Overview
The Tea Embassy is quietly nestled in an historical home in downtown Austin, Texas. With a selection of over 150 fine loose teas from all over the world, you are sure to find a tea to match your cup of choice. Countless teapots of all styles are available for the practical tea drinker or teapot collector as well as tea accoutrements, gadgets, and tasty treats. Find thoughtful gifts as you shop the relaxing and tranquil house and sip complimentary samples from our teas of the day. Tea Embassy does not offer food and beverage service, but those seeking afternoon tea service can buy tickets to the monthly catered afternoon tea events, check website calendar for dates.
Variety: 
Artistry:
Service:
Food:
A friend of mine recommended Tea Embassy to me. I was impressed with the variety of teapots/teacups, etc, and I am quite hooked on the Cream Earl Grey as well as the Strawberry Cream Green Tea. I also tried the Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea - very tasty, amazing how sweet it is without any sweetener. I will definitely be back!
|
- Darlene 01/20/08
|
|
|
Variety: 
Artistry: 
Service:
Food: 
In response to Joshua's review:
It is true that real Bai Hao (“Oriental Beauty”) has small insect bites on the leaves caused by the Tea Jassid (Empoasca flavescens Fabricus). This bite damage causes localized areas of the leaves to turn brown, and die. This is readily seen on examining Oriental Beauty leaves after steeping. Excellent photos of the bite marks on processed and unprocessed leaves can be found at http://teamasters.blogspot.com/2007/09/hsin-chu-county-oriental-beauty.html. Besides having great photos, it is also an excellent article on Oriental Beauty.
Joshua writes that “There are no bite marks left as the leaf hoppers are too small to leave any visible evidence. The leaf does change in appearance though, becoming withered; like a fallen leaf.” However, the... (more) Indian agricultural-portal, Ikisan.com, describes Tea Jassid damage thus: “Nymphs and adults suck sap usually from the under surface of the leaves and inject toxin causing curling of leaf edges and leaves turn red or brown.” It is precisely this bite damage… this visible damage… that causes Oriental Beauty to have its prized fruit-like flavor and aroma.
I don’t want to debate whether the leaves are bitten, punctured or injected with a toxin. I want to make it perfectly certain that everyone reading these posts will understand that genuine Bai Hao (“Oriental Beauty”) has visible damage to the leaves, caused by the Tea Jassid, and that these damaged areas of the leaves give the tea its intoxicating flavor. While not all teas damaged by Tea Jassids are Oriental Beauty, Oriental Beauty must have damage from Tea Jassids.
The Oriental Beauty that I purchased from this vendor did not show any of the visible signs of Jassid damage that one typically sees. More importantly, the tea did not taste like Oriental Beauty. I do not attribute any malice to the vendor. However I think that vendors should be able to discern the authenticity, if not the quality, of the teas that they are buying and then selling. I would know if someone passed off aged baozhong for sheng puerh. Don’t you expect your tea vendor to know too???
A word regarding the ratings that I gave to this vendor:
Variety – marked low because of the quality of the loose-leaf teas that I purchased. If this is any indication of their stock as a whole, then having more of it won’t make the problem any better.
Artistry – marked med-low because the tea sampled on location was vapid.
Service – marked as excellent because the proprietor was very helpful and anticipated my every need. The owner was warm and pleasant to talk to.
Food – marked medium because I was hoping to discount any high or low scores because this vendor does not serve food to my knowledge.
|
- Jim T 11/20/07
|
|
|
Variety:
Artistry:
Service:
Food:
In response to Jim T's review:
It is not true that real Bai Hao has small insect bites on the leaves.
How does the Formosa Oolong group get their wonderful flavor? An interesting article in the Taiwanese magazine gives an account:
In the months of May through July tiny insects called leaf hoppers are at their highest concentration. During this time, tea farmers throughout Taiwan make preparations for their summer harvest of Formosa Oolongs. In the past, pesticides were used to discourage these little buggers, but in recent years the farmers have hoped that their crops are well attacked. It was discovered that the more highly concentrated the leaf hoppers, the more flavorful the tea.
