Favorite offline places to buy tea

I’ll start – I’m in the Greater Boston Area. I love Cardullo’s in Harvard square because they have the best selection of loose leaf and imports I’ve found. Harney & Sons, Tetley, PG Tips, Republic of Tea, Kusmi, Rishi, Mem Teas (local company) and many more.

Tealuxe, across the street, sells pretty good prepared tea and will also sell you the leaf.

Cambridge Naturals has the best teaware selection I’ve found in the city, a good tea selection that slants towards specialties like Tulsi and Guayusa, and sells my beloved Dandy Blend.

Cafenation, in Brighton, makes an awesome rooibos latte!

I live in Vancouver Washington but I’m just minutes away from Portland. There’s no real great place to buy tea here in Vancouver … I have purchased tea at Mint Tea in Downtown Vancouver, and it was alright there but not my first choice. I’d just as soon stop in Whole Foods and buy something from them.

But in Portland, there seems to be quite a few places that are great for tea. I love Steven Smith’s shop, and Tea Chai Te, and Townshend’s Tea. Tea Chai Te … in particular, their Sellwood location, is really cool. From the outside, it looks like a train caboose, but on the inside, it’s kind of like a starbucks for tea. Townshend’s Tea is very much like that too. Very lounge-y and it has a very comfortable vibe.

The Tea Zone is also very much like that, but I have been there less often than I’ve been to Townshend’s and Tea Chai Te so I don’t really have a lot to say about it except that they do have good tea. I’ve really only been there once, and it was more or less a stop in and pick up tea kind of visit, not a chance to sit back and relax in the lounge.

There are a couple of places I’ve not yet been to, but, eventually, I’ll get my husband to take me there. (It is football season after all. All I need is for the Steelers to get it in gear and win some games so that he is in the “take me to tea mood”)

I love buying tea at the Harney & Son’s shop in Soho… the tasting counter is fun to taste what they have on special that day, plus a tea of your choice, and then also their little sit-down tea house in the back is nice. They usually have a small selection of tea-themed treats (like tea macarons!).

I haven’t been to the DavidsTea in Greenwich Village very much, but it seems like a pretty nice shop.

Of course, some of my other favorite offline places to buy tea include the Dammann Fréres shop in Paris and the Maliandao tea street in Beijing! Not that I get to those places often, lol.

I live in Paris, inside Paris, not in the suburb so it is really easy to buy teas here.
For teas Dammann or Mariage I go directly in one of their shops.
For Kusmi I can go either in their shops or at Monoprix (French famous supermarkets for fashion, home and food).

We also have the chance to have a lot of small shops selling loose leaf teas in Paris (they often sale café and chocolate too)

I have a nice little shop very near home named brûlerie Lanni, it exists since 1947 and the owner is very nice. I can buy small weight of teas (50 gr – often tea companies in France only sale from 100 gr) here they are :http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pros/05368333?idContext=1405718383&portail=PJ#onglet-infos

and for Palais des thés I go to their shop or at “le petit calixte” 34 rue des Moines 75017 Paris.
the owner is very nice too

if the american and canadian companies can tell me if they have partnerships in Paris I would be really happy to get the addresses !
Especially David teas, Butiki teas, 52 teas, red leaf tea…

I love Fava Tea http://www.favatea.com in Appleton, WI. It’s about a 20 minute drive from me. The people there are so friendly. The first time I went the owner introduced herself to me. I went again today (about 3-4 weeks later) and the owner came up to me and said, “Are you Rachel?” and thanked me for my reviews that I wrote on their website! Not to mention their tea is delicious and reasonably priced. I sound like an advertisement but I’m just a happy customer. :-)

My current fave place is a tea shop in the 2nd floor of a new age bookstore, by the name of Crazy Wisdom in Ann Arbor. They are a bit pricey but not to dear. My favorite herbal is Winter Tonic, from that shop. I plan on going back this tuesday.

My favorite local tea room is The Mad Hatter. They have awesome food and reall good tea too!

For a tea shop I like TeaSource. They have awesome sample days on Tue/Thurs for only $3.50

Verdant is probably my favorite local place but can only physically go there when David is doing a tasting.

I have not really been to meny Local tea shops yet I like
Voila In Frederick But i would love to find someplace better BUT they are very close to me ..