Chip wrote:Excellent! Does it rival Ito-en's closed store?
Well it's sort of apples and oranges- Cha An has a great selection for a restaurant but they're not a big importer like Ito En so they don'st stock 300 different teas.
But as for the pleasure of visiting, yes I'd say it is up there with the old Ito En store.
And Zencha yes I suspect Ito En may be a supplier, their warehouse and US office is still here in Brooklyn or Queens. Cha an isn't getting its Japanese teas from In Pursuit, maybe some items from other regions. Pursuit does supply high-end NY restaurants, when I worked at Blue Hill that was one of their tea sources.
Anyway it was funny, I went to Cha An with my mom and sis who was visiting, I tried to get them to pick Japanese tea- mom got the genmaicha but the sis got one of those chrysantheum flower-shaped chinese teas, oh well
