In cozy cat cafe sim Pekoe the cats are the ones running the show

Pekoe Early Access Official Launch Trailer - YouTube

If the internet has a wholesome mascot, it’s obviously cats, and Pekoe knows that what they really want are cute aesthetic teahouses to relax in. Pekoe is working on fertile ground with cozy vibes not unalike Animal Crossing.

Pekoe - a cup of tea being stirred with ingredients in the water — (Image credit: Kitten Cup Studio)

With each of Pekoe’s different types of tea, you’ll need to learn how to grow and harvest the correct ingredients yourself, and it’s safe to say that you won’t be harvesting them from a box of tea bags in your cupboard. Everything down to the types of tea sets you use is customizable, and how you prepare, steep, stir, and mix will determine how the tea comes out. Renovating your teahouse room by room to achieve the perfect aesthetic looks quite satisfying too—whether you prefer a high class traditional look or dark and slightly spooky. Renovating and redecorating is a time honored cat tradition, after all. Just don’t put the really nice tea sets on the high shelves, since old habits die hard.

Getting to know the ten different residents of Pekoe’s idyllic village won’t just endear you to a clowder of cats, you’ll also get to know their likes and dislikes. Getting familiar with the tastes of your—admittedly quite small—clientele looks to be critical to success in Pekoe, since you’ll be doing each step of the tea brewing yourself in a very hands-on ritual of pouring, stirring, and sugaring. Small changes in preparation and ingredients seem like they can go a long way towards success, and there’s something very relaxing about the idea of trimming leaves and making tea for a whole village of cat friends.

Past the taste and brewing of tea, Pekoe also focuses on the ritual of preparation and sharing. With numerous real world cultures having their own approaches to consuming everyone’s favorite leaves, Pekoe is sure to explore some of those traditions. It sounds even more delightful when filtered through the lens of cats who just want to share a cup or two and chat.

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait long to renovate our new teahouses. Pekoe shared the new trailer above at the Wholesome Games Showcase and announced it will be arriving by the end of June. You can find and wishlist it over on Steam until then.

Sarah is a contributor for PC Gamer, formerly of TechRadar Gaming. With five years of experience writing freelance for several publications, she's covered every genre imaginable and probably a few she made up. She has a passion for diversity and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling, and loves worldbuilding. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, roguelike, and RPG entries, she still finds time for offline hobbies like tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.