Vancouver, BC

My map is always updated! For Chinese teas, The Chinese Tea Shop and Treasure Green. For more regular flavoured teas, Bayswater. There are loads of places even downtown to check out. And a Fauchon opening soon (but not this week, probably!) so you have something to look forward to next year.

I finally made it to Bayswater! Yay. :) And since I was walking right past Murchie’s I couldn’t help but drop in and try a sample… and buy a few ounces, lol. I checked out the Chinese Tea Shop last time I was in town, so managed to skip it this time.

+1 to Thomas Haas, they also have tea flavoured chocolates! White chocolate matcha, chai milk chocolate, and dark chocolate rooibos :D if you want to satisfy a tea craving and sweet tooth simultaneously :P

I ended up making it to both O5 and Cultivate and they were both lovely. O5 in particular was a lot of fun, since we sat and chatted with the staff while the “store mom” made us boiled mochi. :) Thanks!

So glad you enjoyed it. I assume you met Noriko….isn’t she fantastic!

She was so lovely. All the staff were super friendy. :)

Next time I’m in Vancouver for sure. :)

Are you planning on doing any more tasting sessions in Vancouver? I live in the area, and I was originally planning on buying some samples during your black friday sale, but backed out due to shipping costs/crappy exchange rate.

Actually, we will be back in Vancouver from January 7th – 14th before we head back to China. We don’t have any formal tastings planned, but we would be happy to meet up, chat, and just drink some tea for fun. We may be short on availability for some teas, but we should still have a few cakes/samples with us. Best of all, you can try for free before seeing if there’s anything that suits your taste! Not to mention no shipping cost and 1:1 CAD/USD conversion…

Anyway, feel free to PM or email us and we can set something up.

That would be great! Following you now!

Ooo that sounds fun. Maybe count me in? Maybe? (Not sure yet if I’ll be working!)

For sure! We’ll be there for almost a week with very few commitments this time, so hopefully we can find a time to get together.

ugh. wish i could do this… being on the wrong end of the country sucks.

:( It would be awesome to have you there.

it could be doable..just sorta wanted sun for our january vacation..which may turn in to a february or march at this point.

Hahaha. Northern Europe is not sunny, Sil.

You deserve beaches. And cocktails.

Sil – We’re actually on the other side of the country now (Halifax), and then closer to the middle at the end of the month (Montreal from Dec 30)… would be happy to drink some tea with you if either of those places are more convenient!

@bitterleaf – I’m in toronto so Montreal might be doable, though I suspect since we’re dog sitting, possibly not. heh

Perhaps a bit tough, but that’s alright. We’ll be trying to return to Canada in the future, and may be able to include Toronto at some point. Will let you know if we do.

that would be great :)

I’d love to meet up with you! Will you be bringing owls for people to meet? ;)

hahah, yes there will be at least one tea owl coming with me.

Woohoo! :D

I visited Japan before I was really into tea. I feel your pain. :)

I need to look at my schedule, but could be available!

Compass card: you don’t have to buy one as long as there’s a place nearby to get tickets. Mind you, I’ve yet to take the bus, only Skytrain.

Sure thing! The $6 is a deposit that you are supposed to be able to get refunded. :/ Definitely awkward when you’re visiting. No idea where you can get a refund.

Hm. No idea. I’ve yet to pay a deposit. I just pay for a ticket each time.

Yes, and those are full price tickets. Paper tickets are no longer available so if you want the discount, you need to get the card.

OK soooon! Meet at The Chinese Tea Shop on Pender? They open at 1pm. Or any other ideas?

I’m in. :) I have a fundraiser that night, though.

I’m up for that!! Making sure it’s in my calendar now. I’m not sure I’ll buy much, but it is always great to experience tea things with others who love tea. :) Treasure Green isn’t far away, I think they’re open on Sunday. Also murchies and DavidsTea and the urban tea merchant are all within a 20-ish minute walk. And there is a store with $2.99 fake yixing tea pots. :)

I may be too busy with studying but I’m interested in this. I’ll have to see closer to the date unfortunately

anyone been to the capilano tea house & botanical soda co, 221 abbott street in gastown?

nycoma: they, literally, just moved there and opened a few days ago. So, I doubt any if us have yet. That said, their offerings are way too floral for me, so I doubt I’ll make a specific trip.

oh ok. im not to into floral either.. but i am into botanical sodas, so if im in the area i’ll go.

