TenRen Tea Chicago in Chicago, Illinois
4/5
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Rob Yaple rated this place
4/5
and said Edit

TenRen is a small shop that has a wide variety of teas ranging from boxes of their top sellers to giant tins of bulk loose-leaf. The large tins of tea (seen in the photo) appealed to me most, and when I stopped by, I purchased small samples of a few kinds. You can also purchase tea by the cup to drink right there if you can’t wait to take it home or want to try something before you buy 14 pounds of it. In addition to tea, they have a wide variety of ginseng and other traditional herbal remedy type stuff.

I plan on stopping by again in the future to try some others, but so far I can say that I tried a roasted “Ti kuan yin” as well as a roasted “Tung ting” and a cooked pu-erh. The pu-erh was so-so but both of the oolongs had that great roasted/fruity flavor that is characteristic of good roasted oolongs. For each type of tea, they had several different versions in different canisters. Mostly differences in quality and uniformity of the leaves I would guess, but I am looking forward to sampling a few of the different Ti Kuan Yins side by side. If you ever find yourself in or around Chinatown, make sure to stop by TenRen!
TeaSmith in Poplar, Greater London
5/5
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Rob Yaple rated this place
5/5
and said Edit

I spent about 4 months living in London in early 2009.
It was a pure stroke of luck that one day in late January, I came upon TeaSmith in the Old Spittalfields market. I had a look around at the teas on display and knew that I had found a match for my particular tea interests of the time. In addition to being a tea shop, they have what they call a “tea bar” which is almost exactly what it sounds like. You can come in, have a sit on a tall seat and one of the extremely kind and knowledgeable staff members will expertly prepare a wide variety of fine Chinese, Japanese, and Korean teas right there. So not only do you get to drink professionally prepped tea, you learn a lot just by watching.
For example, they have such a wide variety of teas ranging from pu-erh cakes, to high mountain Taiwanese oolongs, to Korean Nokcha, to Japanese Sencha, Hojicha, Karigane, Genmaicha, a marvelous Gyokuro, and even matcha. (They also have some pretty basic Assam and Ceylon loose leaf for the occasional customer who explicitly requests “Only regular tea!”) The beauty is that they have a ton of teaware and accessories that they use depending on what tea you order. No cut corners here! Yixing pots for some of the oolongs and pu-erhs, gaiwans for others, small porcelain pots for most of the Japanese teas, and lots and lots of teany cups!

Needless to say… I fell in love with this place and made it a permanent part of my weekly schedule (I went 2 and 3 times a week as my time in London drew to a close!). Thanks to TeaSmith, I was able to try more varieties of tea than ever before, and thanks to the staff answering all my questions, learning quite a bit! Sometimes I would stay for a few hours, try a few green teas, chat, and head home. Other days I would devote to drawing out infusion after infusion of an aged oolong or pu-erh and enjoying the invigorating evolution of flavor.

Long story short, before I left, I picked out a bunch of my favorites that I had tried to have shipped back so I wouldn’t have reverse TeaSmith culture shock when I returned to the U.S.

If you visit London, be sure to head to the east side and stop by TeaSmith!

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So I’ve neglected Steepster for some time now! I feel like I need to make up for that somehow…

A tea enthusiast since 1999, I enjoy the experience of sitting and drinking tea.
As a life-long student of tea, I learn something new every day about the vast world that is Tea.

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Evanston, IL

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