Open only a year and a half, Sontag has clearly made its mark in Holborn, with a constant stream of customers ordering its colourful drinks.
We’d been recommended this spot to expand our matcha palates, so this week we headed to Holborn and sat down with Joseph, the owner of the café, to discuss their specialties and the inspiration behind the business.
Sontag describes itself as a quasi-hybrid space; they’re known for both their creative matcha drinks and specialty coffee. Whereas most cafés in London focus on either matcha or coffee, Sontag breaks from this format and offers both at a high standard.
Named after Susan Sontag, Joseph’s intentions reflect the writer’s work, focusing on breaking the barriers between high and low culture and how the shop can use familiarity to encourage its customers to try something new. They’ve cleverly reinforced this through the design of the café, using metal and natural wood to combine Japanese minimalism with Scandinavian textures, creating a calm, neutral space. You really want to stay and try everything on the menu.
Sontag’s menu covers everything from traditional tea and coffee to classic and specialty drinks, including matcha and yuzu. They often collaborate with local organisations, recently partnering with the LSE fashion show to sell a custom Guava Matcha.
Most people know matcha. Fewer people know of its less caffeinated counterpart, hojicha. Grown from the same plant as matcha, the preparation happens at a higher temperature, resulting in a very low caffeine content.
With its deep, amber hue and notes of toasted nut and caramel, hojicha offers a comforting, cocoa-like warmth that appeals even to those who typically find green tea too bitter.
Sontag has incorporated this Japanese ingredient into its menu, offering a wide range of specialty flavours: a Sea Salt Hojicha Latte, Raspberry Hojicha, an Hojicha and Espresso Latte, and Peak Hojicha. You can learn all about it from Joseph in our video below.
Images: Sontag
