never been a cafe on the grounds of the Imperial Palace, until now.

November 3 was the grand opening for the Imperial Palace East Garden branch of Sarutahiko Coffee. As the name implies, the cafe is inside the eastern garden area of the palace grounds, not far from Tokyo Station and open to the public, free of charge.

Sarutahiko Coffee started off as a specialty coffee shop in Tokyo’s Ebisu neighborhood, and it now operates a small chain of cafes in the capital. This new branch is special, though, and so it serves an exclusive Imperial Palace East Garden Blend, inspired by the changing seasons, beautiful plant life, and crisp air of the gardens, which for a green oasis in the city center. The dark-roast promises dark chocolate notes and the scent of violets, with the subtle flavor of grapes becoming more noticeable as the coffee cools. The light-roast, meanwhile, has impressions of caramel, orange, and cherry, and picks up a sense of tropical fruit once it cools off.

▼ In addition to coffee to drink in-store, packs of the Imperial Palace East Garden Blend can also be purchased to take home.

▼ Imperial Palace East Garden-exclusive drink bottles

A wide selection of cakes, pastries, and other desserts are also on offer, mixing both Japanese and Western confectionery traditions.

The cafe is attached to a new rest area and located across a pedestrian pathway from the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan, an art/history museum which also opened on November 3. Customers can enjoy their drinks on the cafe’s second-floor terrace, taking in views of the surrounding greenery…

…or at inside seating, which features tables made with hinoki (Japanese cedar) wood harvested from the same forest where Ise Shrine sources the timber for its periodic rebuilding ceremonies.

The cafe follows the same schedule as the garden, which means that it closes at dusk, but this also allows it to be extremely ecologically friendly. Because the Imperial Palace Gardens create a skyscraper-free buffer zone, they receive plenty of sunlight during the day, and the cafe can operate entirely by solar power, so you can feel good about being kind to Mother Nature as you treat yourself to a drink and a snack ina very unique location.

Cafe information
Sarutahiko Coffee (Imperial Palace East Garden Branch) / 猿田彦珈琲（皇居東御苑店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Chiyoda 1-9
東京都千代田区千代田1-9
Opening hours as per Imperial Palace East Garden:
9 a.m.- 4 p.m. (November-February)
9 a.m.- 5 p.m. (March-April 14)
9 a.m.- 6 p.m. (April 15-August)
9 a.m.- 5 p.m. (September)
9 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. (October)
Website

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Imperial Household Agency
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