Tea

Craftsman and Wolves Opens a Small Window for Afternoon Tea

By Tamara Palmer Wed., Dec. 12 2012 at 1:00 PM
Categories: Palmer, Tea

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Tamara Palmer
Afternoon tea for two at Craftsman and Wolves.
We've been wanting to try the afternoon tea service at Craftsman and Wolves since it began in October, but due to its specialty nature, it is only served from 1-5 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday so it took some time to catch it during this small window. However, after experiencing it yesterday, we think this window is definitely worth opening for its delightful surprises, which change according to the whim of C+W.

See Also:
- Craftsman and Wolves Takes an Extra Step With Peanut Butter Cookies
- French-Inspired Candied Milk Jams Get a California Remix
- Preview Craftsman and Wolves, Opening on June 16

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Craftsman and Wolves, Naivetea, tea
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Tea

Chai Cart Opens Second Location

By Tamara Palmer Tue., Dec. 11 2012 at 11:20 AM
Categories: Opening, Palmer, Pavement Cuisine, Street Eats, Tea

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Paawan Kothari
The Chai Cart's latest mobile station.
The Chai Cart has secured a second permanent location. Sippers can now find it at Market and Drumm streets weekdays from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., with extended hours expected in the new year. This joins the original cart which is a few blocks up the street at 545 Market. Weekends, the original cart is stationed at 560 Valencia.

See Also:
- Tea at The Top of The Mark Includes The Best City Views
- Lovejoy's Tea Room Offers New Modern Flavors and 'Keep Calm' Merchandise
- Canadian Tea-tailer DAVIDsTEA Opens First San Francisco Shop

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chai, Paawan Kothari, tea, The Chai Cart
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Tea

Tea at The Top of The Mark Includes The Best City Views

By Tamara Palmer Tue., Dec. 4 2012 at 12:30 PM
Categories: Events, Palmer, Tea

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Connie Perez-Wong
Holiday tea at Top of The Mark, located on the 19th floor of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins, is worth considering as an annual mini-splurge to have a taste of luxury in San Francisco. The almost 360-degree views of the city offer a cool feng shui-esque moment of feeling on top of the world. Put your pinkies up for a sip, a generous amount of food, and a choice of settings: One is a good bet for children, and one is more suited to adult tastes.

See Also:
- Tour The Old Mint and Sip Tea With San Francisco Museum & Historical Society
- Lovejoy's Tea Room Offers New Modern Flavors and 'Keep Calm' Merchandise
- Canadian Tea-tailer DAVIDsTEA Opens First San Francisco Shop

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tea, Top of The Mark
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Tea

Tour The Old Mint and Sip Tea With San Francisco Museum & Historical Society

By Tamara Palmer Wed., Nov. 21 2012 at 12:45 PM
Categories: Events, Palmer, Tea

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San Francisco Museum & Historical Society
Peek inside the Old Mint on December 7.
San Francisco Museum and Historical Society began throwing its annual Holiday Tea inside the Old Mint Building in 2009 as a fundraiser. The organization does a lovely job decking out a high-ceiling room formerly used for gold counting with winter wonderland flair to set a classic backdrop for the traditional English ritual (tea, finger sandwiches, and other tiny notions). This year's event takes place on December 7.

See Also:
- Old Mint Rolls Out Three Weeks of Culinary Events

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Old Mint, San Francisco Museum & Historical Society, tea
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Tea

Canadian Tea-tailer DAVIDsTEA Opens First San Francisco Shop

By Tamara Palmer Fri., Aug. 31 2012 at 1:45 PM
Categories: Opening, Palmer, Tea

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Tamara Palmer
DAVIDsTEA's first Bay Area location is on Polk Street.
DAVIDsTEA opened its first San Francisco shop on August 25. The Canadian tea-tailer launched in 2008 and now has 78 locations across Canada, where it has helped to popularize the idea of loose tea, and it's now making serious inroads in the Bay Area. Eater SF reports that a Noe Valley (3870 24th St.) shop opens on September 22 followed by a Burlingame (1400 Burlingame Ave.) outpost on September 29.