The leaf hoppers became a welcome pest, adding flavor to the tea throughout the ... (more)island. Through several hundred if not thousands of years of evolution, the fresh tea leaf has developed a self defense mechanism. The threat caused by the leaf hopper resulted in abnormal metabolic rhythms being produced by the plant which in turn caused some sort of chemical reaction that results in “multiple tea polyphenols” (the powerful antioxidant found in oolong tea) and tea tannins. These polyphenols and tannins in turn attracted the leukoplakia wax spider, a natural predator of the leaf hopper. A full grown leaf hopper is no bigger than a fruit fly. It is as small as a spec of dust. They have a sharp beak poker mouth that resembles a shortened mosquito snout. The leaf hopper uses this poker to suck out the nutrient juices of the fresh and tender leaves of the camellia sinensis, or tea plant.
There are no bite marks left as the leaf hoppers are too small to leave any visible evidence. The leaf does change in appearance though, becoming withered; like a fallen leaf. The leaf hopper threatens the sprout of the fresh leaf which looks like a toothpick. In a controlled experiment, researchers found that when artificially replicating the attack of the leaf hopper in a lab, the tea plant responded similarly, producing the same abnormal metabolic rhythms. But the degree to which the chemical reaction occurred was far less. When researchers tasted both teas the results showed clearly that the tea bitten by the leaf hopper was significantly sweeter than the tea that was artificially attacked. The conclusion of the research was that the classic honey taste associated with Formosa Oolong comes from the leaf hopper actually sucking from the tea sprout.
|
- Joshua Chamberlain 11/18/07
|
|
|
Variety:
Artistry:
Service:
Food:
I was excited about visiting The Tea Embassy having heard so many good things about from other tea lovers. Specifically I had heard that they had good Yixing ware and great loose-leaf teas. I like their approach of selling loose leaf teas and tea ware. Too many times I have seen teahouse that are really fronts for upscale food. Their dedication to 'just tea' is very refreshing.
My knowledge of teas is restricted to the customs and varieties of Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese teas. The Tea Embassy attempts to present an entire world of teas-- from Assam to Zhen Qu. However, it is a formidable task to understand each of the tens of dozens of teas intimately, but there are some broad areas of understanding that every tea vendor should know: water, tea storage and good tea fro... (more)m very bad tea.
They typically have 2-3 pots of tea for people to sample. They use reverse osmosis for their water, but do not introduce minerals back into their water. This may explain why the teas I sampled were vapid. I have no doubt that if the had they used better water (and not paper cups) the samples would taste better.
The teas are stored in large, steel urns embossed with Chinese scenes. This gives a very beautiful look to the bar but these urns will allow aromas to move through the teas like a drafty window. If vendors turn-over is low then the teas may suffer. Teas stored in such containers typically have a life of about 1 month before they should be replaced. Many other vendors store their tea this way, yet I have never seen these urns, despite their origin, used in Asian teashops. It is a case of artifice prevailing over function.
While I was there I bought some Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty). The harvest for Bai Hao was a month ago, and 2007 has been a really good year for this aromatic Taiwanese tea. The proprietress told me that the Bai Hao was not from 2006 (a bad year), but neither were they fresh. This is no matter as Bai Hao can be aged. The dry leaves looked right for Bai Hao-- five colors displayed across twisted, hairy leaves. However the brew was insipid. It was flat, dirty and astringent. It tasted like bad English Breakfast. It did not taste anything at all like Bai Hao. I removed the leaves and looked at them now that they were unfurled-- it was a fake! Real Bai Hao has small insect bites on the leaves. These bites give the tea its fruity aroma and complex flavor. The leaves in my gaiwan were entirely unblemished. Not one bite on any of the leaves in my cup! I am sure the proprietress did not intend to pass along a fake, but fakes abound in Chinese and Taiwanese teas and this was certainly one of them. If the vendor did not know about the insect bites that are required for Bai Hao, then the vendor should know from taste alone that something is not right with this tea. A good tea vendor should be able to discern good tea from very bad tea.
The proprietress was very friendly and sociable, helpful to such a degree that she was anticipating what I might like. This was very nice.
The shop had an impressive array of tea-wares. I was especially impressed with their collection of Tokonome Kyushu teapots. The Yixing ware was not as impressive. They were of the artist-variety, a kind not generally suitable to high quality teas. Though the shop sold supplies for Gong Fu Cha, the Chinese tea ceremony, the pots and cups were all too large for this.
I may return to listen to visiting lecturer or to purchase some Tokonome ware, but I will not return for the loose teas. That this establishment continues to receive a public award for 'Best local authorities on tea' is a testament to how far we have to come.
NOTE:
It is unfortunate that my first review was removed because it was unflattering. What other reviews have they censored???
|
- Jim T 11/18/07
|
|
|
