Tea in San Francisco
Hi,
My sister and I are travelling to San Francisco in a couple of weeks so I was wondering if you guys have any good tea store recommendations? We know that there is a Davids tea and a Lupicia store in SF, so we will go there. But there are probably other places we should check out as well?
Thank you :)
Depends on where in the city you’re visiting. There are a lot of places in Chinatown (just walk down Grant Ave. a while.)
Definitely check out Samovar Tea Lounge at Yerba Buena. It’s close by Union Square.
Red Blossom is a good one to checkout in Chinatown.
Dude. There’s a Lupicia AND Teavana on the same floor at the Westfield mall. Second floor, I believe! And DAVIDs is on the bottom-most floor of the same mall :)
And I agree with Samovar! I haven’t been (prices were a bit out of range for my cousin and I) but I’ve walked by and looked at their menu, and there are always people there so it must be good!
The Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park is my favouite place ever, but it is a trek, so maybe on your next visit? Golden Gate Park is also really hard to get to if you don’t have a car though :/
If you want to get to golden gate Park, I recommend taking the 38 bus. You can also look at routes on 511.org or ask any bus driver. The CA Academy of Sciences and the de Young museum are also fun places to visit in the park.
The offerings at Samovar didn’t seem special or unique enough to warrant the huge price tag. I don’t get the hype. It looks super trendy and like it caters to the SF folks with too much money to burn. Much better value to wander Chinatown, preferably earlier in the day so you can get some fresh dim sum before they sell out.
The tea garden is gorgeous and well worth the trek, even if there was no tea at the end of the journey. A visit for GG park is a must for visiting SF and you could spend several days wandering the park to see all the attractions like the botanical garden, conservatory, buffalo paddock, museums and a ton of other things.
Thanks guys so much for your comments, so helpful :) I did think about going to the tea garden. We are going to the botanical garden one day, maybe we should fit in the tea garden as well :) There are so many places we want to see in SF though. So we probably just have to go back ;)
I missed going to the Tea Garden on Saturday. Wasn’t going to be there long, and forgot my camera. It’s worth visiting, photograph some cherry blossoms for me.
For those who would like the taste SF w/o leaving home:
Alvin’s of San Francisco
“(please note, there is no retail store at our location and
our roasting facility is closed to the general public)”
- http://www.alvinsofsf.com/tea.html
- http://www.alvinsofsf.com/about-us/
- http://steepster.com/companies/alvins-of-san-francisco
Vital Tea Leaf is also a fun one! They’re very good about allowing you to sit down and chat with them while they make you tea after tea for sampling. It’s an experience most similar to what you’ll find in a Chinese tea shop that I’ve found. More about appreciating the tea and understanding what you really like than them selling you whatever costs the most.
People have already given great suggestions, I would also recommend the Aroma Tea Shop which has two locations (one in Chinatown and one on Clement Street).
The Ferry Building is a great tourist destination and there’s an Imperial Tea Shop there which also serves food.
I second the Aroma tea shop! I grew up walking past the one on Clement, and the owner is such a nice and knowledgable man.
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