food & drink

Matcha gets thrown around a lot these days, usually whisked from a tin of who-knows-what. Bonsai Matxa i Cafè takes it more seriously than most. This Eixample café, on Carrer Casanova, treats matcha as a ritual rather than a trend: first-harvest ceremonial powder sourced straight from Japan, stone-ground to order, with none of the bitterness that gives the cheap stuff a bad name.

The house line tells the story – the smooth, best-selling Asahi alongside the Zen and Yuhi blends – and you can drink it in or carry a tin home with a whisk to start your own. But the café side pulls its weight too: properly made espresso and milk drinks for anyone who hasn’t gone green, served in a calm, plant-flecked room that’s become a small Eixample favorite.

Shade-grown, stone-ground, whisked with care – it’s the rare place that treats a bowl of matcha with the same respect a good barista gives the bean. Order the Asahi and see what the fuss is about.