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Located at 1626 NW Thurman St., Steven Smith Teamaker's new and immaculate Southeast tasting room may make tea-heads out of all of us. Set to open December 2, the 20-seat tasting room will be open everyday except Sundays, and the menu centers on personalized flights, which include samples of four of Smith Teamaker's small-batch teas for $10. The head tea-rista, or tea sommelier, if you want to get really fancy, is there to guide you, and as the menu below shows, there's even a lexicon of tea flavors and steeping methods. So dive into white teas, like Bai Mu Dan, and oolongs like silver-tipped Bai Hao. Taste black teas side by side, like Ceylon Dimbulla Bop1 from Sri Lanka and Lord Bergamot. Can you taste the bergamot fruit?
In addition to flights, you will find tea lattes, iced teas, and glasses of black tea. You can order pots of hot teas for between $3-4.50 and ceremonial matcha for $4. The Smith Teamaker tasting room also has teas on-tap for sipping or filling growlers, such as masala chai and strawberry honeybush. Leather chairs, a fireplace, and a window into the production facility show the erudite character carries through the decor. And for those looking for holiday gifts, the tasting room sells a huge variety of Smith Teamaker teas.
