Sir Thomas Lipton Tea House in Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto is famed for its green tea, particularly the prized matcha from nearby Uji. But per Atlas Obscura, the city also became an unexpected home for British black tea. In nineteen thirty, tea trader Heizo Fukunaga opened a tea room in Kyoto's Sanjo district under the Sir Thomas Lipton brand. For decades, black tea didn't gain much ground in Japan—until nineteen sixty-five, when the Lipton shop introduced Royal milk tea, made by brewing Assam leaves with milk instead of water. The richly milky drink became a sensation and helped establish black tea as a permanent part of Japanese tea culture.

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