Seattle tea spots?

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Apr 22nd, '13, 23:45
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Seattle tea spots?

by saxon75 » Apr 22nd, '13, 23:45

My wife and I are taking a trip to Seattle in June for our anniversary, and I was wondering if anyone knew of a tea room or shop that we ought to visit. A place we could buy some nice tea to being home would be nice. A place where we could sit and have tea served to us would be even better. Any type of tea, Western or Eastern.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 00:17
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by Poohblah » Apr 23rd, '13, 00:17

I haven't been to Seattle since I was about 10, but I've heard a lot about these two tea houses via tea blogs and newspaper articles:
Zen Dog Teahouse
Pheonix Teahouse

Tea culture seems to have a much greater presence on the West Coast than anywhere else in North America, so I'm sure you'll be able to find something interesting in Seattle.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 02:01
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by wyardley » Apr 23rd, '13, 02:01

It's more in the former category, but definitely visit Floating Leaves Tea.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 02:08
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by tenuki » Apr 23rd, '13, 02:08

Here's something I posted a long while back - slightly out of date. There are some better options in Pike Place market now - Vital Leaf ( overpriced and mid grade, but ok and worth a visit )

Something maybe worth doing is this:
http://www.guitiansteaclub.com

I sometimes take a quick romantic jaunt up to Abbey Garden Tea Room for english style tea.
tenuki wrote:Here are a couple tea related places worth visiting in Seattle since we are on the topic, forget if I've posted this or not before:

Of course Floating Leaves Tea - at a new location, small shop, no tables, but you can sit and talk to Shuiwen as she brews you tea, which is better anyway. :) Shuiwen is a Seattle tea treasure, be sure to ask her about western brewing styles and what her suppliers have to say about that.

New Century Tea Gallery - discussed above. It's my preferred source for chinese tea. Very important to ask them for specific stuff and make sure to sample everything. They get a lot of disinterested tourists killing time and it takes a half hour or so for them to figure out that you are serious about tea.. ;)

Uwajimaya - if you don't have one in your town. 2 blocks from NCTG and Panama Hotel and Tea. Japanese grocery store, has very good tea section and also find the matcha/cerimony counter for decent and reasonably priced chawan and utensils. Even their store brand matcha is decent.

Panama Hotel and Tea (two blocks up the hill from NCTG) - Good place for a light lunch, their paninis are decent and their teas are bleh. Mostly it's a pretty cool historic place.

Miro Tea in Ballard. You have to ask them for gong fu service, but their regular service is nice bodum lechine with a timer and tealight warmer, so that's ok too. Some of the staff isn't trained very well, but the tea is pretty good and the selection is wide. Go on Sunday and get the bonus of a great farmers market on the street in front of it. They have some decent teas, my usual order is their gold standard yunnan (edit: they don't carry this anymore), but most of their higher end teas are good.

Remedy Tea in Capital Hill. Again, you have to ask for gong fu service and sometimes explain it to them and half their menu is tissanes and flavored tea, but there are some ok teas too there amongst the new age crap. Unexpected selection of puerh, some of it even good. Their WuYi is my usual order. Be sure to specify the water temp, the amount of tea etc.

Teahouse Kuan Yin in Wallingford. Not the best trained staff, but the teas are ok and reasonably priced. Again, you have to ask for gong fu service and then explain what to put on the tray. ;) Eat there too, you might be surprised depending on who cooked.


The tea ceremony in the Japanese Gardens -
Last edited by tenuki on Apr 23rd, '13, 16:36, edited 1 time in total.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 16:07
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by victoria3 » Apr 23rd, '13, 16:07

Tenuki, that's a great list for Seattle! I'll add that Sugimoto distributes out of Seattle and you might call them to see if they still have any 2013 Sincha available in June.

Sugimoto America
Physical Address:
519 6th Avenue South, Suite 140
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 206-774-0905
Email: info@sugimotousa.com

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Apr 23rd, '13, 22:36
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by nw-T » Apr 23rd, '13, 22:36

Floating Leaves for sure!
June will be a great time to visit as the spring tea will be available.
Bring your rain coat,btw. June can be a wet month in the PNW. :)

Apr 26th, '13, 02:52
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by saxon75 » Apr 26th, '13, 02:52

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'll be sure to bookmark this thread for when the trip gets a little closer.

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Apr 26th, '13, 13:55
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by hopeofdawn » Apr 26th, '13, 13:55

If you really like Taiwanese tea and/or can't get up to Ballard to Floating Leaves, I would also recommend Seattle's Best Tea--it's in the International District, and just a few blocks from New Century Tea Gallery.

If you'd like a sit down and relax teahouse atmosphere, I would definitely recommend the Panama Hotel tea room (also in the International district), as well as second Kuan Yin (in Wallingford) and Miro Teaw (in Ballard).

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Apr 26th, '13, 15:27
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by Poohblah » Apr 26th, '13, 15:27

Is Best Tea in Seattle related to the Best in Vancouver and HK?

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Apr 26th, '13, 16:33
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Re: Seattle tea spots?

by tenuki » Apr 26th, '13, 16:33

Poohblah wrote:Is Best Tea in Seattle related to the Best in Vancouver and HK?
no

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