Oh neat, I’d like to tag along as well!

I’ve been waiting for Capilano to set up shop; I’m not huge into floral teas either, but they piqued my interest during the Vancouver Tea Festival last year.

skip davidstea and murchies for sure. I’ll be a bit iffy on commenting starting tomorrow as I’ll be mobile only and steepster mobile is terrible, but i’ll see all the notifications and such. I’m free all day Sunday if we need to change meetup time earlier.

Fauchon is worth going to just for their macarons – so good!

Neverland and Bayswater and O5 are all in Kits. Not downtown at all. The Chinese Tea Shop and Treasure Green are experiences, IMO. The owners will make tea and you sample things and talk tea with them as you decide what you’re going to buy. When Dexter and I met up, we spent 2+ hours in each of those stores. Then walked over to Urban Tea Merchant for a totally different experience… That basically took all day.

Lol, I know. I meant Vancouver proper.:)

Since time is of the essence, I thought like a pub crawl, but with tea. 30 min max at any location. I put them in a sort of “order” that needs tweaking, to save bus time. This is how I do all my tours when traveling… Put all places I want to go in a map, look at if I can do them all in a day (usually, yes) and walk it. Can’t walk this one, I’m aware.

I’d like to take my time at Chinese Tea Shop, or at least get an entire gongfu session. I’m likely to buy a lot there. Urban Tea Merchant looks really interesting, as does O5. Fauchon would be cool, I could live without going to Ocha.

To shorten the list, I’d axe Neverland, Bayswater, Granville Island, and LOOK as those look like tea bars selling the same tea line up. Not enough info on Teaja’s site.

Bayswater and LOOK both blend their own. I doubt Fauchon will be open, but I’ll check. Faubourg works in a pinch. I’m so not a fan of Urban Tea Merchant… Overpriced and mostly TWG.

if all we can hit is chinatown that’s totally cool.

Last time I was in Vancouver I really enjoyed O5 but more as a tea drinking experience than as a place to shop. So my advice (for what it’s worth) would be to go to Chinatown and do all your sampling and shopping and walking around, and when you get tired of all that, hop on a bus to Kitsilano. At O5 you sit at a long bar and pick out your tea from a menu. You basically purchase the leaves and then the staff there will steep them for you as many times as you want. They’re very friendly and it’s a great place for just hanging out and chatting and drinking lots of tea. Then when you finally reach the saturation point, roll your tea-drunk selves down the street to http://www.thenaam.com/ for dinner. ;) There are quite a few restaurants in that area, but that’s the one I went to and can personally recommend.

Mmm, the naam. So good. I haven’t been there in forever.

Ah, so no excursion to Richmond? That’s too bad. I don’t really know the tea places in Richmond so I was curious to explore them. Is 1pm the official meeting time to meet at the Chinese Tea Shop?

Also Cultivate Tea seems neat although I’ve never been. I think they are fairly new.

Treasure Green is open at noon. Maybe that works better for time and we start there? Or other suggestions?

Though I’m always sad when people ignore Murchie’s (it’s Canadian history!), but would second Cultivate Tea. I’ve been there a few times now—it’s tiny, but if you like O5 and the Chinese Tea Shop, it’s worth a visit. Similar to O5 and TCTS, the owner does the sourcing himself. They’ve also got a wall of really nice teaware. Plus you have Shaktea RIGHT across the street from it (you can see it out the window).

Agreed that Urban Tea Merchant is overpriced, and only carries TWG (they switch out companies every few years… used to be The O Dor, and before that, Mariage Freres). They also have a minimum of 50g, only a limited selection of teas to go, and don’t price any of the tins on the floor/anything, these days. Fact: Never buy the prefilled tins. They’re about 5x buying 2oz loose. Other gems include tea-with-gold-flakes (>$100), and a tea with tree resin that I STILL kinda want to try… but would break my bank at something like $70 for 2oz if I remember.

LOOK has a little shop outside the library. Didn’t find them very interesting, but at least it’s not another Metropolitan Tea Clone.

An ex-employee of Granville Island also went on to open her own tea shop—Great Wall Tea—in New West, but like Granville it’s a resale-heavy shop with just a few original blends.

Soirette Macarons & Tea has some original blends; near UTM and also macarons. Haven’t been there in a long time.