Good day all!
I haven’t been into tea since Starbucks bought my favourite tea store quite a while back. looking to get back into regularly brewing some. West coast USA here if that helps narrow it down.
Thanks in advance.
Ok just being on the west coast doesn’t narrow this topic down at all.
Are you looking for prepared tea, loose leaf, or bubble tea? Depending on which city you are close to there are tons of great local options.
For loose leaf tea in bulk, I usually go to an Asian grocery store. They tend to have pretty affordable loose leaf options that a tasty.
When looking for something specific, I try and find a local tea shop to browse the loose leaf variety.
If you’re in a pinch and need some bagged tea, most grocery stores carry Celestial Seasonings. Their herbal teas rock, my favorite is the peppermint!
I was just putting out a feeler to see what the popular options are at the moment. Loose leaf tea is preferable as I’d like to get some mileage out of this teapot I was gifted.
I’ll have to prowl some of the Asian supermarkets then. I completely overlooked this, thanks for mentioning.
I second you on the Celestial Seasons peppermint btw, stuffs tasty.
Some global options which I have myself tried:
- Yunnan Sourcing - Huge Yunnan based shop. Mainly blacks and dry store puers
- Yunnan Craft - A smaller alternative to Yunnan Sourcing
- Yunomi - Japanese teas
- Thes Du Japon - More Japanese teas
- What-Cha - UK based all around tea shop
- King Tea Mall - Puer teas with more aggressive storage, but also a bit of everything
- Crimson Lotus Tea - Boutique fresh sheng
- Yee On Tea Co - HK teas
- Teas We Like - Curated shengs
Tea Adventures has a long list of online stores that sell tea and teaware. There’s a search field that can be used to filter the list. For example, a search for “teaw states” gives a list of stores in The United States that sells teaware.
Can recommend https://yunnansourcing.com/
Sort by best sellers and have a browse, or maybe try a sampler. I’ve never been disappointed with an order. Consider trying one of my personal favorites- Lapsang pinewood smoked black tea. It’s absolutely lovely~
I get matcha from ippodotea and i get my oolongs from farmer leaf.
I cant recommend any others yet since i havent found a very good store for general teas like black, puer, etc
Try to stay away from youtuber sellers since they mark up their prices like crazy
My favorite cold tea is Celestial Seasonings’ Sangria Zinger & Black Cherry Berry. In the colder months i drink, peppermint, candycane lane, or Bengal spice.