An afternoon of tea

(click the above to see more images)

Austin, TX - Jan. 29, 2005
A group of Tea Affectionados decended upon Rio Grande Street for an afternoon of Tea at the Tea Embassy, one of the VERY FEW shops in Austin completely dedicated to tea.

(now I will revert back to my normal informal writing style)
Carol, Bob and Jonathan Sims own the place... A big house on the corner of 9th and Rio Grande. It's been around since 1872, but the tea shop opened up just last summer. Carol said her business started when she found out that she couldn't buy a bone china Chatham Tea Pot in the US (like MANY cool things in existance). She began selling them via the internet and things kinda grew from there. They originally started with plans on being a tea room, but were not interested in all of the... um... crap(?) involved with opening a resturant.

Well, anyway... about the evening. We started at 1pm and ended at around 5pm. It was $50 for the seminar and there was about 17-18 people there... Some very nice people by the way. Not quite the stodgy bunch that I had imagined. We we allowed a 10% discount on all purchases made that day, so we all proceeded to shovel cash into the register.

Overall, it was a nice experience. In terms of tradition, they mostly discussed English tea which, being a heterosexual male, I found it overly prim. I have more of a concern with consistant brewing than whether or not I should have my pinky in the air when sipping a cup.

We tried around 16 teas or more that evening. Being a tea consumer for a couple of decades now I have formed opinions on tea and found Tea Embassy's to be of a discernibly high quality. I was also impressed by their collection of other tea gadgets, even though most were meant to appleal to the "proper" tea drinker with lots of flowers and lace (and crap). :P

I recommend the Fancy Formosa Oolong and Georgian Village teas if you enjoy a complex Oolong or Black tea. I am a fan of the good old green Gyokuro as well if you like a more vegital flavor.

The prices we competitive and the selection was nice, especially on Rooibos. They had more Red Bush tea flavors than I've EVER seen in my life... Even some with Chili bits and pepper in it!

If you love tea and live in the suprisingly tea desolate city of Austin, I say do yourself a favor and spend the $50. It's worth it.