Vital Tea Leaf

We stumbled upon Vital Tea Leaf completely on accident while wandering Chinatown. And good thing too because we must have spent an hour or two in there tasting various teas and learning about them. It was such a phenomenal yet simple experience wholly focused on the tea. Though the entire tea tasting was free with zero pressure to purchase, we ended up buying a lot because we were sold on both taste and health benefits.
Definitely, definitely recommend this to locals and tourists alike! Next time I’m back in San Francisco, I will, without a doubt, make a second visit.

We wandered in because we were curious about all the teas that were on display and ended up being welcomed to sit down and enjoy a complimentary tea tasting. This experience was very educational and informative. I learned a lot about loose leaf teas and was very pleased with all of the samples we tried. I requested a tea that would be good for boosting the immune system and was given a sample of green angel. I ended up buying a canister of it because I enjoyed it so much. Our lovely tea maker even included a tea strainer for free with my tea purchase. She was very knowledgable and enjoyable to learn from. I wish I would have gotten her name, but all staff at Vital Tea Leaf seem equally friendly, helpful and knowledgable. I have been brewing my green angel every day and will be back to buy some more tea soon!
This would be a cool experience as an SF local or tourist walking through Chinatown and it costs nothing! Wander in and be delighted by all the teas like we were. I dare you.

Amazing! Tea tasting, tea tutorial, staff has so much knowledge about brewing, drinking and storing your tea. Did you know you have to rinse your tea leaves? And did you know that you can te-​use your tea 8 times!!! Better after first use. I had no idea till now. So impressed and glad I came in.

The saleswoman there (I believe her name was Maggie) is very informative. She can suggest a tea for whatever problems or concerns you have and she’ll tell you the benefits along with pros and cons of certain teas. She’s very informative and she’s very engaging with everyone sitting by the tea tasting bar.
I love that you can try the teas here– any tea you’ve been thinking of and they’ll brew it in front of you. This place sells loose tea leafs, which is better and they have a lot of accessories in the back too. Definitely try out some teas here before you make a purchase because you’ll probably discover something you’ve never had the chance to try before!

This was my first time visiting San Francisco and we received great service! Tony was helping us out and he gave us plenty of tea samples to try he was AMAZING! Ming is the owner and he has a great sense of humor. I will definitely stop by again next time I am in San Francisco

Nice and helpful employees with a large and premium selection of products. Just keep in mind you are buying top shelf products so you will be paying a high price. I did purchase a few items but was shocked at the price of a few that I tried. Definitely recommend stopping in.

Probably the coolest Chinatown experience I could have had. I was getting myself lost and wondering around after a hectic New Year when I stumbled into this hidden treasure. The tea master was giving a free tasting for anyone who was walking in but it wasn’t just a tasting, he was a show himself. He educated everyone about the tea they were drinking along with had stories to tell that went along with each tea. He also is a Kung foo master! The teas were phenomenal. Then when i tired to tip the guy he didn’t want to accept it. He truly just loves tea! I felt like i walked into a magical tea shop, the kind of magic you hope to find when you visit quirky San Francisco. This spot is a must for any tea lover and or lover of romantic San Francisco.
Question: if Vital ends up reading this review. I tasted a tea that the Queen of England drinks. It was so good and regret not getting it. I think it might have been a red tea. Would love to learn what it was so I can order it!

Loved the place. Went to buy some lemon ginger tea for my gf’s mom. Upon asking for lemon-​ginger, the gentleman told me that lemon was yin and ginger was yang. Suffice it to say, I left with lemon and ginger in different bags. I loved the hospitality so much I bought a teapot.

This was an amazing experience! The staff shared some history on tea and create an atmosphere of fun!

Great place for tea! Everyone time I come to the Bay I usually come here just to visit this place and buy my tea haha. Yeah, plus it’s fun to sit and chat with the people there about the different teas they have. They will give you free samples and if you want you can buy their tea. I usually buy a bag or two every time I come down. The staff is friendly and very inviting. They also have tea sets and accessories for sale at the shop. It is a good selection and can take care of your tea needs.
Unfortunately, they do not have parking near by so you will have to huff it down to this location. If you can find parking near by on one of the meters good luck with that. But you also get to walk around the busy streets of San Francisco. Uncle Gee is awesome. I love it when he presents and just yells and talks about tea haha. He cracks me up. He is one of the reasons why I like this tea shop.
They do make it a cool visit every time I come here. Also if you know what you want you can skip the tasting of the samples by why would you ever want to do that Haha? You can be in and out of here pretty quickly if you just want to grab your tea to go. The staff usually gets you out especially if you in a hurry. I thank you for reading my review.

This is my email to Groupon, pasting it here:
*********
I got SWINDLE, yes swindle! I bought two Groupons to Vital Tea Leaf, $ 17.50 for $ 40 worth; total should be $ 80 worth of tea. The expiration date was fast approaching, so I had my sister picked up some teas for me. Recently some of my in-​laws wanted some of the tea, so I went to weigh it on the sale to portioned it out. First bag is 3 oz and the other is 3.5oz, and according to their site it’s only $ 18 for 4oz (
). For my 6.5oz it should be $ 29.25. They also gave my sister a 1oz sample of this
, which is only $ 7.50 an ounce. So I only got $ 36.75 worth of tea and they took both my groupons which is worth $ 80? WTF?!? How can I get my money back?

