Six Senses Lifestyle
Beyond the five senses we know very well, the name of this shop also points to a sixth sense innate to us: the soul. Through the alliance of tea, fragrance and flower arrangement, it aims for the balance of our six senses to achieve joy. Six Senses Lifestyle offers an international lineup of teas for selection, from organic Darjeeling to Taiwanese high mountain oolong to Japanese Uji matcha. The Darjeeling black tea is picked in spring and wilted naturally. The tea liquid appears pale yellow and tastes aromatic and sweet. There are more related products for sale, including pesticide-free tea leaves, artisanal essential oils, tea-making equipment and even tea-flavoured perfumes. The shop is centrally located on King’s Road, Tin Hau, great for a visit at leisure to discover new tea wisdoms.
Yú Teahouse
Yú Teahouse is opened by a girl born in the 90s and located in Fo Tan’s Au Pui Wan Street. The ambience feels like a breath of fresh air, with minimalist design, white walls, soft lighting and primarily wooden furniture. The shop owner articulates the complex tea culture in an understandable way and puts her tea leaves in small bottle, allowing patrons to smell them before making a decision. As such, novice tea drinkers can feel more at ease. The teahouse serves more than tea types of tea such as tieguanyin, dragon’s well and white peony. But pu’er is the selling point here. Mandarin peel pu’er is a highly recommended choice. The ripe pu’er leaves from aged trees are first stuffed in a green mandarin and then brewed. The strength of the tea is mellowed out by the zesty, sweet mandarin peel. It’s a great new experience.
Tea Together
The joint standing on Prince Edward Road West, Mong Kok is owned by someone with China’s national qualifications in tea art and tea appraisal. Tea art and appraisal classes and other workshops are frequently held here. The teahouse is further divided into contemporary and Japanese tea rooms with different designs. Both rooms are comfortable.
The teas come from a mix of Chinese provinces: Shandong Laoshan green tea, Anhui yellow tea, phoenix oolong tea from Teochew, Hubei red tea, Yunnan pu’er and more. All of them are picked and appraised by the shop owner personally. The highlight for us is dong ding oolong tea. It goes through a special anaerobic process during fermentation, which makes it more effective in lowering our blood pressure.
House of Life Teahouse
The teahouse owner carved out a mind-cleansing space from a bustling industrial building on Tsun Yip Street, Kwun Tong. It has a terrace with Japanese tatami, pine wood chairs and tables, lots of Buddhist statues and floral decorations, taking visitors right to the realm of Zen.
The teas are all boutique selections. There’re Wuyi tea, tieguanyin, oolong, but the main focus of the shop is pu’er, with about ten varieties all from the Yunnan Province. Among these, raw pu’er is its speciality, which tastes different from the ripe pu’er served at dim sum restaurants. Our favourite is Mengku Snow Mountain wild aged tree pu’er. The tea liquid is amber and clear. The aftertaste is sharp and long. The teahouse also organises tea tastings frequently to brew premium and rare teas. Light snacks and salads are also served to pair with the drinks.
Flamingo Bloom
This bubble tea shop with branches in Central and Tsim Sha Tsui surely intends to make tea drinking cool. The vibrant flamingo motifs are all over the walls, and tea makers work at the open bar just like any mixologist from the surrounding bar areas. Clients are given great liberty to assemble their own beverage. Firstly, they need to choose the tea base among Taiwanese oolong, Fujian jasmine, Yunnan chrysanthemum puer and Sichuan moth orchid red tea. The shop uses whole tea leaves and eschews any aromatic additives. A new batch of tea base is made every four hours to maintain the clean tea flavour. The pairing ingredients include fresh fruits, milk, tapioca pearls and more. Also up for selection is the amount of sugar and temperature (cold or hot).
