The Chinese Tea Shop

Daniel is the real deal – a true expert in Chinese tea. If you want to know which tea among many, many choices might suit you, he’s a big help in narrowing down the options until you taste one that’s just right for you. He came across as friendly and attentive to all my questions and requests. He generously answered each one in detail. Plus there was the authentic serving with thumb-​size teapots and multiple pourings. In short, he took me into the world of Chinese tea as far as I had asked to go. Thank goodness this kind of expert and friendly service still exists.

We stopped by this place just expecting a quick casual peak at some teas and ended up staying quite a bit as Daniel was incredibly welcoming and enjoyable to listen to. He demonstrated tea preparation and a lot of the interesting finer points to it, and let us taste the various tea strengths.

For pu’erh and oolong tea, this is where I go. This is the only place I go, in fact. I knew a little bit about higher end teas before shopping here the first time, but I learned so much from Daniel. He is generous with his knowledge, and incredibly friendly. There are some incredibly high end, and pricey items that are for collection and storage. He also sells middle of the road teas, for customers like me, that still want excellent tea, but need to consider price.
When you stop in, be certain to stay and let Daniel brew you some tea. You will a lot, and get to sample some excellent tea, too. I would try and go during the week, when it’s quiet.

Great selection of teas at relatively reasonable pricing, given the quality of the teas. The spring jade oolong is the one we keep going back for. The owners are lovely people. Take the time to sit and enjoy a sampling with them if you get the chance.

I thought I knew about tea — until I came here! Daniel, you have shown me the way and have taught me so much stuff!
Thanks for having us sit with you and sharing your yummy Oolong tea with us! You are so knowledgeable in what you say and do and I could tell that you really had a passion for tea!
It was a great experience to learn the steps to prepping real tea leaves and respecting the tea by adding nothing to it and setting the water at just the right temperature depending on the tea leaves.
I even learned why the Chinese slurp the tea to cool it and how to hold the little cup!
I ended up buying a very small, clay teapot. Why not? I have promised myself that I will use it daily when I arrive home along with the 2 types of teas that I bought — whose names I cannot pronounce!!!

Definitely for the tea connoisseur, esp. if you’re into the Asian selection. Boy, it’s got everything from the teapots to the cute miniature cups too, with all these fancy designs – some as much as $ 5 a pop!
No doubt it’s high-​end, saw numerous packages for $ 60 & up, so if you’re into steeping tea, this is the place to go.
Owner quite knowledgeable and passionate about his stuff.
They do ship all around the world too.
Decent street parking here, good-​size corner location.

So, I went on a tour some time back with a group of culinary students. The Chinese Tea Shop was one of the stops that we made in Chinatown. The provided us with a demonstration on how to properly steep teas known as the Gong Fu Cha brewing method. The Chinese Tea Shop owner explained where the clay in order to produce a high quality clay pot comes from as well as proper serving methods. The owner was very knowledgable and welcoming to all of the guest. In order to have a tea demo, you need to make a reservation. One of the downsides to this place is that it is quite expensive to purchase high quality clay pots here, but I would highly recommend checking the place out.
And as Always, Have Fun!!!
(16÷30)

