Portland Teacation #2: Portland
The second half of the vacation Todd and I relocated from the coast to Portland; the Tea Fest PDX was in town that weekend, which I’ll write-up separately. Here are some of the teas I recall trying in Portland, on the days we had available around the Tea Fest.
Steven Smith Teamakers: I have always wanted to visit their shop, as I’ve tried (most) of their teas and always enjoy them. In shop I got their “specialty” tea which was limited, Snowfield Oolong, which was served gong fu style. It was a nice high mountain Taiwanese oolong, with a strong florality (especially for lilac notes), butter, and vegetal notes like spinach and asparagus which came out more pronounced in later steeps. It was silky and gave me a lot of energy late in the afternoon when I was starting to feel very run-down. I also picked up a bag of Rose City Genmaicha and Big Hibiscus, two of my favorite SST blends. I was, however, disappointed that even at their flagship store, you couldn’t purchase loose tea “by the ounce” and still had a buy a pre-packaged 4 oz. bag like on their website (I hate having that much of one tea, which is why I stuck to things I like making iced, which uses a lot more leaf…)
Tea Chai Te: I love Tea Chai Te and pretty much have to visit them when I’m in Portland. Sadly, my stomach was feeling a little upset after my Japanese dinner followed by quite a bit of Salt and Straw ice cream (which is just next door to Tea Chai Te) so I wasn’t feeling up to really drinking through a pot of tea. Todd got a pot of Lavender Sunset (a tea I’ve had before, you can find my past review for it here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/374606 ) and I shared the pot with him, it is one of my favorite lavender teas and was very relaxing. I also purchased a few loose leaf bags while in the shop: Market Spice black and Market Spice rooibos (I have a horrible nasal spray migraine medication and the strong cinnamon “Red Hots” spice note of those teas helps combat the absolutely awful taste the medicine leaves in the back of my throat), and Tangerine Dream (reviewed here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/371883 ).
Southeast Grind: A little spot we stopped for breakfast before Tea Fest PDX to have bagel sandwiches and tea. They carried Tea Chai Te tea, so with my stomach feeling much better, I was able to sample one I haven’t tried before, their Northwest Breakfast blend. It was a very good breakfast black tea, with a cinnamon brown color and aroma of malt and citrus, with flavor notes of malt, citrus (I picked up both lemon and orange), and cinnamon spice. It was very clean with a light astringency.
Jasmine Pearl Tea: I was a little sad that this tea shop, which I had always wanted to visit, didn’t have a cafe portion to order tea and had no seating, and by this point in the trip (a day after Tea Fest PDX) my plantar fasciitus was so flared up I was dying to just sit down. They would make something behind the counter for you to sample (a tall counter, which you have to stand at…) I tried the Benifuuki Japanese black since I had never had one before, and though I enjoyed it, I opted not to purchase it since it was a bit more expensive. Todd had a houjicha instant powder mixed in oat milk, which was also quite tasty (he ended up buying a bag, since the houjicha powder is dairy-free there; I have some but mine came from a Japanese grocer and has dairy in the powder). I did buy several bags of tea here that I have yet to try (though one I picked up I sampled at the Tea Fest, so I know I enjoyed that one!) I got their French Breakfast, Black Wolf, Dancing Dragon, and Kashmiri Chai.
Tao of Tea: This was their cafe location in Portland (on a previous trip I sampled them inside the Chinese Gardens). This was the one staggering hot day of our trip and by that point in the afternoon I just wanted iced tea… I can’t remember which black tea they used from their line-up to make it, but I know they added fresh mint leaf and some kind of coconut sweetener and it was very good and refreshing, especially with the matcha ice cream I ordered. I was all about cooling down at that point!
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After reading this, I had to have some of that houjicha latte from Jasmine Pearl Tea.
Jasmine Pearl has really good green teas. I also really enjoy their sticky rice puerh and dancing dragon is a favorite of mine from them as well. (: Hopefully you like it too
I love trips that revolve around tea. Sounds like a fun teacation!
After reading this, I had to have some of that houjicha latte from Jasmine Pearl Tea.
Jasmine Pearl has really good green teas. I also really enjoy their sticky rice puerh and dancing dragon is a favorite of mine from them as well. (: Hopefully you like it too
I love trips that revolve around tea. Sounds like a fun teacation!