Edit: this shop has a few stores. After a bad experience at one of them (see below), I went into another one (a few blocks away on Grant St.), where May and Chris welcomed me very friendly and gave me an INCREDIBLE tasting experience — dozens of amazing teas including sweet oolongs, nutty white teas and apricot-​tasting red tea. A real treat. I ended up dropping more $$$ than I intended, but it was well worth it.
Basically — a wonderful place, but you definitely want to go to the store near the corner of Grant and Pine.
— — - here’s what I had originally written about the experience at the first store: — — –
The younger employee at this place is a rude, arrogant and pretentious snob. It’s a pity because this place could be a gem that helps people discover great loose leaf tea.
I’m a huge tea drinker, to the point of traveling to find the best teas, but couldn’t bring myself to stay in here for more than two minutes because of this guy’s unbearable rudeness to every customer.
Tea is an intimidating beverage as it is — you have to be friendly and accommodating with people in order to make it accessible. I’m sure this guy is very knowledgeable, but what good does it do if you’re going to turn everyone off with your attitude? Ugh.

Very bad experience! There was a younger guy, Chris, that was very rude (half asian-​half caucasian). I was looking at some of the teas on the top shelf and asked a worker and he said to take the lid off first and it was fine. Kenny walked up and said you cannot do that since people drop them. I said that the other worker said it was fine and he said, «well then that’s different.» in very rude tone. Next I was tasting teas and my back was very sore so I was standing up. Kenny said, «sit down, I do not serve to people standing up» in a very rude tone again. I told him that my back was sore and he did not say anything. It is amazing that they let people like that continue to work in their store.
I really enjoy Chinese teas but this place really pissed me off. We went to the other Vital Leaf on 904 Grant Street and had a much better experience with customer service.

OMG! Could the guy working the tea bar here be any ruder? Just went in to look around with my niece, who’s from out of town. Asked about the teas and if we could have a pot, similar to the tea shop in the Ferry Building. This guy, half Asian, was so belligerent. He said, «NO. This isn’t a Starbucks. «. Lordie! Please get another job if you can’t deal with tourist questions. Back to the Ferry Building for us.

Michael and I were wandering around Chinatown when we spotted this place. There were a lot of people inside sampling tea from tiny cups. We were intrigued. We love tea and we’re looking to buy some more. We came in and sat down and were immediately poured whatever the group was sampling. This place is the wine tasting of tea. Patrick (I believe was his name) gave us an overview of tea and how they make tea. I learned so much about tea which made me really excited. We tried a few different kinds of tea and settled on a green tea. Don’t go there expecting to get tea bags I’m pretty sure you will be thrown out. Only loose leave here. Only thing I would have to say is that we definitely over paid for our tea but hey it was a good experience and they gave us a lot of tea to sample.

Walking down the street in Chnatown, I happened to stumble upon this gem of a tea shop. The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. The tea is a bit on the expensive side, and if you know exactly what you want then it really mitigates the value of a physical tea shop. That being said, their tea is FANTASTIC. I highly recommend the Crymantium Pu-​Erh tea.

I love tea stores — that’s no secret to anyone who knows me. This one, though, takes the cake for the best. Stopped in to one of their 3 Chinatown shops and sat down at the tea bar. Royal helped my mom and I and gave us several teas to try. He was very knowledgeable about the tea and enthusiastic about sharing that knowledge with customers. I took home two new teas, and will definitely be going back to Vital Tea Leaf when I’m in San Francisco next year!
The shop has a huge variety of teas and they’ll let you try any of them that you want to. They’ll also give you instruction on properly brewing the tea, how many steeps its good for, and so on. If you’re in Chinatown (or Seattle — I’ve been to their store there as well), and you like good tea, stop in and say howdy to the people working at Vital Tea Leaf.

Saw a sign for free tasting and walked in. The owner was welcoming and had us sit down. He walked us through proper preparation and the health benefits of different teas. The teas were delicious. This is «Napa» for tea tastings. Walked out with four teas and a tea press. Can’t wait to start medicating with tea when I get home!
Do yourself a favor and go sit here for half an hour. Open your mind and palate to the multitude of delicious teas!

Did a «tea crawl» or most of the local tea shops in SF a couple of weeks ago. We included Tokyo Tea & Futon, Red Blossom, Ten Ren, Aroma, Song Tea & Ceramics, and Vital Tea Leaf. Both my friend and I enjoyed Vital Tea Leaf the best. Very friendly staff, an excellent selection of teas, and generous tastings.
Vital Tea Leaf appears to be all about the tastings. You saunter up to a long «tea bar» filled with patrons, and the teatenders behind the bar are brewing away in a selection of gaiwans. We asked to try several teas, and also tried quite a few of the teas that were being prepared by the other customers. Our teatender was very enthusiastic about tea and loved to discuss the subtleties. I hope to return soon.
We also enjoyed the other tearooms and tea stores mentioned above, but Vital Tea Leaf seemed really special.

The owners here make it fun to drink tea. Im already a fan of tea and drink it on a daily basis but it’s always great to discover new things in a raucous setting. Ive come to learn that this is where M.Y. China gets all of it’s teas too and the Milk Oolong is particularly good. Iron Goddess, and some of the others are also tasty. I’d say go down and give them a try, it’s totally worth it. 4.3 stars

As we were walking in Chinatown, we noticed a sign that said «free tea tasting.» We thought we were going to just run in, grab some samples in plastic cups sitting on a table and run out. Boy, were we wrong!
You sit down at the bar as a tea expert serves you four or five various kinds of tea and explains exactly the real way it should be brewed (not the tea bag American way of drinking tea). Royale (I believe his name was) was so friendly, charismatic and charming. You can definitely tell he loves giving people the knowledge on tea and has a passion for the drink.
We didn’t buy anything, but we tooks some business cards to hopefully order things online in the future!