A wonderful asian tea experience! limited but very tasty vegetarian menu. I had never had the short steep asian style tea before this. Bought a tea set and a terrific “golden eyebrow” tea.
A very nice place. I love how calm it is inside despite the usual chaos of old port.The decor is very nice and has a nice energy to it, similar to one of a church in a way. Not surprising since its very close to the basilica. The teaware they sell is of nice aesthetics and good quality, the price is good too. The same goes for the tea. This shop focuses on chinese but there is some very good fukamushi sencha. I’m particularly fond of their dan cong oolong. The staff there always recommends me some good tea or compliment my taste which is a plus.
Stopped in for a cup with my wife just before heading to the spa. Was awesome. Had two spectacular teas and service was prompt and insightful. Tea-eye-candy everywhere. Pick up an Yixing while you’re there. Or even a knock-off. There are plenty to choose from!
I have a lot of contesting feelings about this place.
First, the positive: an absolutely gorgeous assortment of tea wares. This place is stunningly beautiful and has pretty much every eastern brewing method under the sun, with a lot of beautiful gaiwans and sets, a lot of yixing (though I cannot attest to the quality), aroma sets, single cups, pitchers, even a few clay tea pets. If you are looking for a beautiful set and don’t want to buy online, this is the place.
There is a lot of full leaf tea on sale but I’ve yet to try what I bought so I can’t speak to quality. Which brings us to the negatives…
I hate to have my review influenced by someone else but one Google review was really troubling and seemed to have some stock in it. A customer reported that, after returning a likely mislabeled lapsang souchong, the owner treated him disdainfully and even put the remaining leaves back in the big tin. Apparently he said something along the lines of that the Chinese know how to treat their tea and never smoke it, which of course goes strongly against the literal definition of a lapsang!
I’m afraid to say that this review doesn’t surprise me! The owner hovered uncomfortably around me and was pretty bristly. I’m in the market for a kyusu and couldn’t remember what they are called so I pointed one out and asked about it. He said pretty condescendingly that it’s clearly a teapot. I was a little surprised by his curtness and said “yeah I know, but that Japanese style for brewing sencha, what’s the name of it?” To which he responded that the Chinese just call all teapots “teapots.”
I asked about shu pu-erh and he immediately recommended the most expensive, not that surprising, but when I asked what makes it good he just said “it’s very good.” I bought a cup of it and was pretty underwhelmed (though I’m very new to puerh so take that with a grain of salt.)
TL;DR this is a place with a very condescending owner who probably just wants your money and has tea of questionable quality. The tea ware, however, is absolutely gorgeous and reasonably priced.
A wonderful asian tea experience! limited but very tasty vegetarian menu. I had never had the short steep asian style tea before this. Bought a tea set and a terrific “golden eyebrow” tea.
