Bamboo Tea House Edit

I like this tea place. It has friendly service and lots of tea. The prices are pretty good. The tea cups and the books are really cute.

I stopped by this small shop as I was in the area. I didn’t know what kind of tea shop it was, so I was happy to see it was a loose leaf and teaware kind of place!

Fantastic teaware and a fair price. I liked the selection: cast iron pots, english tea pots in great range of colours, yixing clay pots, lots of japanese style mugs, and tea steeper devices (balls, paper, gravity). Emphasis on LOTS of tea cups and muchs!
Everything is displayed in a clutter fashion, but it was like digging through treasure!
I scored a fantastic yixing pot (pictures of it on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/yixing-teapot-3/ ) and I could of gotten in much more trouble. Good range of prices, some comparable to purchasing online and some a touch higher but very acceptable.

For tea – they sold loose (in large canisters), prepackaged and boxed bags teas. I didn’t look much into the tea – the small shop was heavily incensed, so I was a fairly concerned if the tea soaked up the scent – my yixing is strongly scented like incense.
Tea range seemed mostly unflavored and some florals. Decent range of oolong, black, rooibos, mate and a couple pu’er.

There were other knicknacks, cute figurines, jewelry and such. Very nice shop – I’d come back for teaware for sure! Not much in gaiwans and tea mascots.

The shop is quite small, and if you walk fast enough, you’ll miss it. However, once you’re inside, you’ll find so many knick-knacks and varieties of teas that you’ll wonder how it all fits. I went in with my friend last time, and he asked the clerk some questions. She was obviously working on writing labels for some teas, but she would answer his questions very tersely. He thought she was sort of rude, but I thought she was just busy. I have heard the owner is very nice.