I am pleased to report that my friend and fellow Chicago tea blogger, Tony Gebley, has opened his own online tea store: The Chicago Tea Garden, (along with partner Erin Murphy) specializing in teas sourced by tea-world legend, David Lee Hoffman. While Tony is still building his inventory, he already has some awesome teas in stock and is offering free shipping through the month of March. Here are a few of my favorites:
Golden Bi Luo: Spicy-sweet golden curls of Yunnan black tea. Incredibly smooth and sweet with vanilla notes. If you are trying to get away from tea with milk and sugar added, this is the tea to start with.
Competition Grade Tie Guan Yin: When I first tried this tea, my head nearly exploded. Here is how I described it: "Tastes like a pristine meadow on the first spring morning when the tiniest flowers, still covered with dew, begin to bloom".
Wild Orange Pu-Erh: Cooked pu-erh packed in a little clementine orange. This is a great, fun introduction to pu-erh for newbies. I love this stuff.
All tea from The Chicago Tea Garden is packed in air-tight tins (the best way to store tea) and they are offering some exquisite teaware for sale as well. I encourage you to visit the store and make a purchase, or, if you need more information, contact Tony via Twitter. He has a lot of information to share.
Comments
How come your city gets all the cool tea stores? I know this one is just online, but it's based in Chicago. And Adagio is planning to open it's first retail store, probably in Chicago. You know what I got in my city? Two fancy tea rooms that are only interested in serving afternoon tea and a bunch of coffee bars that happen to sell tea also. Two of them will sell you loose tea.
No place to buy good quality loose tea, not even Twinings. I swear, if I could get the money together, I'd open a place to buy loose leaf tea just so people in this city could finally find out what it tastes like.
I have had the Golden Bi Luo, and not being a tea fan, I have to say I was quite impressed. I highly recommend a visit to www.chicagoteagarden.com
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