Tea in NYC

If you can tolerate the prices at those two, you might as well get better quality: Tea Gallery at 131 Allen St. Their hours are a bit irregular, so phone ahead at 212-777-6148. Disclaimer: I'm very fond of them!

/Lew

Yeah, I was totally shocked at the prices....the pots of tea weren't so bad, but the food added up quick! $80 for 3 people, and I left hungry!

:)

It strikes me I may have given you a wrong impression: Tea Gallery isn't mainly a place to sit and drink tea, though that does happen; it's basically a place to buy (and try) tea leaves and gear.

/Lew

Hi Lester, If not yet tried go for:

-Takashimaya in the cellar

-Ten Ren in Chinatown

-Ito En

Lester Long schrieb:

I think it is possible to get good tea at Ten Ren, but the staff are a real obstacle: often rude and often trying to direct your attention to what they're currently trying to get rid of.

/Lew

T-Salon didn't exactly have the best staff either, IMO.

Lester

I have never really had this problem, but then mostly I have gone in and known what I was looking for to begin with.

I will say that the staff at the Ten Ren in Rockville, MD. does seem to have more folks that actually know about tea than the people at the one in NYC. But I have not found either store rude.

Often overpriced, yes. But they do have some excellent teas at reasonable prices if you are careful to make sure you get the grade you want.

--scott

See my review of places here

Aeyal Gross

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com12/29/05 15: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

I concur with Lew; they are my first choice. For a sit-down tea and snacks or light lunch you might also try Cha Do on Ninth Street between Second and Third Avenues. Good and not so perfect experiences have been reported there. Mine were fine.

Michael

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com12/30/05 10: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

Hi again,

Another possibility for you is Wild Lily Tea Room on W 22nd Street -- or the next street downtown -- off 10th Avenue. You can eat a light meal there as well. None of these places are cheap, though. But, they are worth exploring. (Personally, I usually keep my tea drinking explorations and my food explorations separate.) In either of the places I mentioned it is possible to sit down and have a cup or small pot of tea without food.

The Tea Gallery is a different kind of experience, as Lew said, and a wonderful introduction to new Chinese teas as the owners, Michael and Winnie, know their tea really well and are eager to share their teas and their knowledge. Again, like Lew, I'm very fond of them.

Michael

Michael

KALLE snipped-for-privacy@t-online.de/30/05 10: snipped-for-privacy@t-online.de

Hi Kalle,

Caveats regarding your suggestions: Ten Ren is way overpriced for the quality of tea they sell, and for the most part they don't take good care of their teas. Furthermore, if you don't speak Chinese, communication is at a minimum. Ito En serves tea upstairs as well as *very* high priced snacks, but they will not add more water to their little pots. A second steep is usually appropriate. Therefore, I put them on my "don't go there" list. However, their street level tea and gear sales area is pleasant and interesting. They refrigerate their teas, and take *very* good care of them. I am less familiar with Takashimaya, although I've had tea there twice. I have no feeling for them one way or the other, which doesn't speak well for them (or perhaps for me).

Ito En is on Madison Avenue at approximately 68th Street.

Michael

This just in: There's a new place in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) called Roebling Tearoom, where my wife and I lunched on the last day of the departed year. It isn't entirely focused on tea - it's kind of a bohemian lounge - but they make an honest attempt at serving good tea. The food, based on our one experience there, is pretty good, too: good ingredients treated respectfully, if not necessarily with laser-like concentration (the potatoes in the potato salad were underdone.) The prices are surprisingly reasonable for that rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.

The tea is served in a way I hadn't seen before, and I think it makes sense for a place that wants to serve tea well but doesn't want to attempt, e.g., gongfu preparation. They put the leaves into a T-Sac (or some equivalent filter-paper sleeve) and infuse the leaves in a tall glass topped with a saucer and wrapped with one of those don't-burn-my-hand sleeves spread around the world by Starbucks. To me, the benefit of this method is that the glass gets *completely* cleaned between uses, so my Baimudan won't remind me of an earlier scented whatever.

/Lew