Wander inside the Polk Street shop and the clean look reminds of a cosmetic counter. A wall is divided among white, green, black, pu'erh, maté, rooibos, and herbal, and you'll immediately be encouraged to start looking at and smelling canisters of loose tea.


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Tea

Lovejoy's Tea Room Offers New Modern Flavors and 'Keep Calm' Merchandise

By Tamara Palmer Wed., Jun. 20 2012 at 11:00 AM
Categories: Palmer, Tea

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Tamara Palmer
New items at Lovejoy's include Keep Calm aprons and totes.
With its charmingly mismatched decor and dishware, Lovejoy's Tea Room feels like a step back in time. But the Noe Valley institution that welcomes tea enthusiasts with or without frilly white gloves has had a thoroughly modern makeover in its flavor and merchandise departments.

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Tamara Palmer
Lovejoy's Tea Shirt.
Perhaps to combat the impolite crime of stuffing extra lemon curd into one's handbag after high tea, there are now jars of Meyer lemon or cranberry curd ready to take home. Tea samplers in unconventional new flavors such as licorice spice, hazelnut, and lemon meringue sit across from the classics. And, perhaps most sharply, Lovejoy's has put its own twist on the meme of the old British "Keep Calm and Carry On" campaign with "Keep Calm and Make Tea" aprons and totes.

The full breadth of items (and many more impulse buys) are available in the retail annex across the street, Lovejoy's Attic (1351 Church).

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Lovejoy's Tea Room
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Tea

Naivetea's Lawrence Lai Talks Taiwanese Oolongs and Kettle Whistle

By Jonathan Kauffman Thu., Sep. 1 2011 at 4:10 PM
Categories: Tea
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Naivetea
Naivetea's owners, Lawrence Lai and Ann Lee.
​The Bay Area is steadily, quietly becoming a nexus for premium Chinese and Taiwanese tea in America. The owners of Teance, Far Leaves, Imperial Tea Court, and Aroma Tea Shop all travel to Asia to tour plantations and buy directly from farmers and master tea roasters.

One of the newest tea companies, Naivetea, is still without a retail shop. The online vendor came to the public's attention this summer when it launched Kettle Whistle, a series of tea and pastry tastings held with William Werner of Tell Tale Preserve Co. (R.I.P.).

Owners Lawrence Lai and Ann Lee were both born in Taiwan, and Naivetea specializes in Taiwanese oolongs -- the fruity, aromatic blue-green teas with the hauntingly sweet finish that fall somewhere between green and black teas. They can be as delicately floral as Naivetea's wen shan bao zhong, or as kale-deep and toasty as its dong ding. Yesterday, SFoodie talked to Lai about Taiwanese oolongs and the future of Kettle Whistle.

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Far Leaves, Imperial Tea Court, Lawrence Lai, Naivetea, oolongs, tea, Teance, Tell Tale Preserve Company
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Tea

Mission Teahouse Has a Whiff of Authentic Asian Find About It

By Heather Smith Thu., May 28 2009 at 4:17 PM
Categories: Mission, Tea

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Forget the flute music
San Francisco has its share of great teahouses, but the newly opened Om Shan Tea (233 14th St. at Natoma) is in a class all its own. It feels like an actual funky little neighborhood teahouse you'd stumble into while traveling in Asia, rather than an idealized simulacrum of someone's notion of what tea should be, which is inevitably high end, featuring lots of Asian-y modern décor and also endless flute music. Let's put it this way: Om Shan Tea is to most other local teahouses as Osento was to Kabuki. It's the physical manifestation of a kind of laid-back, improvisational San Francisco many thought had ceased to exist.

Whether it's a sign of this city's future or its past, five dollars gets you a small teapot of bitchin' pu-erh, and endless hot water refills from an electric teakettle bubbling away next to your table. Bring someone you actually want to spend time with, and settle in for an afternoon of wandering, digressive, caffeinated conversation.


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coffee and tea
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