The best tea experiences I’ve ever had

Because I haven’t been able to travel in over a year now (thank you, pandemic) and I miss traveling more than anything right now, I thought it would be fun to round up all the best tea experiences I’ve had around the world. Honestly, I’ve had more than 7 (at least 12) and I could write chapters about them but I’ll keep those for my memoirs.

What are the best tea experiences you’ve ever had? Please let me know in the comments below, I’m curious!

The Sakurai Tea Experience, Tokyo, Japan

The Sakurai Tea Experience in Tokyo, Japan. The best tea experiences I’ve ever had. The Tea Squirrel.

The Sakurai tea experience is a small tea shop and tea bar located in a smaller-scale, curated mall near Omotesando station. The tea bar seats 8 people. You can choose your own adventure, so to speak, depending on what menu items you choose. I had a 2-hour-long experience, a deep dive into Japanese tea in a beautifully intimate and quiet setting. Beautifully made teas are steeped for you to perfection and paired with traditional Japanese light bites. It was a pinnacle of enjoyment and beauty I will never forget.

Setsugekka, New York City

Setsugekka is a small Japanese tea house with a tatami-mat-covered area and a small bar area. They focus on high quality matcha and they grind it in-house with a stone grinder, which is on display in the tea house. I tried their koicha (thick tea) and even got to pick the chawan (tea bowl), which I found such a special touch! It was my first koicha ever (matcha is whisked with a small amount of water to create a thick paste) and it was exquisite. That set the bar really high for any future koicha experience.

Oyatsuya, San Francisco

Oyatsuya was a pop-up Japanese dessert and snack tasting with tea pairings in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. It was a very intimate and highly coveted experience of only 6 guests at a time on the premises of an upscale Japanese restaurant, Sasaki. A compelling experience that engaged all my senses. To me it was so very special that I didn’t want to leave. Sadly, the pop-up had to stop operations due to the pandemic.

A micro-lot Korean tea tasting, Los Angeles

A micro-lot Korean tea tasting in Los Angeles. The best tea experiences I’ve ever had. The Tea Squirrel.

I had the pleasure to attend a very special Korean tea tasting in the Arts District of Los Angeles. The tasting was held by Jessica Choi at The Good Liver, a curated home good store. The tasting focused entirely on artisanal Korean teas from a sustainable micro garden located on the foothills of Chilgap Mountain in Cheongyang County, South Korea. The tea farmer is Jessica’s teacher. The tasting was limited to 5 people per session and lasted approximately 2 hours. The teaware used by Jessica to brew and serve her teas was handcrafted. Such a memorable experience to highlight lesser known, exquisite teas!

A rare tea and artisan chocolate soiree curated by The Tea Squirrel, San Francisco

The best tea experiences I’ve had. The Tea Squirrel

Not to toot my own horn, but I had the pleasure to curate and host an exclusive tea-centric experience as part of the Ground Floor Project in San Francisco. We started off the evening with tea infused cocktails (jasmine green tea infused gin, lychee syrup, prosecco wine, lychee fruit). Later, I demonstrated gong fu cha, the Chinese way of steeping and serving tea. I talked about the difference between brewing tea in a gaiwan as opposed to a western-style tea pot and demonstrated and explained how a gaiwan works. The highlight of the evening was a flight of rare Chinese teas which I paired with award winning, artisan chocolates. We had the pleasure of having Daniel Berkman, a renowned Bay Area electronic musician, composer and producer, who performed live during the event. I had a lot of fun and can’t wait to host more tea-centric events in the future.

An epic tea tasting with David Lee Hoffman, Lagunitas, California

David Lee Hoffman, The Phoenix Collection Tea Museum and tasting room. The best tea experiences I’ve ever had. The Tea Squirrel

If you are in the area, I highly recommend visiting The Phoenix Collection Tea Museum, tasting room and shop in Lagunitas, CA. David has one of the most extensive puerh collections and he is aging 80 000 Lb of puerh in his caves (not open to the public). Take your time to linger at the tea table with him. We tasted 18 teas and it was a transformative experience. Being able to taste so many different teas side by side was a unique opportunity, very educational, and the teas were all exceptional.

20th Century Café, San Francisco

The best tea experiences I’ve ever had. The Tea Squirrel

Vintage mirrors, marble table tops and velvet banquette benches, a vintage copper espresso machine, domed cake stands, where do I even begin? This place is gorgeous. It’s a bakery and café inspired by Austrian and Eastern European coffee houses. If you’re lucky, you might witness firsthand the making of a strudel (and wonder whether that is a table cloth or an incredibly large and thin dough) or the assembly of New York Times acclaimed Russian honey cake. Guess what? There’s excellent tea at 20th Century Café, but not just any tea, Song Tea and Ceramics tea. You can choose between Shan Lin Xi winter sprout oolong and Old Tree Yunnan red. I even came up with my personal tea and cake pairings. The Shan Lin Xi winter sprout oolong pairs beautifully with the Russian honey cake, which is (allow me to quote the NYT) an “exquisite, gravity-defying cake” made of “airy, lightly spiced cake layers and glossy whipped-cream frosting, both tinged with burned honey” or, to say it in my words, a dream. The Old Tree Yunnan red is the perfect companion to the Esterhazy Schnitten, an Austro-Hungarian layer cake with hazelnuts and almonds.