Lupicia Edit

This place is hard to find if you don’t know what you are looking for. I was expecting a storefront in a shopping center that housed the Mitsuwa grocery market. Turns put it was INSIDE the market. So imagine walking into a grocery store and finding other businesses in booths along the edges and you have the idea of this place.

I went on a Saturday and the market was packed. The parking lot was packed and it took a bit of scouting to find a spot. The Lupicia booth itself was not and I had room to roam, sniff a bunch of teas and get assistance from the very polite soft spoken asian ladies who worked there. They offered a free sample of the tea of the month, which was a jasmine and told me they could have teas that they were out of stock on transferred to their store if I wished. There was one long counter running the depth of the store that had drawers you could pull out to reveal many more teas to sniff and check out. I had to go through twice since I didn’t realize until the end that the drawer pulled out even further and I had been seeing only half the teas. Once you find a tea from the drawer that you like, the ladies can pull it from their stock behind the counter for you. There are many teas that are displayed and have stock you can grab, but with the small space they are working with, it would be impossible to have all the teas out like that.

Overall this is a well lit small shop that makes good use of the room they have to work with. It has friendly staff and is in an unusual yet interesting setting. Just don’t expect to see a sign outside that says Lupicia or you will be circling forever like I did!