The Red Blossom Tea Company, based in San Francisco's Chinatown at 851 Grant Ave, is a great little boutique tea dealer.
While their website is simple, well-designed, and you can certainly place a mail-order purchase from it, I highly recommend visiting the actual little brick-and-mortar shop in Chinatown if you get the chance. Nestled amongst the other wonderful tiny stores that Chinatown is known for -- cheap toys and knick-knacks, Asian-themed clothing and cookware, jade jewelry and fresh fish and dim sum and roasted ducks -- Red Blossom has an attractive, cozy tea shop right in the heart of it all.
When you first walk in, one shelf will be adorned with the large canisters of various teas (sorted by type: green, white, oolong, black, herbal blends, etc); on the other side of the room they have small tables with tea spreads for pouring tea.
As you walk through the room, you can open the canisters of loose-leaf tea to view and whiff the contents. If you love tea, it's like a tiny-but-well-appointed candy shop of delights. The teas are priced by the pound and are competitively-priced, but generally not cheap (rare greens and oolongs run most expensive, as is usually the case, and herbal blends tend to be cheaper -- again, this tends to be the norm)
I cannot speak for all of the variety of flavors they carry, but I managed to purchase 3 on my first visit:
- Lavender Green
- Jade Chai
- Silk Oolong (my favorite tea in the world!)
No comments:
Post a Comment