INTERSECT BY LEXUS – TOKYO will offer its first new menu item for 2019, the Gyokuro Full Course, for a limited time only from February 1st.

This course is inspired by the Japanese custom of Hatsugama (“first kettle”), the opening tea ceremony of the year that is carried out in January to commemorate the start of a new year. The course uses high-grade gyokuro green tea grown in the regions of Yame and Uji, stringently chosen by a certified grade ten tea master, of whom just 13 exist in Japan. Enjoy these richly textured tastes across the three experiences of drinking, eating, and sweets.

In addition, during the Valentine's Day period from February 1st to February 14th, there is the opportunity to purchase Big Dipper matcha chocolate from Hoshino Seichaen, a tea plantation that supplies the Yame tea for the Gyokuro Full Course. Original matcha created by the renowned Ginza Kazuya especially for INTERSECT will also be on sale for three days from February 12th to February 14th.

In this way, INTERSECT continues to cultivate new items and ideas as a lifestyle brand through pairing the unique LEXUS commitment to craftsmanship with a wide range of creative talent who share that spirit of always offering innovative experiences.

Gyokuro Full Course 1,200 yen (incl. tax)
Guests can select their gyokuro green tea from either Yame or Uji tea varieties. The experience of drinking this tea is made even more nuanced and sophisticated by a guest’s choice of Japanese water from several types with different degrees of hardness, which further changes the flavor of the tea. The next experience is that of eating: the gyokuro tea leaves are placed over white rice and eaten with an original matcha salt that allows guests to enjoy the essential aroma and sweetness of the gyokuro. Finally, the course is features a warm warabi-mochi starch jelly sprinkled with gyokuro and complemented by a walnut condensed milk sauce. This very special dessert offers a textured and aromatic sweetness born out of combining gyokuro with kneaded warabi-mochi from Ginza Kazuya.

Big Dipper Hoshino Matcha Chocolate 756 yen (incl. tax)
This chocolate is available only in the winter season from Hoshino Seichaen, a plantation in the village of Hoshino in Yame, a city in Fukuoka Prefecture in southern Japan. The refined matcha chocolate is a very unusual marriage of high-quality Belgian white chocolate and stone-ground premier Yame matcha.

INTERSECT Original Matcha Chocolate 2,500 yen (incl. tax)
This matcha green tea chocolate has been especially created for INTERSECT by the prestigious Ginza Kazuya confectionery store. The first-ever chocolate made by the store behind a line of immensely popular nerigashi kneaded sweets is a must-try.

Shinya Yamaguchi
Head of Quality Control and Executive Director at Hoshino Seichaen
Shinya Yamaguchi has overseen the selection of Yame tea for the Gyokuro Full Course. He lives in the city of Yame of Fukuoka that is famed for its high-grade tea crops. He is one of only 13 certified grade ten tea masters in Japan, able to expertly discern the quality of tea leaves and produce tea of an immaculate standard. He is a three-time winner at the Japanese National Tea Appraiser Tournament, including winning the competition two years in a row. In his work, he aspires to pursue the essence of tea and pass on its genuine character.

Hirofumi Watanabe
Hirofumi Watanabe has overseen the selection of Uji tea for the Gyokuro Full Course. He works at a tea plantation in Kyotanabe, where farmers grow the Kyotanabe variety of Uji gyokuro, regarded as the pinnacle of Japanese and Uji tea. He is a consecutive winner at the Kyoto Prefecture Tea Appraiser Tournament. In his work prizing gyokuro and his local growing region under a motto of “tradition alongside innovation,” Watanabe endeavors to share the wonders of tea in ways that non-professionals can understand as well as to expand the taste of Uji tea craftsmanship.


Reservations
https://lexus.jp/international/brand/intersect/tokyo/bistro/