Ten Ren

For general/other topics related to tea.


Feb 27th, '13, 20:18
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Ten Ren

by beforewisdom » Feb 27th, '13, 20:18

Ten Ren opened up a combination tea shop, Chinese restaurant and bubble tea bar in my old college town. It is a super pleasant place to be in. Nice decor, super friendly as well as happy staff and nobody bothers you if you hang out there for a long time. A perfect "third space".

I was making regular trips there for a while before I discovered that Ten Ren was an international corporation based in Taiwan.

I've seen a few people mention Ten Ren, so I am interested in hearing thoughts about the quality of their tea.

I don't know anything about tea, but I've bought a few of their $5 a box whole leaf green teas ( bags ). It may be garbage to people with more refined tea palattes, but for $5 I thought the teas were very fresh, tasty, etc.

They also sell tea out of large opaque bulk urns. I've seen elderly Chinese people making the trip to buy it so I am suspicious that it might not be bad quality.

Unfortunately, if you buy hot tea, they just a tea bag in a single person tea pot and give it to you. They don't do any special prepartion with water temperature, time, etc. On the plus side they will refill you pot many times with hot water at no charge.

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Feb 27th, '13, 23:45
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Re: Ten Ren

by victoria3 » Feb 27th, '13, 23:45

I recently made a trek to Ten Ren in Chinatown here in Los Angeles. Disclosure, I am infatuated with Japanese greens. I was pretty disappointed with my tea drinking experience there, although I did purchase a pretty nice Premium Assam. They were going to serve us three teas in paper cups ! until we intervened and they put the teas in ceramic pots. No artistry here. The green teas I tried were sub-par, so I recommend you stick to typical Chinese varieties which are more oxidized. I'm still trying to find a quality tea house in LA.

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Feb 28th, '13, 01:05
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Re: Ten Ren

by wyardley » Feb 28th, '13, 01:05

From what I can tell, most of the Ten Ren / Ten Fu places in LA are owned by different folks. But all are really focused on buying tea vs. drinking tea, with the exception of the ones that have a counter for boba tea etc. I don't think there are any good "tea houses" here, in the sense of a place you'd go to drink tea.

I think there is sometimes slightly more serious tea drinking at the one near Focus Plaza in the evenings, but I've never gone, and don't really know the details.

I know that there's a shop specializing in pu'er which either has opened or will open soon. It's fairly far east. I will try to post the details here when I have more.

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Feb 28th, '13, 07:00
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Re: Ten Ren

by sherubtse » Feb 28th, '13, 07:00

There is a Ten Ren shop here in town, in Chinatown. I have been in it several times, but have never purchased any tea. I have always been turned off right from the start by the pushy nature of the sales ladies. :x (And yes, they are all women.)

If I can just tune them out, I may try some of the teas.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

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Feb 28th, '13, 08:20
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Re: Ten Ren

by BioHorn » Feb 28th, '13, 08:20

TenRen (Mott St?) was the singular most negative experience I have had with a tea establishment.

It happened in 2006 when I knew practically nothing about tea and was trying to get educated.

The store was empty.
The sales lady opened a number of tins for me to smell. After getting through a number of them selecting a couple and asking questions,
she exploded, yelling at me with a furious expression, "What do you want?! It is only tea!" and abruptly put the tin in her hand away :!:

Since then I have never returned.

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Feb 28th, '13, 14:31
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Re: Ten Ren

by victoria3 » Feb 28th, '13, 14:31

wyardley wrote:....I think there is sometimes slightly more serious tea drinking at the one near Focus Plaza in the evenings, but I've never gone, and don't really know the details.

I know that there's a shop specializing in pu'er which either has opened or will open soon. It's fairly far east. I will try to post the details here when I have more.
Thanks wyardley, I would love to know about any good tea places in LA. So far, I'm getting some pretty decent senchas from the Nijiya Markets here and ordering directly from Japan.

I'm laughing in sympathy with BioHorn & sherubtse as my experience in Chinatown was similar. Although, my worst experience (because my expectations were so high) was at the Japanese American Museum in Little Tokio at the Chado Tea Room. I was relatively new to Japanese greens so was really looking forward to a tea tasting as posted on their web site. Well, they don't do tastings so we ordered the three most expensive gyokuros & senchas they offered. To my horror they came to the table with what looked like diluted yellow water in several tea pots. No leaves, they had thrown them out! Chado is owned by a knowledgeble Indian guy, so that might suggest to stick to Indian teas there. The Japanese senchas I purchased there were super dry and disappointing.