I’m sorry, There are a ton of awesome parts to this place, and the tea is top notch but it was not an inviting experience.
I’ll start with the good parts, because there are plenty of them:
1) The selection of tea, particularly aged teas, is top notch. When you walk in you don’t think there will be, but there is. The variety of Pu-​Erh both black and green is immense.
2) The sundries and tea accessories that they have are very nice as well
3) The people are incredibly nice, easy to talk to and knowledgeable about their tea
4) The prices are reasonable (What I bought, I had purchased before, and was the same price as it was in the touristy part of China).
So, here’s the bad part and the part that makes me not want to go here again:
Conversation 1)
Me: This is a very large selection of Pu-​Erh, I notice that two have the same age but are very different in price, what makes that different?
Her: It’s the factory they came from, do you want to buy?
Me: Ah, this looks like what I purchased in China on Nanjing, same packaging, about the same price and was supposedly X years old. I am on a limited budget, and have much tea, but my pu-​erh is about to run out, I should make sure I have the money available.
Her: Oh, well, when you come back you can taste. We can taste for you but only if you going to buy if you like it. We do tasting, but only if you serious about buying if you like it. You can buy ¼ or ½ of cake too.
Me: Oh, well, if I can get a smaller quantity then let’s try it.
After I had decided to spend 250 bucks and paid for it.
We have aged oolong too. IF YOU COME BACK THEN YOU CAN TASTE.
Seriously?
Here is tea knife, extra 10 dollars.
Here is this and this and this you want to buy?
So…basically…INCREDIBLY pushy, comes off as desperate and makes me not really want to step foot in here again.
I spend good money on tea. I have a tea guy in 5 different cities that I frequent and have spent more, per pound, on tea than the second most expensive one in the store. They could have found this all out by asking about my tea habits and determined if I was a potential customer. Instead they alienated me by trying way too hard and treating me like a wallet.

We went to the Chinese Tea Shop as part of a tour and the owner was extremely welcoming. She demonstrated the Gong Fu Cha brewing method which extracts the best flavour of our Dragonwell tea. It was light with a hint of toastiness in the background. It certainly opened up a different way of making tea because previously, I just poured boiling hot water to the tea leaves and let it steep for 5 minutes. It was no wonder my tea tasted bitter and astringent. Aside from the multiple selections of Chinese tea, from green to white to Pu-​erhs, they also has multiple Yixing clay tea pot to choose from. Just stop by and they will be very happy to walk you through the different kinds of tea and the brewing method even if you know very little about it.

This is my go to place if ever I need genuine tea. They specialize in teas and they do online orders.

This was absolutely the best tea purchasing and tea tasting experience I have ever had! Daniel, the owner of the store spent an entire hour explaining the art of tea tasting and brewing to my family that was visiting from the US.
I can’t believe how little I knew about drinking tea up until now. My dad has been an absolute tea fanatic for my entire life (24 years) and even he didn’t know what he was missing.
He taught us about the different types of pots, the brewing techiques, serving techniques and even let us try a high quality oolong tea that he prepared before us explaining each step.
The place is family owned and run and has a great range of tea qualities and products. Something for every price range and palate. Definitely take the time to stop in the shop and educate yourself on the art of tea!

Upon entering this store, I was greeted by a young Asian gentleman and an older Asian fellow, whom I can only assume is the father of the duo. As with many of these wee import shops, they are family run and all the more enjoyable because of this. My family values can’t touch this kind of commitment and it reminds me how different families really are. Don’t get me wrong, I love my folks, but the idea of opening and running a business with them makes me (and them!) a little squeemish.
All the more reason to peruse this shop and support the locals. Everything in the shop is imported from a faraway land (Asia) and a good majority of it is totally unfamiliar to me, which makes me even more excited to check things out. The shop is tiny and jam-​packed, something I have to come to be used to in Chinatown. This common denominator makes it a bit overwhelming but if you’re in the right mood, it can be a treasure trove of goodies.
I was struck by the exotic teas in all sorts of varieties and was appreciative of the descriptions written below each tea. Clearly, I don’t know as much about tea as I thought! While most varieties were affordable and typically priced, a few were considered to be VERY exotic and therefore, outrageously expensive. Granted, what do I know? It is likely very worth it and I’m sure they can cure all sorts of ailments that you didn’t’ know you had! Along with teas, there are tiny jade sculptures, zodiac jewellery and knick knacks, Asian art, pottery, cute, cheap carved wooden boxes (good for cheapy Xmas gifts yes?), incense and an assortment of all kinds of china bowls and the like.
I could go on forever but I’ll save you reading and encourage you to check it out for yourself!