Years after it entered our lives, conquered and swept through, it's very hard to define matcha powder as a trend. It’s not temporary, not “hot,” and certainly not just a passing whim. After all, hundreds and thousands of years in the East, along with a full establishment as a health game-changer, can’t suddenly become a fad just like that.
If anything, its virality is consistent and stable, making its way and taking over spaces and kitchens step by step, city by city, drinks and desserts—and people, of course. In that sense, Boutique Central’s new offering doesn’t aim to shake things up, and certainly not to hold any breaking news. It simply connects to a phenomenon that can’t truly be ignored—and does so smartly, moderately, and gradually.
The result, mainly due to all these qualities, is excellent.
The chain’s new matcha collection is the product of an intriguing collaboration between its team—led by owner Ofer Gal—and Japanese pâtisserie artist Sakie Yamazaki. It includes drinks, desserts, and cakes based on ceremonial tea leaves from Shizuoka Prefecture on the island of Honshu—a grade representing fine filtering from the first harvest and from a single source.
It features a matcha nemesis cake (layers of rich chocolate and mousse, NIS 148 for an 18 cm diameter) that highlights only a mild sweetness and excellent bitterness in its two layers; a matcha tiramisu (NIS 74 for a loaf-sized cake) with greenish touches replacing the traditional Italian coffee inside the mascarpone cream—managing to slightly change the popular dessert, just to the right degree; and a surprise in the form of a pound cake (NIS 53) that jumps out at you with a crème brûlée filling spiced with peach, and somehow manages to tie all its components into one coherent slice—decadent but not over-the-top.
All of these will naturally be accompanied by new chain beverages in the form of hot and cold matcha. You know, so you can quietly and in balance move on to the next sweet thing.