Simply Native

This is your last chance to take part.

As Tanabata comes to a close at our store, we are reading through the tanzaku hung on the bamboo, hopeful, thoughtful, some made us smile, and a few are simply very cute. It’s been such a joy watching the display slowly fill with wishes from our customers over the past few weeks.

Spend $150+ in-store or online by **Sunday 12 July** and register your purchase for a chance to win some of our favourite pieces from the store, including a TORCHIN Oval Portable Lamp, a Momentum Factory Orii Vase, a Gowan Ichiro Experience for Two, and more.

If you’re stopping by this weekend, we’d love for you to add your own wish to the bamboo before the festival ends.

**How to enter**
• Spend $150+ in a single transaction between 20 June–12 July
• Register your purchase via the link in our bio
• Every additional $150 spent earns an extra entry

Winners will be drawn on 13 July and announced via Instagram.

**Terms & Conditions:** Eligible purchases must be made between 20 June–12 July 2026. Proof of purchase is required to claim prizes. Winners will be contacted via email using the details provided at registration. Prizes are non-transferable, non-exchangeable and cannot be redeemed for cash. Full T&Cs available via the registration link.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Saiin, west of central Kyoto, SHUKA is the modern evolution of a family craft that has been handed down since 1926. For four generations, the Kondo family has been making amanatto, one of Japan’s most traditional confections.

Amanatto is made using a centuries-old technique of preserving beans in sugar. Traditionally, it was all about azuki and other Japanese beans. But Takeshi Kondo, the fourth-generation custodian of the family business Torokuya, has taken the craft somewhere new. Through SHUKA, he’s reimagined amanatto, applying the same technique not only to beans, but to cacao beans, pistachios and other seeds and nuts from around the world.

The result feels both ancient and contemporary at the same time: familiar, yet unlike anything we’ve tasted before.

His beautiful shop sits beside the family’s workshop, where nearly a century of confectionery history continues today. We arrived quite late in the afternoon and, despite being close to closing time, Kondo-san generously stayed back to chat with us long after the shop had closed. What began as a quick visit turned into one of those memorable conversations that reminds you why travel is so special - meeting people who are deeply passionate about what they do and generous enough to share it.

During our visit, he shared his philosophy behind SHUKA, and even pointed us toward what is now our favourite yakitori spot in Kyoto. He kindly made the reservation for us too.

We’re excited to bring a small selection of SHUKA to Australia, including the Cacao mix, the Okonomi mix (with pistachio, red beans and cashew nuts), Kurosengoku black bean tea, and a pistachio syrup that completely won us over.

Artisan Focus | Ryuouen 柳桜園茶舗 | Master Blender

For many people (even in Japan), “green tea” has meant bottled drinks - not matcha.

Matcha isn’t just ground tea but a composition.

Each master blender works like a perfumer. Blending different cultivars, some sweeter, some more aromatic, some deeper in umami, some brighter in colour and layering them into a single, balanced profile.

Built on instinct, refined over decades.
The recipe? Rarely disclosed.

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Tucked just off Teramachi Street, Ryuouen Tea Shop is easy to miss. For over a century, they’ve quietly supplied tea to temples and practitioners of the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Their tea is still sold by weight, over the counte as it always has been.

We found them the old way, through people, through trust. Being able to bring their tea outside Japan is something we don’t take lightly.

Ryuouen chooses to stay deliberately small.
No scaling for trend. No compromise on quality.
No online store. No marketing. And yet, recently through social platform, a new audience has found them.

What Ryuouen represents a slower, more intentional way of drinking tea shaped by craft, not convenience.

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When we visited last month, they were serving Kozakura 小桜, a seasonal blend marking the arrival of spring. For Simply Native, they’ve created Ikka Goyo 一華五葉.

Join us at our Surry Hills store for tastings, we’d love to introduce you to our world.