By Michaela Duffey
Sapporo, Hokkaido, 2017-2018
If you love matcha ice cream, you'll love Matcha Gelato!
Matcha Gelato is a Japanese family-owned business making small-batch gelato from premium Kyoto Uji Matcha and other seasonal ingredients. Opened only a few months ago, they have already seen their matcha gelato become a huge hit at the Vancouver Farmer’s Market and in the Japanese community in Camas.
Several of us from JETAA Portland had the pleasure of meeting them and trying their gelato at the Binteeji Japanese car show. It is beautifully smooth, has a wonderful balance of matcha flavor, and is rich like the best gelato should be.
Their signature flavor is of course matcha, with both dairy and non-dairy versions, but they also offer vanilla and rotating fruit flavors featuring different seasonal fruits. So far they have made mango, peach, and cantaloupe gelato, and are currently working on new recipes they hope to showcase soon.
Matcha Gelato is the culmination of a 10-year-long dream for owner Toyo Uemura, an engineer who is passionate about all things matcha and gelato. Unable to find true matcha gelato in his area, he decided to follow his dream and make high quality matcha gelato himself. And gelato is only the beginning. After the summer gelato season has ended, he’ll be visiting his hometown of Osaka to do more research into Japanese-style gelato and other matcha-flavored sweets and baked goods. Next year he hopes to add more matcha sweets to Matcha Gelato’s repertoire and we can’t wait to see what he makes next!
You can find Matcha Gelato at the downtown Vancouver Farmer’s Market on 8th & Esther St Vancouver, WA 98660, from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm on Saturday and 10:00 am - 3:00 pm on Sundays. While they will be taking a short summer break at the end of August, you can catch them this weekend August 15th and 16th, and then every weekend from the 5th to the 27th of September.
Check out their Instagram @matcha.gelatoyo to see all their upcoming market dates, opening schedule, new flavors, and other updates.
We look forward to trying their gelato again soon!
