Teaopia Ltd

I purchased a 50g sampler of their Dragonwell. It works out to $ 136.20 per pound. To be totally blunt, this tea simply isn’t worth it. For $ 60.00 per pound you can get far superior Dragonwell at Ten Rens at Pacific Place and for $ 75.00 per pound at the Tea Trader in Inglewood. To give the readers a comparison, the finest quality Dragonwell available in Canada (1^st Flush 2010 Spring Harvest) sells at Ten Rens for $ 150.00 per pound and it literally blows this fair to average grade Teaopia tea right out the water (no puns intended). It will knock your socks off. Spend the extra $ 15.00; you will not regret it.
Teaopia’s quality is worth no more than $ 30.00 to $ 40.00 per pound. It is full of broken leaf (absolutely forbidden in top Chinese run teashops for that high of price) and its taste is rustic at best and slightly bitter. Good Dragonwell should be smooth, sweet and have a hint of aspargus and chesnut in the flavour profie. Their tea has none of this. The Oolong (Ti Guan Yin) they sell for about $ 140.00 per pound is also overpriced. One can buy, at Ten Rens, tea of equivalent quality for about $ 60.00 or less per pound. For about $ 140.00 per pound, Ten Rens will sell you among the finest Oolong available anywhere, far superior to the Teaopia product.
Follow the brewing instructions that Teopia has on their website and you will drink a thin lacklustre tea. They recommend 1 teaspoon of oolong or Dragon Well for 8 oz of water brewed for 3 to 5 minutes. The Chinese experts recommend 2 teaspoons of Oolong for each 150 ml at 95 degrees for 2 minutes. That is 320 percent more tea that Teopia. If you really want to enjoy using traditional Chinese method (gongfu), a 240 ml (8oz) teapot should contain 80 ml of tea leaf, about 6 tablespoons, and be brewed for roughly 10 seconds at a time. You will get 10 infusions, as long as the oolong is top quality, and the essence of what the tea is all about will shine through. One teaspoon for an 8 oz vessel, not if you actually want to enjoy your tea.
If you want truly top quality tea you will not find it here. However, it still better than anything you will buy at the supermarket by a long shot.

Lots of loose leaf teas

Is there such thing as an avid tea drinker? If so, count me in. I loooove my tea. I’m talkin’ chai, herbal tea, specialty tea, organic tea, loose leaf tea… uh, you get the point.
I first discovered the Teaopia chain in Chicago. I fell in love with it for 3 main reasons:
#1 — It carries just about every type of tea you can imagine and then some
#2 — Not only do they carry tea, but they carry all tea products. They carry the most beautiful tea pot sets I have EVER seen. Most of them are from all different parts of the world and they have the history & purpose of the different tea pots/​sets available to the shopper. They also happen to carry the most sought after tea pots, tea utensils and tea cups.
#3 — They have a tea bar in the store! So you can order yourself a delicious cup of tea and wander around the store looking at all their merchandise. It’s like a Chapters, but instead of coffee it’s tea, and instead of books/​mags, it’s tea products!
I happened to be doing some shopping in Marlborough Mall the other day and stumbled across a local Teaopia. I think I shrieked with excitement.
The store is pretty much as great as I remember it, and right now they are celebrating their one year anniversary in Calgary, so they have great promotions running.
Christmas is just around the corner and it’s A-​OK to start stockpiling gifts in September. In fact, it looks like I just gave you your Christmas present by revealing the goods on Teaopia. Hurry up and get there… it’s time to start shopping!