Bonbon Matcha began its soft opening at 439 Waverley St. on October 20, 2026. Maruwu Seicha soft-opened at 250 University Ave. on the same date two years earlier. In those two years, downtown Palo Alto went from one dedicated matcha counter to several within a few addresses of each other. Over the same period, the tea leaf behind the drink became one of the fastest-rising ingredient costs in the café business.
Each shop has chosen a different grade of matcha, a different food menu and different hours. Read together, they work less like competitors and more like shifts. One closes at 5 p.m. and another stays open until 11 p.m., and the choice of which grade goes into which drink tells you a lot about each counter.
How the cluster filled in
The openings came in a steady sequence:
- Maruwu Seicha, 250 University Ave., Unit 101, soft-opened October 20, 2024. It's known for matcha and hojicha lattes, Okinawa boba drinks, cheese tarts, soft serve and matcha gelato.
- Molly Tea, 318 University Ave., opened November 21, 2025. The Paly Voice reviewed its Snowy Jasmine and White Champaca Matcha that December.
- Rikyu, 121 Lytton Ave., opened July 20, 2026. Its owner, Daiji Uehara, also runs Hiroshi, an omakase restaurant in Los Altos.
- Bonbon Matcha, 439 Waverley St., took over the former Gong Cha space with a soft opening on October 20, 2026. This is Emily Niu's second location, after the Cupertino café she opened in June.
On the same stretch of University Avenue, the Auntea Jenny site lists its 328 University Ave. store as "Coming Soon." It will be the Peninsula debut for the Shanghai tea chain, which has more than 10,000 stores worldwide. Palo Alto Online placed it among a wave of Chinese tea brands expanding on the Peninsula, alongside Molly Tea, HeyTea, Mixue and Charlie's Tea.
The ingredient got expensive while the shops kept opening
Matcha starts as tencha, shaded tea leaves that are ground into powder. Kyoto's first-flush, machine-harvested tencha averaged ¥5,402 per kilogram at auction in 2024 and ¥14,541 per kilogram in 2025, an increase of 169 percent, according to a June 2026 pricing update from tea importer Kettl. In a notice signed July 2026, Kyoto producer Yamamasa Koyamaen said tencha prices had risen further in 2026 and announced its second price adjustment in two years.
You can see the effect at the counter. In August 2025, NBC Bay Area reported that Matsu Matcha in Santa Clara was charging $6 to $7 for a latte, even though its cost for ceremonial matcha had risen 60 percent. In September 2026, The Paly Voice listed Rikyu's prices. A small plain matcha latte starts at $6.80 and a small water-based matcha at $6.50. Small fruit-purée lattes cost $7.50, a medium blueberry matcha $8.50, and a small yuzu matcha with strawberry foam $9. Alternative milk and cold foam each add $1.50.
So a basic latte downtown costs only slightly more than it did a year ago at a shop a few miles south. The real price spread is in everything layered on top: fruit, foam, and the grade of the powder.
Grade is where the shops actually differ
When raw tencha nearly triples in price, the most important decision a shop makes is where its best powder goes. The downtown shops have answered that question in different ways.
Rikyu splits its grades by drink. Before Rikyu opened, Palo Alto Online reported that it would use Shizuoka culinary-grade matcha in most drinks and save ceremonial grade for straight matcha. If you want to taste the tea itself, order it without milk. Rikyu's other strength is food. It sells Japanese-style takeaway lunches such as the Ebi Katsu Sando and the Rikyu Chirashi, which makes it a lunch stop as much as a drink stop.
Bonbon Matcha puts ceremonial grade into everything. According to the Palo Alto Scoop, it uses ceremonial-grade matcha in both drinks and baking. Lattes come in strawberry, mango and yuzu, or topped with sea salt cheese foam or banana cream. The dessert case holds a double matcha cake, a matcha crepe roll cake, matcha tiramisu and a rotating lineup of Basque cheesecakes. Its matcha gelato comes in four intensity levels and can be ordered as a float. This is the dessert counter of the group.
Maruwu Seicha covers matcha and its roasted cousin. Hojicha lattes sit beside the matcha on its menu, along with cheese tarts, soft serve and gelato. Hojicha is one of the alternatives tea experts suggested to customers during the shortage, as reported by The Almanac. Maruwu has since opened in Campbell, and Palo Alto Online reported that a Castro Street location in Mountain View is planned for 2027.
Molly Tea comes at matcha through Chinese tea. Its best-known drinks are built on jasmine and champaca florals, with matcha as one ingredient among several.
Each shop has its own reason for a visit, so none of them has to beat the others on the price of a plain latte.
Hours finish the division of labor
Once you know what each counter serves, its posted hours show when it's worth the walk.
| Shop | Address | Posted hours | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rikyu | 121 Lytton Ave. | Mon–Sat 8 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sun 9 a.m.–4 p.m. | Morning matcha, takeaway lunch |
| Maruwu Seicha | 250 University Ave., Unit 101 | Sun–Wed 10 a.m.–10:30 p.m.; Thu–Sat 10 a.m.–11 p.m. | Late-evening drinks and gelato |
| Bonbon Matcha | 439 Waverley St. | Daily 11 a.m.–10 p.m. | Afternoon or after-dinner dessert |
| Molly Tea | 318 University Ave. | Check before visiting | Jasmine and floral tea drinks |
Rikyu runs on a café's daytime schedule and is the only one of the group open at 8 a.m. Maruwu stays open until 11 p.m. on weekend nights. Bonbon covers the hours in between. Hours at new shops often change during a soft opening, so check Bonbon's before going out of your way.
Putting it to use on December 4
The schedule matters most on Friday, December 4. That evening, the City of Palo Alto holds its free Holiday Tree Lighting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Lytton Plaza, at University Avenue and Emerson Street. Performers include School of Rock, the Boost Class Merry Holiday Dancers and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Rikyu's weekday hours end at 5 p.m., before the event starts. To make the evening work:
- Before 5 p.m., stop at Rikyu on Lytton Avenue for a straight ceremonial matcha or a box of chirashi to take home.
- At 5:30 p.m., head to Lytton Plaza for the lighting and the performances.
- After 7 p.m., choose based on your appetite. Bonbon Matcha on Waverley is open until 10 p.m. for gelato floats and Basque cheesecake. Maruwu Seicha on University stays open until 11 p.m. on Fridays for a hojicha latte and a cheese tart.
If you have guests who haven't been downtown lately, the walk from Lytton to Waverley shows them two years of new openings in one evening.
Karin follows downtown Palo Alto's small-business openings the same way she tracks its housing market, one address at a time. If you'd like to talk through what's changing on your own block, Karin Freiman is happy to share what she's seeing. Book a Consultation whenever it suits you.
