Address: 505 Highway 7 Unit 15
Phone Number: (289) 800-4388
City: Markham
Category: Dessert
The newest location of Matcha Tea & Dessert is settled in an indoor retail area in Markham, surrounded by a variety of Asian food, dessert, and beverage shops. Recently, the dessert spot has drawn in many customers vying for a taste of luxury. Trendy, gold and silver covered soft serve is offered at Matcha Tea & Dessert, drawing in instafoodies and adventurous dessert-goers alike.
Matcha Tea & Dessert’s founder, Chris, combined his Taiwanese upbringing and the strong influence of Japanese culture on his childhood to bring about this dessert café. His goal was to bring together these two excellent tea cultures for Torontonians to experience, and has since extended this mission to a new Markham location.
The space is small and would snugly fit four people. The tables at this spot seem to be more for waiting for your special dessert to be crafted than to stay and enjoy your treat. The back wall features a bustling, black-and-white city scene – the perfect backdrop for an all-black cone draped with gold.
Unlike the downtown location, which offers matcha-flavored desserts, matcha beverages, and bubble teas with rotating tapioca flavors, the Markham spot exclusively serves up photogenic ice cream cones – or at least that’s what seemed available during our visit. There are a few flavors of soft serve available, with the option to get a “twist” combination of two flavors. Flavors include matcha, charcoal, red bean, and sesame. Recently, Japanese Ramune (a baby-pink colored ice cream) and Marshmallow (a beautiful baby blue treat) have been added to the menu as well. The matcha and charcoal varieties are offered covered in 99% 24K gold leaf. More recently, there has also been an option to get your ice cream wrapped in silver leaf instead, if that is your metallic aesthetic of choice. There is an option to get the entire ice cream portion of the cone covered in gold or only half. We had both the matcha and charcoal ice creams half covered in gold, which seemed to be sufficient for that #instaworthy photo (and less expensive). Ice cream is piled high atop a black charcoal waffle cone. The store owner is friendly and evidently takes pride in his work, carefully crafting your gold- or silver-covered cone and serving it up with a tiny plastic shovel for a spoon, along with a smile. He’ll even help you set up a good Instagram shot for your cone on the white marble countertops! Now that’s what we call service.
The soft serve itself has a good taste. The matcha option has a subtle flavoring that is slightly bitter, but not too bitter. The charcoal variety has a complex vanilla taste. Both are not overly creamy, but also not overly watery. The consistency is slightly grainy, but the flavor is consistent with every mouthful. This is a wonderfully refreshing treat for summertime, but only if you’re prepared for a $13 price tag after tax. Alternatively, without the metallic leaf, the cone becomes much less expensive, so subsequent trips may not require such hefty pocket change.
The charcoal cone, similar to the ice cream itself, is not overtly on one particular end of the cone spectrum. It is not as dense and crunchy as a waffle cone, but has a bit more bite than a regular sugar cone. The result is a delicately sweet cone with a crisp but light texture. The sweetness of the cone pairs nicely with the ice cream, especially the slight bitterness of the matcha soft serve.
North of the 6ix 
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