Sabo Koishi

Quick, pre-​review shout out to Unilocal Osaka’s Marketing Assistant/​Community Manager. Thank you so much for helping me find/​generate this business’ Unilocal page so I could review it!
My husband and I were exploring the Higashiyama district, from Yasaka-​jinja to the Sannenzaka stairs and back (we had already visited Kiyomizudera the day before). We had stumbled upon many tea shops, but having had a late lunch and it being late afternoon, we weren’t hungry yet. Thank goodness that by the time we returned to several shops we were interested in, they were closed, sending us back to Shijo-​dori to find a snack.
It was far too cold and wet for ice-​cream and I knew that since we were in Kyoto we absolutely HAD to have some traditional Japanese desserts/​treats made with matcha green tea. 茶房 こいしi was the first sweet shop we passed after leaving Yasaka-​jinja that looked appealing.
茶房 こいし is a lovely shop with a small downstairs eating area just beyond their counter space where you can buy treats and snacks and a second larger eating area upstairs.
Personally, I am grateful we were seated upstairs because it was quieter and we were the only ones up there. The lighting and décor (ikebana using seasonal flowers/​greens and paintings) were so beautiful and really set the mood that you were in for a special experience. Something unique to Kyoto.
English menus are available and it was reasonably easy to communicate with the servers in spite of our language barrier. Upon being seated you are served a small cup of roasted tea, which was very warming.
I ordered the green tea cappuccino and the mini-​green tea parfait and mini-​anmitsu combo, while my husband ordered vanilla ice cream topped in kuromitsu (closest American analogy would be molasses — but it translates to black sugar syrup) and a green tea au lait.
The green tea cappuccino was espresso free, instead being a hot matcha milk tea served with steamed milk and foam. It was excellent. Matcha can sometimes be a little bitter — which is why a slightly sweet treat is served beside it at traditional tea ceremonies. But the green tea cappuccino and green tea au lait were slightly sweet and just had that earthy smell of matcha.
The kuromitsu was excellent and is available for sale in glass bottles by the register. The mini-​green tea parfait had a small scoop of green tea ice cream, mochi, jelly, adzuki paste, and whip cream in a matcha green tea soup (for lack of a better term), while the anmitsu had mochi and jelly in a kuromitsu soup. Both were excellent and delicate. Nothing was too sweet and the textures of the mochi vs the jelly were quite pleasant.
For all of this, we paid about $ 19US. Which to me was a steal for a moment of quiet in a beautiful location while eating delicious food.