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Mar 15th, '13, 20:50
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Re: Ten Ren

by Drax » Mar 15th, '13, 20:50

Hm, I'm glad for the search function, even when this thread is really not that old!

I was just searching around on the maps around DC for tea houses and saw there was a Ten Ren over in College Park. I knew I had seen discussions here, so I searched and then found this thread.

I am now sort of intrigued just to check it out....! :D

Mar 16th, '13, 17:22
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Re: Ten Ren

by beforewisdom » Mar 16th, '13, 17:22

I live in the area.

I can't say enough good things about the Ten Ren in College Park. It is my "third space".

However, the tea they serve is bagged and dropped in a pot brought to your table. You do get free refills of hot water though.

The bubble tea is very good and you can get it made with soy instead of cow's milk.

The metro rail does extend to College Park, but if you are in downtown DC it will take a huge bite out of your afternoon getting there. Once at the stop, you will have about a 1 mile walk to Ten Ren.

Ten Ren is wonderful if you have the time and do not mind the long trip, but there is nothing else of interest in College Park, which is a bit remote from DC, especially for a tourist with limited time.

Apr 16th, '13, 10:21
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Re: Ten Ren

by winofigments » Apr 16th, '13, 10:21

I was at the Mott St, New York City store yesterday. The saleswomen were friendly but don't give you any space. I just wanted to browse for a while...you know like Rodney Dangerfield in Easy Money? "We're browsers." I inquired about a quality Yunnan Gold. Being relatively new to tea and getting up to speed, I thought I'd play it safe. She directed me to the section of pu-erhs...which raised my suspicions. The only distinction on the large metal canisters was price. She insisted these pu-erhs (which she pronounced like "poor") were Yunnan blacks. I bought a quarter pound of "2nd grade" for $18. They have a good selection of clay pots, gaiwans, and sets but the prices are high. So, if you're traipsing through Chinatown which is always interesting even to a native New Yorker like myself, it's worth a peek to see the variety of wares and packaged goods but it falls short if you want to know exactly what kind of loose leaves you are getting and you may not like the over-attentive service.

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Apr 16th, '13, 23:56
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Re: Ten Ren

by wyardley » Apr 16th, '13, 23:56

The hover-y service seems to be a constant.

Aug 31st, '13, 20:37
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Re: Ten Ren

by Hmm » Aug 31st, '13, 20:37

I used to go to the Ten Ren in College Park when I was a student there. It's a nice space, and has gotten really popular over the years since I was student. There used to be no one there.

I don't think the tea there is anything to write home about. I have had some REALLY terrible tea from those large tins before. I bought some their premium grade tie guan yin once, and it tasted like it was 5 years old or something. Therefore I now never buy tea from ten ren in the states ever.

The Tian Fu, in China, a subsidiary of Tian Ren isn't bad. I have gotten some decent quality teas from there.

Unfortunately I don't think there's any good places to buy loose leaf teas in the DC area. Philly surprisingly has decent places to buy tea and drink tea.

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Aug 31st, '13, 23:49
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Re: Ten Ren

by Evan Draper » Aug 31st, '13, 23:49

Hmm wrote: Philly surprisingly has decent places to buy tea and drink tea.
You mean BESIDES my house?!?!?!?

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Sep 1st, '13, 04:39
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Re: Ten Ren

by jayinhk » Sep 1st, '13, 04:39

My only experience with Ten Ren was buying a 150g bag of TGY for $6 here in Hong Kong. It was much stronger than I expected and made me nauseous, but now that I know how to brew it it is definitely acceptable for the money. I hear their high end oolong offerings in Taiwan are good, but expensive.

There's a Ten Ren branch in HK I may have to check out as I believe we get Taiwanese market products here rather than the stuff sold in the US.

Sep 1st, '13, 16:07
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Re: Ten Ren

by Hmm » Sep 1st, '13, 16:07

Evan Draper wrote:
Hmm wrote: Philly surprisingly has decent places to buy tea and drink tea.
You mean BESIDES my house?!?!?!?
Hah... perhaps. Unless you're the female ex-horse jockey, who is less than 5 feet tall near South Street who people called the "Tea Nazi". There's also a place in No. Libs I used to go to drink tea. Not the best tea, but I liked the proprietress ever since she gave me scones for free. The space is quite calming too.

I didn't like too much the place near gayborhood, nor the rittenhaus area. I forget their names.

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