Last fall I decided to learn about tea. The reason? People usually have wine pairings with food, I don’t drink alcohol, so I will do tea pairings.
I searched around Yelp and found the Golden Tea Shop in Oakland. It’s a small tea shop run by a Chinese family. There’s no formal tea tasting course, but they let you taste a few teas for free. They don’t tell you much about the tea beside the names though. It would be nice if I knew Chinese to talk to them more. I’ve been here twice.
The owner pouring me a cup of puer
Teas that I’ve tried here:
– Ginseng oolong: strong and bitter at first, but it has a very long lasting sweet aftertaste at the throat. Even after we sampled another tea, the ginseng oolong sweetness was still there. Thirty minutes later, it was still there.
– Silver Needle
– Two kinds of puer, one was Crusted Puer
– Three kinds of Iron Goddess (Tieguanyin), one was infused with jasmine.
– Lavender: it tastes almost like white tea, with a strong aroma.