Seven Cups Edit

Closed (in 2011 or 2012, I think)? You can still order their teas online: http://www.sevencups.com/

Rating this place just in time to see it close, which is very sad as they’re the only tea place relatively close to where I live.

My first time in the store was for the Friday tea-tastings. The staff member explained some history for each of the three teas presented and demonstrated some traditional brewing techniques. Her information seemed a little rehearsed, but I was willing to let that slide. Though it was a little annoying that she didn’t seem to have any thing to say when I asked about the other teas for sale.
The atmosphere was pleasant and comfortable. I decided to order a pot of white tea and stay for a while. As is my continual disappointment with most tea shops, the water they used didn’t seem to be filtered very well, and so the tea’s flavour was very muted. I also decided to order some food (I forget exactly what) and was again disappointed that it seemed to be from a frozen package and microwaved.

But aside from the that, they actual tea that they carried was of very high quality. I got a sampler bag of Oolongs that I’m still working through, and they’re all really fantastic.

Over all, while certainly not the most impressive of tea shops, this place will be sorely missed as a source of high-quality tea, and a wonderful place to simply relax and enjoy the atmosphere.

This pitiful store..it was actually a complete and total waste of my time. Not much variety. Bad service. Annoying loud music and instruction in Mandarin in the background.

The store itself was a vast expanse of mostly nothing but sparse and useless gift trinket items no real connoisseur would actually use for tea preparation and a modest variety of really overpriced tea that seemed to be of average quality.

Regarding the service. Shop employee corrected me without listening to what I was saying until we had an almost comedy of errors communicating (only it wasn’t funny at the time); insulted me when i asked about tea bags (clearly doesn’t know about nylon self fillable bags)- I felt she was arrogant and unpleasant. This attitude was verified by my companion because I thought maybe I was having a charlie sheen moment in that store.

So this young girl continued to follow me around cautiously and ‘corrected’ every jar I touched, making me feel judged and very unwelcome. I wanted to not buy anything and get the hell out of the store. So I did!

Listen, if you want to be a ‘curator’ of your teas, call it a ‘tea museum’, you-super-snotty-Chinese-national-teen-daughter-of-store proprieter.

wow! did not like!

B) Other reviewers on yelp and google maps claim tea shop is good. I really doubt these people have even tried Whole food’s iron goddess of mercy (tiquanyin), which-when very fresh- is a very good staple at 1/10 of the prices here for an equivalent. Now want good tea? Mail order from Red Blossom in SF.

C) As stated, the markup on the teas is outrageous. Pu’erh cake prices seemed reasonable though, but I couldn’t comment on the quality— they were inaccessible, non=interactive figurines at the top of the shelf out of reach.

D) This is the apple store of teas, only they only sell copies of windows and still have an apple employee attitude. Oh and you can’t touch the copies they are not for you to be touching them.- thank you!

You would be hard-pressed to find a staff more knowledgeable and passionate about Chinese tea. Free tea tastings are offered most Fridays and feature two similar or contrasting teas so that one comes to know what the differences between each tea are. They even put together tea tours to China for those with a similar passion for the tea. If you love Chinese tea – really, deeply love it, you will think you have entered seventh heaven at Seven Cups.